The Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) which was initiated under Prime Minister Mark Brown’s leadership as the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, is currently sitting at approximately US$200 million (NZ$317.84m), only 13 per cent of the initial US$1.5 billion target.

In a press conference last week before departing for Tonga for the 53^rd Pacific Islands Leaders Forum underway in Nuku’alofa, Brown said plans were in place to hold a pledging event to attract more finds.

The PRF is a transformative regional financing mechanism, created by the Pacific for the Pacific which aims to help vulnerable people exposed to climate change and disaster risks, particularly women and girls, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Brown said the pledging event would be held after they identify a country of domicile for this facility, likely to be Tonga.

“The original target, we were looking at was 1.5 billion dollars and currently it sits at around 200 million dollars,” the Prime Minister said. “Previously, in the last month, we had the Finance Ministers’ Meeting where they presented their report … it looks like Tonga will be nominated and identified as the country for the domicile of this particular facility.”

When asked what the Forum was doing to attract more funding, Brown explained that plans are underway for a pledging event after the leaders endorse the domicile for the facility.

“The idea now is that once the leaders endorse its domicile and its rules of establishment with the engagement of the World Bank, this will now be taken to the UN General Assembly in September where the Secretary General will be looking to put it out for a pledging event for countries to contribute towards,” he explained.

Earlier this year, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced a grant of $16.5 million confirmed to help the Cook Islands respond to climate change. The $16.5m joins the pot of $150 million NZ pledged to the Pacific Resilience Facility.

The fund was allocated for renewable energy projects, cycle shelter upgrades, battery replacements, and water security, as agreed with the Cook Islands. 

In November last year, Pacific leaders approved the operationalisation of the Facility with the initial starting target of US$500m to address part of the critical climate finance disaster risk resilience needs of the Pacific through high impact projects being supported at the community level.

Initial seed contributions from the Governments of the United States and China were boosted by Saudi Arabia of $50 million and Australia of $100 million.  

Brown has since been inviting other countries to consider supporting the innovative financing facility, developed by the Pacific, to help the region build its resilience.