Many Pacific Island countries are vulnerable to disasters such as cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and drought but the challenges that many of these countries face from disaster are more detailed.  Many of the countries this project works with are already addressing development issues such as poverty while also facing access issues to remote communities and outer islands.  In addition, many of these countries rely on subsistence farming and have relatively small economies.

The Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific project (BSRP) is a €19.36 million project supported by the European Union and implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC).  This project directly responds to the African Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) group of states and the European Union’s (EU) priorities identified under the 2009 European Union strategy for Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction.

To help overcome these challenges the BSRP project is helping find practical ways to support countries to prepare, respond and recover from disaster. This is done through the implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies. These DRR strategies help assess disaster and hazard risks while putting measures in place to protect lives, assets and livelihoods. This approach reduces the impact on government expenditure by ensuring resources need not be diverted from development budgets to disaster relief, recovery and reconstruction needs.

The BSRP project is helping to achieve this by working at national and regional levels with those tasked as the National Disaster Management teams and filling the gap between responding to disaster and helping countries and communities develop in the long-term.