Small Islands Food and Water Project (SIFWaP) Federated States of Micronesia, RMI, Kiribati and Tuvalu

Traditional Leaders of the 4 FSM States

His Excellency Panielo and your cabinet

Honorable Governors and your state cabinet

Dauk U, Adelino Lorens

Secretary Elina P Akinaga

Members of the State Legislature.

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to join you at today’s Workshop to present the Small Islands Food and Water Project funded by IFAD through its Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme Fund. A project that we will now refer to as SIFWaP. A project that has been considered in the context of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway of 2014 (SAMOA Pathway), the Global Action Programme on Food Security and Nutrition in SIDS (GAP) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I speak on behalf of the whole UN system and acknowledge and appreciate the work undertaken by IFAD in close collaboration with the Government of FSM and in particular with National Department of Resources and Development (R&D) in getting this important project started.

The SIFWaP project aims to improve food, nutrition and water security within small island communities and thereby enhance their livelihoods and strengthen household resilience to shocks.

It focuses on four countries, namely: FSM, RMI, Kiribati and Tuvalu. These countries are among the smallest, most isolated and fragile of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Countries that comprise of coral atolls scattered over a vast area of ocean with an average population density of 167 persons per square kilometre, (FSM with 150 persons per square kilometre). Such high population densities combined with the low productivity of agro-ecological systems and remoteness contribute to a precarious food and nutrition security situation across the region.

These countries had small economies with GDPs ranging from US$ 43 million for Tuvalu to US$ 351 million for FSM before COVID19 made its entrance. The subsequent fallout from the COVID 19 pandemic and recurrent natural disasters and weather-related shocks are exacerbating the food security situation from “green food production to nutrition and healthy eating habits”.

A double whammy of climate change and pandemic, with the latter impacting the labour force, markets and the overall supply chain.

Although agriculture, including fisheries, has been mainstay of sustainable livelihoods in the North Pacific for centuries, it has been broken down in recent decades with consequences for food and nutrition security. An important factor thereof has been related to water security, especially on the heavily populated atolls that is exacerbated by increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and periodic droughts.

The four countries all have remote islands that are particularly vulnerable to climatic and other natural disasters which threaten both food and water security. Low lying atoll islands that are impacted by rising sea levels leading to chronic coastal erosion and increased saltwater intrusions. Climate change impacts that disrupt the social and economic fabric of island communities. Impacts that will worsen over time with climate models forecasting an increasing frequency of extreme/destructive climatic events such as droughts and hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons.

Considering these challenges and in order to realise the commitments, the SIFWAP project anticipates to intervene through three pathways:

• Enable communities to diagnose, prioritise and develop Community Action Plans to address food, nutrition and water security.
• Invest in Projects at both community and private levels to strengthen resilience by addressing food, nutrition and water security at community, group or household level.
• Develop an Enabling Policy Framework for addressing food, nutrition and water security.

Without exception, food and nutrition security is an absolute priority in National Development Plans, along with adaptation to climate variability and climate change across the 4 countries.

All four countries recognise the importance of creating an enabling environment for investment in the agriculture sector, including the adequate financing and institutional strengthening of their respective Agriculture Departments/Divisions to more effectively support farmers and the private sector.

Food and nutrition security is central to SIFWaP’s objectives and proposed interventions. This reflects the poor and deteriorating status of nutrition and health in the participating countries. Countries that have witnessed a rapid food system transformation and a nutrition transition characterised by an erosion of traditional lifestyles and food systems and diets, reduced dietary diversity, and increased dependence on imported foods, often of poor nutritional value.

The result is the triple burden of malnutrition with the coexistence of of both under and over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. We see high rates of child stunting and a soaring prevalence of NCDs including obesity, diabetes, anaemia and cardio-vascular disease. PIFs recognised that Pacific rates of NCDs and accompanying risk factors are some of the highest in the world and are responsible for about 70 to 75% of all deaths in the PICs (PIFs, 2018). According to WHO, among 4 countries, FSM has the highest prevalence of obesity in the adult population, with 69% of the population categorised as such.

Co-contributing factors include high population densities on the capital islands that make arable land scarce, difficult agricultural conditions that are exacerbated by climate change, export of most of the fish catch, difficulties in preserving and transporting fresh food to the heavily populated areas, and readily available cheap imported foods that are high in refined carbohydrates, salt, sugar and fat.

To address food and nutrition security challenges, the project will pursue a nutrition-sensitive strategy that seeks to influence both supply and demand side factors affecting dietary habits and nutrition outcomes.

The project will support the Federated States of Micronesia through hard investments in food, nutrition and water security. Public investments that will enable private investments as well as community-based public investments using matching grants.

In FSM, the project intends to reach around 2,800 households and over 11,000 individuals (around 10,6% of total population) in the rural and semi-rural communities.

At community investment level, the project proposes to assist communities, individuals and households: to establish fresh produce markets; to develop transport infrastructures and water supply systems; to support community level schemes for composting, cold storage and nurseries; to establish school and community backyard gardens; and, to support community fisheries management schemes including solar technology for streetlights and wi-fi access points. The project will also build capacity and pay particular attention to the empowerment of women and youth.

At private investment level the SIFWaP project offers to support the individuals and private businesses: with equipment for composting; with nurseries and seed production inputs; with home gardens; with non-traditional farming systems that may include vertical, rooftop and floating farming solutions using hydroponic, aeroponic or aquaponic systems; with livestock, fishing and aquaculture; with storage facilities (cold-stores, freezers); with root crops and tree crop replanting (coconuts, breadfruit, bananas); with agro-processing and food preservation; with solar-powered equipment; with furniture making; with brick manufacture; and more.

The project will focus on equitable and inclusive engagement with beneficiary communities and households. It will do so through community-based awareness raising and participatory planning to support nutritious food production and consumption. It will take into consideration water supply management. And it will address gender and youth considerations and skills development to enable social inclusion and empowerment of vulnerable groups.

By engaging with communities, this project will ensure: that the investments made are relevant, owned and sustainable; that indigenous knowledge on local food will be revived; that households are better equipped to prepare, preserve and store healthy and nutritious foods.

In line with the country's socio-cultural context, the Project will adopt an inclusive approach to targeting whereby the rural communities and households as a whole will be targeted. It will do so while ensuring that some groups receive specific attention. Groups such as the extremely poor and most vulnerable. Groups that include young people, women and persons with disabilities

The SIFWaP project will develop a Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) strategy to achieve the full involvement of all beneficiary groups. It is well known that, women in the Pacific generally face multiple barriers to equitable participation in social, economic and political development due to deeply entrenched social norms, values and practices. Women have limited access to economic opportunities and women’s participation in formal non-agricultural employment is low.

In FSM, for instance, women rarely become traditional leaders and tend to defer to men in community affairs. In the Pacific, like in FSM, this lack of leadership and decision making power translates into the lowest representation of women parliamentarians in the world at 3 percent. Women of reproductive age, and in particular young women, are most vulnerable to malnutrition expressed with anemia and poor diet diversity. Malnutrition can have intergenerational nutrition, health and developmental implications.

I would like to pay special thanks to the SIFWaP partners, Micronesia Conservation Trust, Sophia University, Live & Learn, and Pacific Islands Farmer Organization Network (PIFON) for supporting the delivery of the SIFWaP’s preparatory activities.

Thank you.