Pacific multi country strategic plan (2023-2027)

CSP approved at EB June 2023 session. 

The 14 Pacific Island countries and territories covered by this multi-country strategic plan – Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu – represent a diverse group of peoples and geographies. All of these small island developing states, however, are at high risk of adverse consequences from climate change, including impacts on health, livelihoods, food and nutrition security, water supply, human security and economic growth.

The socioeconomic impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the global food crisis have exposed fragility in food systems in the Pacific. The cost of a healthy diet has increased and rates of obesity and non-communicable diseases are high. Heavy dependence on food imports, combined with lower remittances and tourism receipts in some cases, leave communities exposed to global economic shocks.

WFP’s approach in the Pacific is to support Pacific governments and regional stakeholders in their efforts to better prepare for and respond to emergencies including through better collection and analysis of food security and nutrition data, improvements to national social protection and disaster risk management, strengthening of the regional humanitarian architecture and increased focus on those most at risk of being left behind. This multi-country strategic plan will therefore focus on strengthening national and regional capacity, with a contingency for service delivery to support national disaster response efforts, rather than the direct provision of food or cash-based transfers to beneficiaries.

This multi-country strategic plan is aligned with the United Nations Pacific sustainable development cooperation framework as well as the 14 country implementation plans that represent the main strategic engagement between the United Nations development system and Pacific governments. The multi-country strategic plan will contribute to WFP strategic outcomes 4 (national programmes and systems are strengthened) and 5 (humanitarian and development actors are more efficient and effective), as well as Sustainable Development Goal 17 and the climate change and people-centred development thematic areas of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent through the following two multi-country strategic plan outcomes:

• Outcome 1: By 2027 governments and regional stakeholders in the Pacific have strengthened systems and capacity to reduce vulnerability to food insecurity and malnutrition.
• Outcome 2: Governments and regional stakeholders in the Pacific region have access to common services and platforms for rapid, effective and coordinated responses during and in the aftermath of shocks and disasters.

Outcome 1 focuses on strengthening capacity to prepare for and respond to emergencies, especially through the use of data to better understand and respond to the differentiated impacts of shocks on the food security and nutrition of those most at risk of being left behind. Outcome 2 represents a contingency under which WFP will deliver selected services to humanitarian partners and will only be pursued if required.

To achieve these outcomes, WFP will partner with Pacific governments and regional organizations, including the members of the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific, academia, the private sector and civil society.