Rising sea levels, extreme weather events and food insecurity are just some of the climate change challenges facing Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Government of PNG, through the Climate Change and Development Authority, is stepping up efforts to coordinate the national response to climate change.
The CCDA is the lead agency tasked with coordinating all climate change policies and actions in PNG. Given the reality of climate change threats, its mandate is both crucial and wide-ranging, and involves oversight of a range of initiatives, many funded by international development partners. Effective coordination of this work demands robust systems, processes and resources.
In 2024, the CCDA sought technical support from the New Zealand Climate Finance Capacity Support Programme (CFCSP) to strengthen its internal systems and improve climate governance and coordination. The CCDA and CFCSP carefully scoped out how the CCDA could best draw on support through the CFCSP and ensure a strong balance of skills and capacity that would support CCDA requirements now and into the future.
While still early days in terms of the CCDA’s partnership with CFCSP, National Communications Officer with the CCDA, Priscilla Pep, expressed her confidence in the partnership.
This program has helped PNG, especially CCDA, to identify our priority areas of support in relation to climate action and coordination, and it has also strengthened our engagement with stakeholders to help them identify their needs when to comes to implementing climate change initiatives
With the CFCSP’s support, the CCDA recruited Climate Action Adviser, Nathan Sapala, in late 2024 with recruitment of other identified positions underway at the time of writing.
One of Nathan’s first tasks was to lead a capacity needs assessment across all CCDA divisions – technical and corporate – identifying gaps in resources, tools, procedures and skills.
The assessment now guides CCDA’s internal planning and the CFCSP’s support. It has also become a valuable reference for preparing funding proposals, aligning requests with CCDA’s strategic priorities.
“Using this needs assessment, the CCDA is able to identify organisations, or reach out to organisations, that can support through the provision of technical assistance or capacity building for CCDA staff or our stakeholders. We can also draw on the needs assessment to seek financial assistance,” Priscilla said.
The assessment findings are stored in a live database, enabling CCDA to track progress and funding against identified needs. This approach helps the organisation stay focused on its strategy and supports clear communication internally and with partners.
It also means that when development partner approach the department with funding and proposed projects, the CCDA can refer to the needs assessment and discuss options based on already identified needs.
Development partners can refer to the needs assessment to see CCDA’s priorities. It’s helping us attract support not just for traditionally funded-activities like reporting, but for real needs like staffing, systems strengthening and coordination.
With the assessment complete, the CCDA is working to standardise climate-related guidelines, training manuals and reporting tools for the CCDA, other agencies and partners, further strengthening PNG’s climate response. CFCSP support is also scaling up in line with the PNG country work plan to further resource the CCDA as it seeks to strengthen internal processes and external stakeholder coordination.
