About Us
Building Resilient Island Communities for a Changing Climate
The Kiribati Outer Islands Resilience and Adaptation Project (KOIRAP) is dedicated to strengthening the resilience, sustainability, and well-being of island communities across Kiribati.
Our work responds to the realities faced by communities living on low-lying and remote islands, where climate change, changing rainfall patterns, coastal hazards, pressure on freshwater resources, and limited access to resilient infrastructure can have a direct impact on everyday life.
KOIRAP works alongside Island Councils, communities, government agencies, development partners, and technical specialists to develop practical and locally appropriate solutions that help communities prepare for present and future climate risks.
At the heart of KOIRAP is a commitment to ensure that island communities are not simply recipients of development, but active participants in building their own resilience.
Our Purpose
KOIRAP has two closely connected objectives.
The first is to strengthen the capabilities of Island Councils so they can make better, risk-informed decisions about land development, infrastructure, public assets, and the delivery of essential services.
The second is to strengthen the climate resilience of vulnerable communities.
These objectives recognise that strong communities require both effective local institutions and practical investments that respond to community needs.
By strengthening local capacity while investing in resilient infrastructure and services, KOIRAP seeks to create benefits that can continue well beyond the life of the project.
Resilience Starts with Communities
Every island has its own circumstances, priorities, strengths, and vulnerabilities.
For this reason, community engagement is central to the way KOIRAP works.
Our Community Engagement Officers work closely with Island Councils and communities throughout Kiribati, helping to strengthen communication between the project and the people it serves.
Community consultations provide opportunities for residents to share their knowledge, identify priorities, raise concerns, and contribute to decisions about activities that may affect their islands.
Local knowledge is especially important in Kiribati. Communities understand their land, water resources, coastlines, infrastructure, and changing environmental conditions through generations of experience.
KOIRAP combines this local knowledge with technical information and risk assessments to help develop solutions that are practical, appropriate, and responsive to community needs.
Improving Water Security and Essential Infrastructure
Access to safe and reliable water is one of the most important resilience challenges facing many island communities.
Changes in rainfall, drought conditions, saltwater intrusion, and pressure on groundwater resources can significantly affect freshwater availability.
KOIRAP supports practical investments aimed at improving water security and basic services in island communities.
Project activities have included support for rainwater harvesting systems, water tanks, pumps, water-related infrastructure, drainage improvements, and other locally prioritised resilience measures.
These investments are intended not only to improve everyday living conditions but also to help communities become better prepared for periods of drought, flooding, and other climate-related pressures.
Strengthening Island Councils
Island Councils are at the centre of local development and service delivery.
KOIRAP works to strengthen their capacity to plan, manage, and maintain infrastructure while incorporating climate and disaster risks into development decisions.
This includes supporting better land-use planning, infrastructure planning, asset management, and decision-making.
Through practical experience and capacity building, Island Councils are better positioned to identify priorities, manage public resources, maintain community assets, and coordinate development activities.
Strengthening local institutions is essential because resilience is not created through infrastructure alone. It also depends on having capable local organisations that can plan, manage, maintain, and protect those investments over time.
Planning for Future Risks
Kiribati's limited land area means that decisions about where infrastructure, homes, public facilities, and services are located are especially important.
KOIRAP therefore promotes climate and disaster risk-informed spatial planning.
This approach considers hazards such as coastal erosion, flooding, sea-level rise, freshwater vulnerability, and other environmental pressures when planning future development.
By combining technical information with community knowledge, Island Councils can make better-informed decisions about land use and future infrastructure.
The aim is to reduce exposure to avoidable risks while making the best possible use of the limited land and resources available to island communities.
Responsible and Sustainable Development
KOIRAP recognises that development must protect both people and the environment.
Environmental and Social Safeguards form an important part of project planning and implementation.
Potential environmental and social risks are identified as early as possible so they can be avoided, reduced, or properly managed.
This helps ensure that project activities consider community health and safety, livelihoods, natural resources, water, land, coastal environments, and the well-being of people who may be affected by project activities.
KOIRAP is committed to development that delivers meaningful benefits while respecting the environment and communities it serves.
Working Together
Building resilience requires partnership.
KOIRAP works with communities, Island Councils, national government agencies, technical specialists, contractors, development partners, and other stakeholders to turn local priorities into practical action.
Communication and community participation remain central throughout this process.
Through consultations, island visits, community engagement, project activities, and public communication—including KOIRAP's online and social-media channels—the project seeks to keep communities informed and involved.
Our Vision
KOIRAP's vision is for island communities that are safer, stronger, better prepared, and more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
We want the infrastructure and services supported today to continue serving communities into the future.
We want Island Councils to have the knowledge, systems, and confidence required to make informed development decisions.
And most importantly, we want communities themselves to remain at the centre of the resilience-building process.
KOIRAP is therefore about more than infrastructure.
It is about strengthening communities, improving essential services, protecting important resources, supporting local leadership, and preparing Kiribati's islands for the challenges of a changing climate.
Together with our Island Councils and communities, KOIRAP is helping build a more resilient future—one island, one community, and one practical solution at a time.
