Climate resilient and climate vulnerable WASH service delivery models in Melanesian urban informal settlements

The Planning for Climate-resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Urban Informal Settlements research objective was to investigate how urban planning processes in Melanesia be strengthened through participation and integration to improve the resilience of WASH service delivery in informal settlements within the urban footprint. By doing this, we seek to increase the inclusiveness of WASH planning in urban Melanesia so residents in informal settlements have access to more resilience WASH services. This study provides regionally appropriate evidence about what kinds of processes and systems could be explored within different urban contexts in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The mixed methods research included desktop research, spatial analysis, household surveys, interviews, photovoice techniques, and stakeholder engagement. Based on this 1-year research program, some key lessons have emerged for practitioners and policymakers. This technical brief outlines some of the most important

Policy review – water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and climate change in urban planning systems in Melanesia

This document summarises a policy and legislation review conducted as part of the Water for Women funded research project conducted by the International WaterCentre (IWC), The University of the South Pacific (USP) and their partners. The overarching research question for this work is How can urban planning processes in Melanesia be strengthened through participation and integration to improve the resilience of WASH service delivery in informal settlements and areas identified for housing growth within the urban footprint? The sub-question this document intends to contribute towards is to: Understand what existing planning processes (knowledge, information systems/platforms, plans and policies) are in place for future and existing areas of growth and informal settlements. Following a broad overview of urban planning in Melanesia, this document is structured by city (Port Moresby, Suva, Port Vila and Honiara). The policy and legislative review attempted to collect the central documents for each of the following themes – urban planning, WASH, and climate change, as well as any overarching strategy or policy for development in the country of relevance. Fifty-eight (58) documents were reviewed across the four cities (Figure 1). In the following sections, those documents are briefly described, and then specific review of the main urban planning document for the city is reviewed using separate lenses of WASH; climate change; and informal settlements. Each of the documents was designated as (1) strategy, policy or implementation plan, (2) town planning scheme or urban development plan or (3) legislation or regulation; and further classified in terms of the dominant theme, as (1) cross-cutting (e.g., national sustainable development plans, (2) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and water resource management (WRM), (3) urban development or planning and (4) climate change. A comparison of terminology using a pairwise word search in each of the four thematic groupings was conducted to assess the integration of these themes within across documents. In addition to the review of documents, stakeholder interviews with key informants were conducted in Suva (Fiji) and Port Vila (Vanuatu) to better understand the current urban planning, WASH and climate change landscape in those cities. Interviews were conducted with water utilities (3), national government department officials (5), and local government officials (2)

Opportunities for collaborative and integrated planning processes for climate - resilient urban WASH in informal settlements

There are existing urban planning processes in Melanesian cities, however they are often reactionary, out-dated, and siloed from development requirements of specific sectors. • Those with responsibility for urban planning mostly don’t consider themselves to hold a mandate to be involved in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) service planning, or informal settlements, and water utilities mostly don’t consider themselves as leaders in planning WASH services in informal settlements due to tenure and urban planning constraints. There are examples of this changing. • Existing planning processes for WASH in urban Melanesia mostly don’t integrate climate resilience and adaptation information, activities and impacts. • There is some progress being made in Melanesian urban informal settlements with respect to formalisation and upgrading: Fiji is currently formalising 46 settlements across the country including service provision, Solomon Water has connected over 2,800 households in settlements to piped water in the last year, Papua New Guinea’s new Port Moresby Urban Development Plan describes their ongoing settlement upgrade process, and Vanuatu’s urban wastewater taskforce is considering sanitation in urban settlements. Notwithstanding progress, WASH services remain very unevenly distributed across Melanesian urban centres, particularly in urban informal settlements

Loss and damage livelihood resilience

Climate change Loss and Damage has emerged as a key challenge of the 21st century. This Policy Brief first frames the challenge and then introduces the Resilience Academy, highlighting 5 key insights that both feed the debate and inform action. Finally, it provides 5 recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM ExCom) for its 5-year work plan