TC Winston Highlights

• The Fijian Government has placed the total cost of damages at US$1.4 billion (approximately one third of Fiji’s annual GDP)

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) hosted an inter-cluster meeting to address the significant, ongoing needs on Koro Island

• More than 23,000 people in 120 villages have been reached through eight weeks of integrated family health mobile outreach activities supported by the MoHMS, UNICEF, UNFPA and WHO

Foreword About 6.9 million people in Pacific island countries cannot access improved sanitation. More than 4.8 million cannot access improved water supplies. The United Nations General Assembly recognizes water and sanitation as basic human rights. The General Assembly has called upon governments and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and technology transfer to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking-water and sanitation for all (UN Resolution A/RES/64/292).

Why a regional focus model?

A key challenge faced by humanitarian agencies is how to ensure that limited available resources are allocated where they are most needed and are efficiently delivered in a principled manner. Decisions to allocate resources must strike a balance between meeting the immediate needs of crisis affected communities and supporting efforts to strengthen resilience and response preparedness to future emergencies.

Climate change is now recognised as a factor driving the movement of people around the world.

Internationally, migration, displacement and human mobility are recognized in the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage, and further reinforced through the Paris Agreement in 2015. As Pacific Island countries increasingly experience the effects of climate change, more Pacific governments will need to consider options for dealing with human mobility.

By Makereta Komai in Frankfurt, Germany

Six Pacific Island Countries will receive a 100 percent increase in their annual grants from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), from next year.

This has been made possible with the ground breaking initiative by the Bank to merge its lending operation, the Asian Development Fund (ADF) and its Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR), boosting its total annual lending and grant to as high as US$20 billion.

Climate change heightens Pacific island countries’ vulnerability, according to a new report by WHO

Ensuring a health-in-all-policies approach, health considerations should be incorporated into national policies and plans relevant to climate change

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Director’s Note and About Us

Training and capacity building for a future filled with clean water - PIGGAREP+ in Tonga

Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere spike

February heatwave brought Tonga’s hottest day on record

El Niño Update: El Niño weakens but sectoral impacts remain

Making climate change adaptation in Kiribati understandable to all

Pacific iCLIM project team meets for 2016

SPREP honoured by UNFCCC for ’Green’ side event

Bridging the science of Meteorological Services with Pacific island communities to help them understand the technical aspects of weather related forecasts is just one of the many goals at the core of a project implemented across 14 Pacific islands.

The following syndromes have been flagged:

· Acute Fever and Rash: French Polynesia, Palau, Tokelau

· Influenza-like Illness: : Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Solomon Islands

· Diarrhoea: FSM, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands

· Prolonged fever: Tuvalu

Other updates:

Tropical Cyclone Winston

The following syndromes have been flagged:

· Acute Fever and Rash: French Polynesia

· Influenza-like Illness: Solomon Islands

· Diarrhoea: Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Samoa

· Prolonged fever: Solomon Islands

Other updates:

Zika virus

Préface

We, the Pacific Islands Ministers, gathered in Nadi, Fiji, on 28 October 2015 to deliberate on strengthening climate change resilience through reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH);