Government ministries, civil society organisations and donor partners involved with the Green Climate Fund–Vaisigano Catchment Project will converge on the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Hotel and Bungalows on Wednesday for a two-day workshop.

The workshop will review the multi-year project as well as look at its budgeting over its six-year duration with both the Green Climate Fund and the Government of Samoa co-funding it to the tune of US$65.7 million.

The Ministries include Works, Transport and Infrastructures; Natural Resources and Environment; Health and Land Transport Authority; Women Community and Social Development; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Samoa Water Authority; Samoa Umbrella Non-Government Organization; Chamber of Commerce; Civil Society Support Programme; Samoa Business Hub; and the GCF Accredited Entity as well as the UNDP.

The workshop will run from Wednesday to Thursday and will focus on a multi-year work planning and budgeting event overseen by the Ministry of Finance, which is the executing authority and is facilitated by the GCF-Project Management Unit.

The M.O.F. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Project’s Board, Leasiosiofa’asisina Oscar Malielegaoi, will give the keynote address to officially open the workshop according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the caretaker Government.

"The Joint Multi-Year Work Planning and Budgeting event is a great opportunity for all relevant partners of the GCF-VCP to meet under one roof, to collaborate, integrate, discuss and review its multi-year work plan and budget, implementation progress, challenges and adaptive management solutions to address issues and risks that hinder progress to date,” the statement reads.

“It is also intended for participants to review and realign planned and proposed activities and sub activities to validate a detailed GCF-VCP Multi-Year and Annual Work Plan and Budget for  the remaining years of the project life.

"Furthermore, this event will also identify possible strategies to address a number of social and environmental issues that have a huge impact on  progressing with the main infrastructure works and disbursement targets of the three major outputs in achievement of the GCF-VCP overall objective."

There are three major outputs which will assist the Government’s initial steps when operating a comprehensive flood management solution: ensuring there is assessment and mechanisms are in place for an integrated approach to reduce vulnerability towards flood-related risks; infrastructure in the Vaisigano River are flood-proofed to increase resilience to the negative effects of excessive water; and the drainage in downstream areas are upgraded for increased regulation of water flows.

According to the statement from the caretaker Government, the Green Climate Fund investments is an integrated approach to flood management and natural disaster risk reduction known as “Integrated Flood Management to Enhance Climate Resilience of the Vaisigano River Catchment in Samoa”. 

It is Samoa’s multi-sectoral, complex and largest project to date and is executed by the Ministry of Finance/Green Climate Fund Project Management Unit alongside the responsible implementing agencies as well as collaborating partners.