Professionalizing the “resilience” sector in the Pacific Islands Region: Formal education for capacity building

Increasingly practitioners and policy makers working across the globe are recognising the importance of bringing together disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA). This broader Pacific understanding of climate change as a slow-acting disaster has been adopted by the European Union Pacific Technical Vocational Education and Training on Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Adaptation Project (EU PacTVET) project in introducing innovative initiatives to address wide ranging needs. A key barrier to improving national resilience to disaster risk and climate change impacts has been identified as a lack of capacity and expertise at all levels resulting from the absence of sustainable accredited and quality assured formal training programmes in the DRM and CCA sectors. A key issue is providing an accreditation and quality assurance mechanism for formal training shared across the region through the national delivery of regionally quality assured qualifications in Resilience (CCA and DRM). TVET training modules and tools developed under the EU PacTVET project will be reviewed by industry and the scientific community through the Pacific Regional Federation of Resilience Practitioners. This professional association alongside the development of regional qualifications is ground breaking and providing global leadership and will ensure the sustainability of the project’s outcomes.