The U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a new project that will help make the health systems of Pacific Island communities more adaptive to climate change. Through its Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM), USAID awarded a US $250,000 grant to the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI). FSPI will implement the Mainstreaming Indigenous and Local Knowledge into Human Health Responses to Climate Change project with USAID support. This project will help the peoples of Tuvalu and Solomon Islands use local and indigenous knowledge to inform policies and scale up successful initiatives. This will contribute to building climate resilient health systems in the long term.

U.S. Ambassador Judith Cefkin reaffirmed the American people’s commitment to the well-being of the people of the Pacific Islands. “The United States is committed to working with our Pacific partners through strategic investments to help vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change,” Cefkin said. She added, “By supporting the integration of indigenous knowledge into human health responses in Tuvalu and Solomon Islands, we are promoting community ownership of adaptation projects and local solutions.”

This is the first adaptation project that USAID’s PACAM is supporting in Tuvalu, and the fourth in the Solomon Islands. PACAM has implemented 24 climate change adaptation projects in the region amounting to over $10 million.