The Government of Fiji through the Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development & Statistics and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection received the Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) strategy and implementation plan yesterday.

ASP helps build the resilience of vulnerable households by enabling in their capacity to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to shocks whilst ensuring that they do not fall further into poverty.

With technical and financial support from the World Bank, the consulting firm ‘Social Impact Assessment and Policy Analysis Corporation’ (SIAPAC) had developed this Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) Strategy through a wide-range consultative process.

As presented by the Lead Consultant Dr David Cownie it involved extensive field consultation with local, sub-national, and national level duty-bearers as well as advocates and rights-holders throughout the country through a series of thematic workshops, with the particular involvement of duty-bearers and activists involved in the Safety and Protection Cluster (which forms part of Fiji’s Disaster Risk Management coordination system).

While receiving the copy of the strategy and the implementation plan, the Permanent Secretaries of both the Ministries expressed their gratitude to the team and the timely presentation of the strategy. This will enable the social protection sector to gain momentum with technical reviews towards efficient targeting of its social assistance program, strengthening economic empowerment programs and works with the communities to strengthen resilience before, during and after disaster events are established and enabled.

The strategy focuses on the two main approaches identified for implementation in terms of enhanced ASP delivery. Approach 1 recommending expansion of social assistance benefits and reach in disaster hit communities and with Approach 2 engaging in implementing community-based ASP actions in priority areas at heightened disaster risk and facing the impacts of climate change.

While these approaches will allow social welfare beneficiaries to be supported through the six social assistance schemes as a means to begin implementing the ASP, it will also involve intensive engagement with civil society agencies in terms of delivery (community resilience building, strengthening social care initiatives, and expanding access to social assistance, social insurance, livelihoods and labour-based programming), and expanding Government service delivery as appropriate.

The Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development & Statistics and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection will work towards the launch and implementation of the strategy.

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