Strengthening Capacities in the use of Geospatial Information for Improved Resilience in Asia- Pacific and Africa

The project focuses on building geospatial information technology (GIT) capacities for effective planning and decision-making through targeted technical training, backstopping services, awareness raising, and development of web-based GIT applications, including geospatial decision support systems (DSS) and a knowledge platform. Together with the Commonwealth Secretariat's Commonwealth Climate Access Hub, the project also provided support to access climate finance.
The project targets relevant government organizations responsible for disaster risk, natural resource management and / or climate finance.
The project is designed for 3 years, and, based on previous experiences, intends to further enhance capacities, introduce technological advancement (including artificial intelligence-based methods), and provide integrated solutions for decision-making related to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Resilience, environmental preservation & Food Security.
Based on comprehensive capacity needs assessments in close consultation with stakeholders, capacity development activities include national technical training, and technical backstopping activities, as well as regional awareness-raising events.
Training activities are designed to provide participants with concepts and terminology of GIT as well as skills to undertake spatial analysis. The courses also cover country-specific applications domains including field data collection. Every learning experience is designed based on the training needs assessment and tailored to beneficiaries, including using blended learning methods and formats. To ensure sustainable knowledge transfer, all distance-learning solutions provided will be hosted on a dedicated Knowledge platform and integrate a community of practice.
Along with the training activities, several awareness-raising events will take place both at the regional and national levels.

The project aims to develop GIT capacities of eight focal point (Table 1) and 63 beneficiary organizations in eight countries in Africa (Nigeria, Uganda), Asia (Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Lao PDR), and the Pacific (Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu) to improve the national response to climate risk. Project focal point and beneficiary organizations1 are relevant organizations responsible for disaster risk, climate change adaptation, land-use planning, natural resource management or research. Most beneficiary organizations are national government ministries, agencies or departments, but there are six academic institutions and one international NGO (Table 2). The Commonwealth Secretariat's Commonwealth Climate Access Hub supports the project's climate finance component as the project’s implementing partner.

1.1 In-country capacity development trainings delivered to government officials
1.2 Awareness raising events delivered to stakeholders 1.3 Outreach highlights accomplishments of the project
2.1 Thematic geospatial platforms implemented to support decision making
2.2.1 Ad-hoc technical backstopping provided to stakeholders in the two regions
2.2.2 A knowledge hub is created, acting as the portal for training resources and the Community of Practice
3.1 Stakeholders in the Pacific are provided technical support in applying for climate funds
4.1 Gender is mainstreamed in the project’s activities

