The impact of EL-Nino will be one of the key priority focuses as participants deliberate at the Second Pacific Islands Climate Forum which ended yesterday in Nadi.

“I believe the focus of this meeting will be to look at the impacts of El-Nino, among other issues,” said United Nations Development Programme country director and Head of Regional Policy and Programme Bakhodir  Burkhanov said at Tanoa International Hotel.

“To deliberate whether appropriate information was available to policymakers to undertake mitigate actions.”

Mr Bakhodir said the various stakeholders needed to work closely together for the benefit of the people.

“No single actor or agency can succeed in this task working alone, so coordination across sectors, technical and decision-making institutions is crucial,” he said.

“If technical agencies and their counterparts are not discussing and taking appropriate actions, then our ability to better prepare for disasters is negated, and we are not doing all we can in terms of protecting our citizens and their livelihoods.”

He encouraged partnership and collaboration between regional and technical agencies.

“It is worthwhile mentioning here that the dynamics of rapid onset and slow onset disasters is sometimes different, and preparedness for a drought and a cyclone will entail different resources and information,” he said.

“Climate early warning systems are a critical component of the project, but the

SPREP Climate Change Director, Netatua Pelesikoti, said the agenda discussed would assess how the Met Services and NDMOs responded to the 2015/16 El Nino and gather lessons learned.

“We will also look at the impacts in terms of its scale and how it compares to similar events in the past,” he said.

The forum ended yesterday.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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