About The Project

The Vulnerability-Resilience Country Profile (VRCP) has been developed through a series of expert- and inter-agency consultations engaging the Technical Advisory Group of the EU-funded “ISLANDS” project.   It was introduced and piloted in selected SIDS, since March 2013VRCP provides guidance for monitoring progress in each of the thematic areas of the Samoa Pathway and using the resulting analyses to formulate policy and implement activities at the national level to strengthen resilience.

Purpose of the VRCP 
 
The VRCP is intended to serve a dual purpose: 
 
The primary aim is to enable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to assess their own progress in addressing vulnerabilities, and their response to these vulnerabilities, in each of the thematic areas of the Samoa Pathway.  This would facilitate the periodic review for the Samoa Pathway. The secondary aim is to enable individual SIDS to compare their own progress towards achieving the goals of the Samoa Pathway in order to identify best practices and to build up a knowledge base. 
In addition to these two goals the VRCP will be used to monitor national plans, strategies and programmes.
 
How does the VRCP add value?
 
The most important contribution of the VRCP is that it provides SIDS with a clear pictorial presentation of the vulnerability-resilience nexus that uses existing information and data and which can aid decision-making. The VRCP methodology is intended to complement on-going local, national and international processes rather than to duplicate or replace these initiatives.  It is also envisaged that the VRCP methodology will assist a SIDS to monitor its SGD goals and targets.
 
The VRCP serves as a policy tool for:
 
A. Evidence-based policy formulation, planning, decision-making and monitoring.
B. Periodic self-assessment of a country’s progress to address identifiable vulnerabilities and resilience building efforts 
C. Monitoring of the implementation of the Samoa Pathway and other relevant international commitments, including the SDG
D.  Negotiations with the international donor community for financing resilience measures 
 
Additional benefits of the VRCP include:
 
A. Flexibility to tailor countries’ specific circumstances and priorities
B. Visual presentation that makes it easy to understand the links between the vulnerabilities and resilience
C. Systematic process of self-monitoring that can be used to monitor progress over time.
D. Opportunity for capacity building in data collection and management
E. Brings together existing indicators from a wide range of sources
F. Enables countries to identify and share best practices.
G. Helps to explore policy options
H. Provides a snapshot of both vulnerability and resilience and the links between them.
I. Countries can tailor the VRCP to their own special situation, issues and concerns.
J. Enables countries to identify best practices that can be applied within the country and shared with other countries where common vulnerabilities exist.