Photo: Research team with female sugarcane farmer, Mrs Shireen Lata, and local community leaders in Madhuvani, FijiCommunity Resilience Case Studies research is capturing insights about changes in community resilience to climate change and disasters in the Pacific through longitudinal case studies of four communities across four Pacific Island Countries.
In Fiji, the focus is on the Climate and Oceans Support Program in the Pacific (COSPPac), and the support provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to the Fiji Meteorology Services, specifically the tailored forecast products for the sugarcane sector.
ISF researchers Anna Gero and Federico Davila Cisneros spent the week of 25th November 2019 in the sugarcane growing region of Western Division, Fiji, for the first year of data collection. In Lautoka, the research team met with stakeholders from the sugar industry (e.g. Sugar Research Institute of Fiji, Fiji Sugar Corporation, Ministry of Sugar) and Divisional government leaders (Commissioner Western).
The team then travelled to Rakiraki, and on to the selected sugarcane growing community of Madhuvani. Subnational government and community members in and around Madhuvani participated in the research. This included key informant interviews with sugarcane farmers (six men and two women) and people with disabilities (one man and one woman). Participants described their observations of changes to weather and climate, and other impacts affecting agricultural practices in their community.
The research team undertook focus group discussions with men and women separately. A community workshop was held, sharing preliminary findings and providing the opportunity for feedback and questions. Much of the discussion was around the impact of Tropical Cyclone Winston, which heavily affected the Madhuvani community in 2016.
“The weather forecast informs our practices – for example, if rain is coming, we move the cattle, bring the children in, dig holes for catching water.” Female sugarcane farmer, Madhuvani community.
The field data is now being analysed by the team using an integrative resilience framework, where we focus on factors of resilient communities drawing from resilience and community development theories.
The research team will work with the same communities in 2020 and 2021 to continue to understand community resilience to climate change, and provide a series of research outputs to inform future design of development projects that aim to ultimately benefit communities