Strengthening community and health system climate-resilience with KOICA support

The completed Laucala Village climate adaptation project and opening of the newly renovated Naililili Nursing Station were celebrated today.

Laucala Village is 1 of 4 villages across Fiji engaged to strengthen resilience in the face of climate change. The project delivered a three-day climate change and health training and helped the community assess their vulnerability to climate-related health impacts.

The community identified water security as a key vulnerability which has been addressed through their adaptation project of extending the village evacuation centre roof and adding an additional 5000 litre water tank to capture rainwater from the roof and safely store water for the village.

The village also benefits from the newly renovated and reopened Naililili Nursing Station following major renovations and the installation of solar power. With strengthened climate-resilience, it offers more reliability as a health facility for the community.

Naililili Nursing Station is only accessible by boat and serves almost 3400 people living in 14 villages (including Laucala Village) and 18 settlements, as well as 1 kindergarten, 4 primary schools and 1 secondary school – making this reopened health facility a lifeline for families and children.

“Our goal is clear: to ensure that no one is left behind. This commitment begins with our tireless community health workers, who passionately man the village dispensaries and establish the crucial link to our nursing stations, where dedicated nurses provide essential healthcare services,” said Hon. Ratu Dr Atonio Rabici Lalabalavu, Fiji’s Minister of Health and Medical Services (MHMS).

Renovations and community trainings, which were made through the Strengthening Health Adaptation Project: Responding to Climate Change in Fiji (SHAPE project), a multi-year initiative funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and implemented in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and MHMS. “These improvements not only enhance our healthcare services but also help us build resilience against the challenges posed by climate change,” continued Hon. Ratu Dr Lalabalavu when referring to the SHAPE project, which is made possible through investment in health facilities, the health workforce and communities across Fiji.

“Climate resilient health facilities and communities are at the heart of keeping people healthy. When facilities can continue operating during events such storms or floods, and when communities have the knowledge and tools to function even under stress, then the health of everyone is better protected,” said Dr Mark Jacobs, WHO Representative to the South Pacific and the Director of Pacific Technical Support.

“The Laucala community’s active participation truly demonstrates how local ownership can drive sustainable climate and health resilience. KOICA is proud to partner with the Ministry of Health and WHO to empower communities like Laucala to identify their own priorities and implement practical solutions such as improving rainwater harvesting systems that directly improve lives. Through these partnerships, we continue to strengthen the foundation for resilient and healthy communities across Fiji,” stated Ms Hankyulsam Cho, Fiji Country Director, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The lasting impacts of the SHAPE project

The SHAPE project is strengthening several pillars of a climate-resilient health system, including health facility resilience, workforce capacity, laboratory capacity, coupled with community resilience building.

Fiji, like many Pacific island nations, faces growing health challenges from climate change. Stronger cyclones, rising temperatures, and flooding can damage health facilities, increase the likelihood of disease, disrupt essential services, and put health workers and patients at risk.

Investing in a climate-resilient health system keeps people safe and healthy, even when the weather and climate are changing. It means that the health facilities and health workers are more equipped to handle problems caused by threats like stronger storms, hotter days, floods, or diseases that come with climate change.

The SHAPE project is strengthening Fiji’s health system to be more climate-resilient in several ways:

• Renovating 5 health facilities to improve their ability to withstand extreme weather, reduce the risk of power outages, and protect vital medical equipment.
• Installing solar power in 18 health care facilities nationwide to support continuous service delivery and in turn helping to reduce their environmental footprint.
• Training more than 1793 health workers across Fiji on managing health risks linked to climate change, ensuring communities are better protected from climate-sensitive diseases and emergencies.
• Training almost 200 community members in 4 communities in Fiji’s 4 divisions, to ensure communities understand and can adapt to the impacts of climate change.
• Ensuring that almost all (97%) of Fiji’s health facilities have completed a Climate Hazard and Vulnerability Assessment (CHVA) – providing the necessary information for MHMS to prioritize support for communities and facilities at greater risk of climate change impacts.
• Renovating the existing water laboratory and establishing the new food and leptospirosis laboratories at the Fiji Centre for Disease Control (CDC), improving testing times, increasing the number of pathogens that can be tested in Fiji and reducing turnaround time from approximately 3 months to 3 weeks for detection and diagnosis of leptospirosis.
• Digitizing the Fiji national surveillance system – also known as the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) – to ensure faster, evidence-based decisions, leading to stronger disease surveillance, more targeted disease outbreak response, and ultimately, improved health outcomes for communities.
• Supporting Fiji CDC personnel undertake advanced training in leptospirosis diagnostics at the Institut Pasteur New Caledonia (IPNC) and microbiological testing of food and water at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Additionally, upskilling of over 90 MHMS staff to use the newly digitized surveillance system (the NNDSS) and the data visualizing system for maps and locations, known as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• Enhancing preparedness of the health sector and other government and civil society stakeholders regarding the health impacts of climate change through Fiji’s Health Adaptation Plan (also known as the H-NAP), which was launched at COP29 in November 2024.

Together, these efforts go a long way towards safeguarding health today while preparing Fiji for a safer, more resilient future.

More on the topic

To learn more about climate resilient health systems visit the WHO webpage.

WHO collaborates with governments and partners to:

• prepare for and reduce the health impacts of climate change through building capacity
• conducting vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&As)
• supporting the development and implementation of strategies like Health-National Adaptation Plans (H-NAPs)
• strengthening climate resilience and promoting low-carbon health systems.

Read the feature story on KOICA SHAPE laboratory capacity building.

Note to editors

Fiji MHMS

More information about the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services.

WHO

Working with 194 Member States across 6 regions, WHO is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for public health. The Division of Pacific Technical Support (DPS) in Suva, Fiji – which falls under the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific – provides tailored technical support and backstopping to 21 Pacific island countries and areas.

¹ Adaptation is action to help people adjust to the current and future effects of climate change.