Excellencies, fellow Forum Leaders, Ministers, partners and friends,
Bula vinaka.
In Fiji, we have a word: solesolevaki. When a village builds a church hall, or rebuilds after a cyclone, every family brings what it has: labour, food, tools. No one waits for permission from far away. The work is done together, by the people who know the land best. That is the spirit behind the Pacific Resilience Facility.
Pacific communities are already adapting. They know where the water rises, which well is turning salty, and which road will be flooded first. What they too often lack is not knowledge or will, but finance that arrives in time, at the scale required, and on terms that do not add to the burdens they already carry. Small, locally driven projects are exactly the ones the global climate finance system struggles to deliver. A village seeking a water tank or a seawall too often faces the same complex processes as a national infrastructure project, and waits far too long for an answer.
So, Forum Leaders built our own answer. The PRF is Pacific-owned, Pacific-led and Pacific-managed: an international financial institution designed to provide grant finance that does not create debt, and to reach communities directly across our member countries. It is built on transparent decisions and strong accountability, because we know trust is earned by how money is governed. It complements existing mechanisms rather than replacing them, and it can mobilize investor capital at scale.
This is no longer an idea on paper. Fiji was proud to ratify the PRF Treaty in May, helping to bring it into force. Hosted by the Kingdom of Tonga, the Facility is now operational, and its first grants are already reaching communities across our region.
Excellencies, the PRF is an invitation to invest in a model that seeks to change the way climate finance is accessed and delivered. And what works here can work well beyond the Pacific. Facilities that are designed for the communities they serve, and that can channel finance to the last mile, should be the standard, not the outlier, in the global climate finance architecture. Whether national, regional, or international, every funding arrangement we create to build tangible resilience must ensure that vulnerable communities have the means to access solutions.
Fiji is prepared to put its own resources behind this conviction. Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government of Fiji will contribute USD 10 million to the capitalization of the Pacific Resilience Facility. For a nation of our size, this is no small commitment. It is a statement of confidence in a Facility built by the Pacific, for the Pacific, and a clear signal that we do not ask of our partners what we are not prepared to do ourselves.
Forum Leaders have called for the Facility to be fully capitalized, towards its target of USD 500 million. I therefore ask our partners to join us. Invest in the PRF, so that we arrive at COP31 in Antalya showing the world that the means to enhance resilience can be built from the ground up.
In the spirit of solesolevaki, let each of us bring what we have, so that together we build the resilience our communities need and deserve.
Vinaka vakalevu.