Coupling Disaster and Financial Management to Reduce Vulnerability: Challenging the Traditional Samoan Mindset, Experiences from the Community

Abstract

The impact of climate change and natural disasters are felt especially in small island developing states such as Samoa, due to their isolation, size, and limited resources. Earthquakes, tsunami, storm surges, floods, droughts, and cyclones bring about the devastation from which recovery is difficult. This paper aims to describe the on-going impacts of climate change in Samoa for both the natural and social systems. The consequences of climate change are large, and this article seeks to present climate change and disaster response initiatives as seen through the eyes of the ADRA staff over the last 30 years and how this experience is being applied to build community resilience and mitigate against the impacts of climate change. ADRA’s approach to building resilience is by working with the communities directly and improving their “adaptive capacity” and “resilience” to the changes brought by climate change. ADRA works in an integrated manner that attempts to bridge the best available science with the plethora of traditional knowledge that communities have. The paper then describes one of ADRAs projects supported by USAID’s Pacific American Climate Adaptation (PACAM) Fund. The goal of this project is twofold, to reduce poverty while at the same time building community resilience to climate change. The paper then presents the initial lessons learned from this project and implications of our work on both the natural and social systems in Samoa. Without merging both together in implementation, we will not be able to bolster Samoas resilience. The paper concludes with some key lessons learned and next steps.