Endogenous Climate Resilience: Informality in the Pacific’s Small Island Cities

Alexei Trundle presents his PhD research, which examines the interaction between locally-derived, endogenous contributors to urban climate resilience in informal settlements and donor-driven (exogenous) climate resilient development initiatives in two Pacific cities: Honiara, Solomon Islands and Port Vila, Vanuatu. These particular case studies provide critical insight into the accelerating – and predominantly informal – process of urbanisation in a region characterised as one of the world’s most climate vulnerable. They are also of particular relevance to Australia’s role in the region, being key target countries for Australia’s Pacific ‘Step Up’, which centres upon a $500 million “climate change and disaster resilience” package from 2020-2025.

The results of this study show that endogenous climate resilience is an integral part of sub-city community systems and critical to the recovery, survival, and development of climate vulnerable communities. By adapting disbanded resilience thinking heuristics originating from ecological applications – set within institutional analytical frameworks for engaging with informality – strategies are identified for engaging with these informal capacities, with the potential for application both within and beyond the Pacific.