Pacific Climate Change Finance Assessment Republic of the Marshall Islands National Assessment FINAL REPORT

The Climate Change Finance Assessment in the Republic of the Marshall Islands seeks to underline the experience of RMI in accessing and managing climate change finance, and to identify opportunities to:

1. Improve access to resources, so that RMI might be able to solicit further support for implementing its response to climate change; and

2. Improve the effectiveness with which available resources are used. The Assessment builds on the Pacific Climate Change Finance Assessment Framework (PCCFAF) methodology developed as the overarching framework for the Nauru Case Study completed in early 2013.

Recognising the value of that Study, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands requested similar assistance in late 2013. Six thematic areas were analysed, namely:

i. Funding Sources – to assess previous and existing funding sources that have been tapped by RMI which support the country’s efforts related to climate change, to estimate the scale of resources, their sources, and how they have been utilised;

ii. Public Financial Management (PFM) and Expenditure - to assess the state of the PFM system and how well it functions to track and report on the use of resources and climate change expenditure;

iii. Policies and Plans - to assess the depth to which climate change has been integrated into national policies and plans and the way in which RMI’s response to climate change has been framed;

iv. Institutional Arrangements - for coordinating and implementing RMI’s response to climate change; v. Human Capacity – to identify key human capacity gaps that need to be filled to support future effort and

vi. Development Effectiveness - to identify ways to improve access to, and management of, climate change resources available from development partners. The Assessment is timely in that it comes as RMI embarks on a new planning cycle following the recent approval of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) covering the period 2014-2016. The NSP identifies Environment, Climate Change and Resilience as one of its key sectors but in reality RMI’s ability to cope with, and adapt to, climate change will be more heavily influenced by how well it implements and achieves its objectives across all sectors of the NSP because of the cross-cutting nature of efforts to build resilience. 

Keywords: Climate Change Finance Assessment, Republic of the Marshall Islands, RMI, The Assessment builds on the Pacific Climate Change Finance Assessment Framework (PCCFAF), National Strategic Plan (NSP), Climate Change and Resilience