Drought Recovery and Climate Resilient Project (DRCR)

Project background, vision and aim:

The project has an overall objective to structurally and sustainably reduce food and nutrition insecurity derived from the negative impact of climate change-induced disasters with a focus on slow-onset disaster assessment such as droughts.  This is a critical intervention as the effects and impacts of climate change are already being felt due to erratic and inadequate rainfall patterns and declining on-farm productivity as a result of the increasing intensity of adverse climatic conditions. Geographical isolation, densely populated coastal areas, and, over-exploited ecosystems, mean that the selected communities are extremely exposed to the impacts of natural hazards, environmental and climate change, especially drought– all of which impact the socioeconomic well-being and ecosystem services that the communities rely on. The Drought Recovery and Climate Resilience Project (DRCRP) is an integrated approach to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to address the inter-linked challenges of climate change, rural poverty, food insecurity, and land degradation through the provision of water harvesting infrastructure and improve food production and marketing activities as well as capacity building for the affected communities. It will promote actions for the enhancement of the production base of vulnerable populations by restoring degraded ecosystems, improving living conditions, integrating climate information into agriculture activities, and the integration of management of natural resources.

Beneficiaries

The affected rural communities of the drought-prone areas are the primary beneficiaries of the project. Specifically, the project will focus on improving the resilience of vulnerable households located in the three provinces of Vanua Levu (Northern Division). The selection of the areas is based on the needs assessment and in synergy with other organizations identified by Live and Learn to implement activities in the framework of the Drought Recovery Climate Resilience funded decision in Fiji, which will cover different areas to avoid overlap. The project aims to reduce the climate change disaster risks and impacts and improve food and nutrition security for 600 farming households with approximately 2000 beneficiaries in 29 communities with a particular focus on women and youth groups for food processing and preservation.