Abstract

The Republic of Fiji’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) document was formally launched in December 2018 at the 24th session of the Conference of Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The document identifies 160 prioritized adaptation actions, which are to be delivered over a five-year timeframe (Ministry of Economy [MoE], 2018).

The Climate Change and International Cooperation Division (CCICD) of Fiji’s MoE is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the development and implementation of the NAP process. It reports to an interministerial National Climate Change Coordination Committee (NCCCC), which functions at a strategic level on behalf of the government. The NCCCC’s remit includes reporting on the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of cross-cutting policies and sector plans. 

A NAP Steering Committee, comprising relevant sector technical leads, reports to the NCCCC and has a more operational role. It meets periodically to review progress and guide the development of future NAPs while considering changes needed due to the current climate risk context; it draws upon the technical expertise of key stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, and professional and academic institutions, amongst others, when their advice and support is required. The Steering Committee will be formally established and its role strengthened when Fiji’s Climate Change Bill 2019 is enacted by Parliament, as expected in 2020.

Fiji’s NAP document explicitly states that an M&E system for the NAP process is required to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the NAP and its actions and to support the development of its next iteration. The mandate to develop such a system was established in Fiji’s revised National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) (2018) and is further reinforced in its Climate Change Bill 2019.

The purpose of this framework is to provide guidance to the CCICD on how a system to comprehensively monitor and evaluate the NAP process should be designed and to encourage government entities, their civil servants, and other stakeholders to support its development. It also seeks to identify other M&E systems that this system might link with. The framework does not cover the operationalization and governance of the M&E system (e.g., institutional arrangements, resource requirements, output types, and communication, etc.), but it represents the first step in the development of an M&E system for Fiji’s NAP process.