02/06/2026
| Flood risk in Fiji isn't just a climate problem.
It's a governance problem. An infrastructure problem. An inequality problem. And in informal settlements and flood-prone villages across Fiji's Western Division, it is a daily reality.
In six communities, between the Nadi β Ba corridor, the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance is trying something different β starting with people, not projects. Training community members to assess their own risks, organise their own responses, and lead their own recovery.
The result looks like thisπΈ: young people in Matavouvou Settlement writing their own community rules, in English and Fijian, and putting them up themselves. No consultant designed that sign. No programme mandated it. It came directly from youth who were asked to look at their own environment and decide what needed to changeπ.
That is what ownership looks like. And it is what this series is about.
What follows over the next several posts is what that looks like across six different communities β each with different vulnerabilities, different strengths, and the same fundamental challenge: building Resilience in places that formal systems have chronically underserved.
Tomorrow, we feature Veidogo Settlement in Vunato,Lautoka. A community living next to one of Fiji's most overlooked environmental hazards.
Fiji Government International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme - SPREP Pacific-Community-SPC Australian Red Cross Australian High Commission, Fiji Fiji NDMO New Zealand Red Cross Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management Ministry of Health & Medical Services - Fiji Ministry of Youth and Sports UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji UN Climate Change World Meteorological Organization Regional Pacific NDC Hub
