Cook Islands: Akamatutu‟anga i te iti tangata manakokore ia e te taui‟anga reva – Strengthening the Resilience of our Islands and our Communities to Climate Change (SRICCC) (UNDP) (COK/MIE/Multi/2011/1, US $5,381,600)

Having considered the comments and recommendations of the Project and Programme Review Committee, the Adaptation Fund Board decided to:

(a) Not approve the project document, as supplemented by the clarification response provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to the request made by the technical review;

(b) Request  that UNDP reformulates the proposal taking into account the following issues:

(i) The proponent should ensure that proper EIA is undertaken for each of the water retention projects to avoid any risks of maladaptation. This should be clearly specified in the text. In addition, for several of the described projects, the sustainability measures are the same, which implies that the projects types and environment are all similar along the different islands;

(ii) More specific information on the expected economic, social and environmental benefits should be provided;

(iii) Some risks rated as “low” risks, such as land disputes among community members, access and communications, and cooperation and commitment within the target communities, should be reconsidered or the rating clearly justified. Moreover, the proponent should provide adequate measures to mitigate each distinct risk, since “Maintaining proactive outreach” seems to be a very general mitigation measure;

(iv) Partnerships with Universities and research centres in the implementation of some project activities, if any, should be formalized, since this will have an impact in the project budget; and

(v) For the climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures identified under component 3, the proposal should specify as much as possible the activities planned for each island. This will help in the estimation of the economic, social and environmental benefits of the project and will provide tangible indicators (size of community impacted by the activity, number of hectares covered etc.) of achievement of this outcome.

(c) Further request UNDP to transmit the observations referred to in paragraph (b) above to the Government of Cook Islands, on the understanding that a revised project document might be submitted at a later date.