The evaluation results for Fiji highlight significant achievements in capacity building, disaster preparedness, climate finance access, and institutional integration of Geospatial Information Technology (GIT).
Effectiveness and Outputs
The project interventions resulted in measurable improvements in disaster preparedness and response in Fiji, specifically enhancing flood and cyclone impact assessments. Fiji made substantial progress since the midline review, leveraging in-country experts and tailored training programs.
7 trainings were accomplished: 7 trainings: 1. Intro Landslide Susceptibility Mapping, 2. Advanced Multi-Hazard INFORM Risk Index Development, 3. Intro Cloud GIS and Web Application Development, 4. Advanced Web Application Development and Geodata Management Quality Improvement, 5. Geospatial Flood Susceptibility and Cyclone Exposure Modelling, 6. Advanced landslide susceptibility, 7. Fiji -Geospatial Decision Support Systems for Climate Resilience.
38 backstopping requests were completed - completed for Sea-Level Rise Impact Mapping, flood/cyclone models, web app development, including support for Ministry of Agriculture, water supply and watersheds, climate finance proposals (e.g. sea walls) and NAP and NDC assessment, digitization for the Fiji Rural Electrification Fund Programme, exceeding the planned 8 requests.
The Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) significantly enhanced its capability to perform flood susceptibility and cyclone exposure modelling. FMS's ability to monitor floods and cyclones improved through the introduction of advanced geospatial techniques, including the Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) model.
Officials applied GIS tools for flood susceptibility modeling, identifying landslide-prone areas, and integrating satellite imagery into natural resource management decisions.
Female participation in technical training was 35% (21 women out of 60 participants).
Web Applications and Decision Support Systems (DSS) The development and deployment of web-based geospatial applications were instrumental in improving the decision-making capacities of government agencies. Planned Web Apps Released: i tei Qele App, i tei Qele Editor, Fiji Decision Support System (DSS), Sea-Level Rise and Critical Infrastructure Tool, (Rainfall-Triggered) Landslide Mapping, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Flood Susceptibility Mapping.
Fiji, along with the other Pacific SIDS, received support to access climate finance through writeshops and the use of GIS/GIT.
• Proposal Development: The project supported the preparation and funding of specific climate finance projects. A key success was the Adaptation Fund (AF) funded "Strengthening the Adaptive Capacity of Coastal Communities of Fiji to Climate Change through Nature-Based Seawalls" project (USD 5.76 million), which utilized data from the NORAD GIS Platform (including sea level rise modeling and hazard mapping) to strengthen the proposal.
• Mitigation Efforts: The project also helped prepare a proposal for a mitigation project focused on the decarbonization of public bus transport, submitted to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) with a budget of USD 2 million.
• Institutional Capacity: The project assisted in establishing a Project Development Unit within the Climate Change Division (CCD) to streamline future proposal development and access to climate finance.
• Scorecard Results (Institutional Outcome 2.3): High-level stakeholders agreed there was an improved likelihood of accessing additional climate finance. Fiji’s capacity to prepare informed proposals (Q5a) showed improvement, and its overall score for this institutional outcome was 3.5 at endline.
Sustainability and Risks
The likelihood of the project's results enduring in Fiji is relatively strong due to significant government engagement and the institutional foundation laid.
Main Sustainability Drivers for Fiji include the consolidated link to UNOSAT through two successive projects, multi-sector adoption of GIT solutions, and the successful GIT-supported climate finance proposal. To sustain these outcomes, strengthening the GIT capabilities of other government agencies beyond the CCD is crucial.

• The project was strongly aligned with Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Goals.
• The project promoted gender balance in training programmes and capacity-building activities, and two webinars. In the project countries, the project team promoted women's participation in DRM, CCA, and the GIT and GIS community. With gender-responsive data collection and support for vulnerable groups as elements in the project logframe, the project addressed and was relevant to gender and human rights issues. However, most national stakeholders consider gender and human rights issues outside the project's scope, as their national or organizational policies address them.
• The intervention logic aligns with SDG 5 target 5.5. “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life”, indicators 5.5.1 and 5.5.2, as reflected in the national outcomes for Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Uganda, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu; aiming at increasing female representatives in DRM governance. A direct effort made by the project is the inclusion of women in-country experts in Fiji and Solomon Islands (25 per cent). The intervention logic also aligns with SDG17 target 17.18 efforts to “increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts” with five national outcomes aiming at increasing capacity on using gender-disaggregated geospatial data that can support the production of gender responsive plans.
• After the baseline evaluation, the project incorporated explicit gender results and indicators in the project log frame at the intermediate outcome level “improved efforts toward attaining gender equity”, reflected in equal achievement of learning objectives of female participants compared to male participants and increased capacities to collect and apply gender disaggregated data and include gender and human rights considerations in climate funding proposals.
• Also, it is relevant to mention that UNOSAT organized two webinars oriented towards the role of women in GIS. The first one entitled “Women in Geospatial: A development perspective in Oceania” in 2022 and the second one was held in order to celebrate the International Women’s Day in March 2024. Also, project leads participated in the “Experts’ Group Meeting on Digital Upskilling for Women and Girls in Africa, 19-21 December 2022” that aimed at examining opportunities and challenges in building a critical mass of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in Africa, with a particular focus on addressing barriers to the digital upskilling of women and girls.• The project contributes to SDG 5.5 by promoting women's full and effective participation in decision-making processes related to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.
• Promoting women's full and effective participation in decision-making processes related to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.

The project covers eight countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, Lao PDR, Nigeria, Solomon Islands, Uganda and Vanuatu.
The total budget comprises NOK 60,000,000 / USD 5,565,862.71 USD, while USD 281,153.85 were granted for Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (Commonwealth Secretariat).