Photo credit: Christy Lorenz
By Christy Lorenz, MIPP
Bula vinaka to family, friends, colleagues, and readers near and far! I’m writing to you from Suva, Fiji, where I work as a Programme Assistant with the Resilience and Climate Change (RCC) team at the United Nations Development Programme’s Pacific Office. As a recent Master of International Public Policy (MIPP) graduate, specializing in International Environmental Policy and Human Security, I never imagined that I would find myself at the forefront of my field so soon after graduating in October 2024. I’m grateful to the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the United Nations Association in Canada for making this opportunity possible.
I’ll admit, before packing up my life and moving here four months ago, I knew very little about Fiji. My knowledge was limited to a few fun facts: Fiji was the first country to formally ratify the Paris Agreement, it produces excellent bottled water, and the reality show Survivor is filmed here (which I distantly hoped might increase my odds of bumping into Jeff Probst). Suffice it to say, I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned in such a short time since those humble beginnings.
For my fellow Survivor fans, the RCC team at UNDP Pacific is definitely “David” in the David vs. Goliath story: small but mighty, with climate change as our formidable Goliath. With only a dozen team members based in Suva, and around 50 personnel scattered across the ten countries we support as a Multi-Country Office (MCO), the RCC team manages a portfolio of over 50 projects, with more than 25 currently under active implementation. With initiatives underway in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Kiribati, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, the logistics—especially between UNDP, funding partners, and national governments—are, in a word, frightening. To navigate this, it is common for my colleagues to be deployed on missions to other countries for several weeks at a time to cover maternity leave, receive on-site training, support crisis response, or facilitate project inception workshops and meetings.
This frequent shuffling highlights the scope of our portfolio, which is vast not only in terms of distance but also in disciplinary breadth. From biodiversity conservation to coastal restoration, renewable energy to disaster resilience, the RCC team supports a wide range of country-specific climate needs, all guided by the Multi-Country Programme Document (MCPD, 2023–2027) and the Blue Pacific Continent strategy. For anyone with a diverse array of development interests (guilty!), there is much to learn from the Pacific.
The work underway in the Pacific region is unlike anywhere else, shaped by geography, remoteness, and extreme climate variability. Unsticking my nose from textbooks and policy frameworks to grapple with programmatic realities on the ground has been truly eye-opening. In theory, it is one thing to understand that Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) contribute the least to global emissions yet endure the worst effects of climate change; it is another to witness this injustice firsthand. Across the region, communities are confronting natural disasters, chronic water and food insecurity, accelerating biodiversity loss, coastal erosion, and, in some cases, the existential threat of displacement.
Such complex and overlapping challenges have driven myriad innovative solutions, from Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FSPV) systems to geotextile “Berm Top Barriers” designed to forestall inland flooding. While many developed countries continue to approach climate change through fragmented, sector-specific frameworks, the Pacific offers living proof that it is a systemic, whole-of-society crisis—one that simultaneously shapes, and is shaped by, livelihoods, economies, agriculture, health, education, governance, security, and culture. Here, people and the planet are deeply intertwined, each at the mercy of the other.
Adapting to this entangled reality has been one of the most challenging and rewarding shifts in perspective I have experienced during my time with UNDP Pacific. At a time when fragmentation often feels inevitable, the Pacific offers an alternative—not only in how communities respond to climate change, but perhaps in how nations might find a common cause. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres once said: “Save Tuvalu, save the world!”
And while we work on that, I’ll be here in Suva—learning, applying copious amounts of sunscreen, dodging tropical downpours, and still holding out hope for that Jeff Probst sighting.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BSIA, its students, faculty, staff, or Board of Directors.