CREWS Pacific SIDS 2.0 project enhances communication of early warnings in Kiribati with donation of communications equipment

July 30, 2024
Posted by: humanitarianweb
Category: Humanitarian News

Source: SPREP
Posted: 30 Jul 2024

30 July 2024, Tarawa, Kiribati – The challenges of communicating early warnings to communities in Kiribati were highlighted by the Kiribati Meteorological Services during discussions with a team from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) that visited the Pacific atoll nation in April this year.

Three months later, through the assistance of the Climate Risks and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Pacific SIDS 2.0 project, the KMS have received the much-needed technical equipment that will help ensure that communities are well informed and equipped with the knowledge needed to understand the warnings and be able to respond accordingly.

Ms. Siosinamele Lui, SPREP’s COSPPac Traditional Knowledge Adviser, officially handed over the equipment for the Kiribati Meteorological Services, the National Disaster Management Office, and the Ministry of Culture and Museums, through the Permanent Secretary of the Office of Te Beretitenti, Mr. Tebwaatoki Tawetia,

“There are activities that SPREP will be implementing under the CREWS project, a lot of which have to do with capacity building both at the national and community level to improve community-based early warning responses,” Ms. Lui said.

“Some of these are activities that have been identified by the KMS and NDMO, as well as the Ministry of Culture and Museum, which have been included because of the role of traditional knowledge in our early warning systems.”

“An added component of this project is ensuring that we bring in the traditional knowledge side of things and integrating our people’s ways of understanding our environment and how we traditionally respond together with the science and our national processes so that we are all saying the same thing and carrying out the same responses,” Ms. Lui added.

According to Ms. Lui, part of the technical support rendered through the CREWS project includes the provision of communications support tools and equipment, comprising of a projector and projector screen, as well as a portable speaker with microphone to assist with community awareness activities, as well as a set of camera, microphone and tripod.

The CREWS project also handed over a set of camera, microphone, and tripod for the Ministry of Culture and the Museum to assist in capturing and archiving of Traditional Knowledge.

The equipment was gratefully received by Mr. Tebwaatoki Tawetia, Permanent Secretary of the Office of Te Beretitenti, who expressed his gratitude to the team from SPREP and the CREWS project for the assistance.

“We are very grateful to the team from SPREP and the CREWS Pacific SIDS 2.0 project for this assistance to Kiribati through the Kiribati Met Service, which will greatly help build our resilience through strengthening of our early warning systems and responses,” Permanent Scretary Tawetia said.

The CREWS Pacific SIDS 2.0 project is a three-year, USD 4.8 million project that aims to enhance regional and national capacity and systems for risk informed services related to extreme and high impact hydro-meteorological events in the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The project is funded by the World Meteorological Organization, the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Regional implementing partners include SPREP, the Pacific Community, and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

For more information, please contact Ms. Siosinamele Lui at siosinamelel@sprep.org.