Kiribati Education Improvement Program to contributing to community resilience

Dr Keren Winterford and Tamara Megaw, ISF researchers, spent the week of 25th – 29th November in Kiribati with local consultant, Mr Betarim Rimon, exploring the contributions of the Kiribati Education Improvement Program to community resilience. Their work forms part of the Community Resilience Case Studies research, which aims to capture 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. Kiribati, along with Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu, have been selected for study – and in each country a specific DFAT investment was chosen to explore the contributions to community resilience in a selected community.

In Kiribati, the selected community was Bonriki, where the research team discussed the infrastructure upgrade of the school (Bareaumai Primary School), inclusion of climate change awareness in the school curriculum and teacher training. Key informant interviews were undertaken with up-stream stakeholders including the Ministry of Education and Climate Change and Disaster Management Office. Key informant interviews were also carried out with implementing partners (Kiribati Education Improvement Program (KEIP) and Kiribati Institute for Technology (KIT). A briefing was provided to DFAT Post.

In Bonriki community, focus group discussions were held with primary school teachers and members of the parent and teacher association. Separate focus group discussions were also conducted with men, women and men with disabilities from Bonriki community. A transect walk was undertaken with five youth to gain an understanding of youth perceptions of resilience to climate change and disasters in the Bonriki community. We learnt about the impact of sea inundation to the village including how the fresh water wells were becoming brackish (salt affected) and how trees, such as large jack fruits and also small crops weren’t growing due to the sea inundation. We learnt about small scale responses taken by the village to deal with sea level rise.  A workshop at the school was facilitated to share research findings with the community and future aspirations for community resilience in Bonriki.

“Before I was able, but because of diabetes, I can’t access good water for drinking water and washing water. I experience skin conditions due to brackish water. If I was able, I would be able to move to get fresh water from somewhere else.” Man with disability, Bonriki community, Kiribati