November 2025
Tuesday 11
NADI, Fiji – [11 November, 2025] – A delegation of farmer-leaders from the Pacific Farmer Organisations will travel to Belém, Brazil, for the UN Climate Summit (COP 30) to deliver an urgent message: climate finance must go directly to the farmers and communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.
The delegation’s advocacy is backed by new research revealing a shocking gap in funding. Pacific small-scale farmers require an estimated US$77 million every year to adapt their food systems to climate change, yet they are currently receiving only 1.47% of that amount.
This gap in funding is leaving the region’s food security, culture, and livelihoods dangerously exposed.
Ilisapeci Vakacegu, Programs Manager for Policy and Advocacy at Pacific Farmer Organisations says “The main factor causing this breakdown is accessibility. It takes money just to be able to access a pocket of funding. The system just ends up serving institutions and not farmers.”
Throughout the two-week summit, the delegation will advocate for “direct and fair finance,” urging global leaders to bypass complex intermediaries and channel funds through more agile, farmer-led mechanisms, such as Pacific Farmer Organisations Climate Resilient Farming Framework and the proposed Global Farmer’s Resilience and Empowerment Fund.
This approach would get funding to where it’s needed most—for farmer-led solutions that address the constraints of today and prepare for future threats.
“Farmers are the ‘backbone of our Pacific food systems,'” noted Vakacegu. She stressed that the stakes are higher than just economics. “What is truly at stake if farmers cannot adapt… we risk losing a part of our culture. We could lose centuries of our traditional knowledge.”
With nearly three-quarters of the Pacific’s population relying on agriculture and fishing, the delegation will argue that funding farmer-led adaptation is the most direct and effective pathway to ensuring a resilient Pacific.
About Pacific Farmer Organisations (PFO) – The Pacific Island Farmers Organisation Network serves as an umbrella organisation for national farmer organisations in the Pacific region, to coordinate capacity building, share success stories and the lessons learned, and support regional exchanges of expertise between farmer organisations and their associated private sector partners. Our mission is to make Pacific Islands Farmer Organisations more vibrant, viable and sustainable organisations. Essential for effective engagement with farmers, Farmer Organisations are critical in empowering livelihoods for rural households across the Pacific Islands region.