Spencer Kim (IPS ’13)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP Environment Team
Suva, Fiji
UNDP’s Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO) supports ten Pacific Island Countries (PICs), including Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu through knowledge and capacity development. I interned with the UNDP Environment Team, which strengthens the legal and institutional frameworks for sustainable development. In partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Fiji MCO assists PICs with assessing climate change adaptation, mitigation, biodiversity conservation, sustainable land management, as well as implementing strategies from such assessments, identifying national capacities to manage natural resources, and developing capacity to meet obligations to multilateral environment agreements.
I spent the summer reviewing the Sustainable Land Management projects of all PICs, a set of medium-sized projects implemented over a three-to-four year period by the UNDP Environment Team. These projects focused on building capacity and mainstreaming sustainable land management against land degradation caused by climate change and rapid population growth. Based on the evaluation reports, project challenges included overly ambitious goals, poor management of local stakeholders, inefficiencies, and resource shortages.
Ultimately I realized that, despite these project limitations, UNDP is the most appropriate and reliable agency to implement large and long-term development policy and projects with PICs. The greatest benefit to me from my internship was the understanding I gained about the entire scope of UN project development – from project formulation to funding acquisition, execution, and terminal evaluation.
