The Government of Samoa and the Asian Development Bank (A.D.B.) signed a grant agreement for the provision of USD$10 million (SAT$27.1 million) on Tuesday this week.

The grant comes under the auspices of the Pacific Disaster Resilience Program – Phase 4, according to a written statement that was distributed by the Government Press Secretariat on Thursday.

Samoa's Minister of Finance, Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioo signed the agreement on behalf of the Samoa Government with the A.D.B. The regional development bank was represented by Aaron Batten, the Regional Director of the ADB Pacific Subregional Office in Suva, where he oversees the delivery of A.D.B. operations in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.

The grant assistance is a contingency disaster financing – a standby budget support that can only be triggered and disbursed to support and respond to shocks caused by natural disasters and health emergencies.

The main objective of the Program is to strengthen resilience to climate and disaster-related shocks and stresses and health emergencies. 

The scope includes (a) strengthening policy and institutional arrangements for disaster risk management; (b) enhancing systems, information, and tools for risk management, including risk-informed development; and (c) improving climate and disaster risk financing and public financial management to address disaster impact. The program is expected to be completed by 31 March 2026.

The Samoa Government acknowledged the continuous support and assistance of the A.D.B. to Samoa, and for recognising the vulnerabilities of Samoa and the Pacific to disasters. 

The Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (PDRP) with A.D.B. commenced in 2017 to support Pacific Island countries recognizing their vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climate change, to respond to natural disasters including health emergencies. This program comprises policy-based operations under the contingent disaster financing (CDF) option.   

 The first phase of the program was approved in December 2017. A.D.B. committed USD$6 million to Samoa in Phase 1 comprising a USD$2.9 million grant and a USD$3.1 million concessional loan. The Phase 1 grant was disbursed in April 2020 to support Samoa's COVID-19 response following a state of emergency declared in March 2020.  

Phase 3 of the program was approved in November 2020, which included a US$D10 million grant for Samoa. When Samoa was declared Stage 3 for COVID-19 community transmission by the World Health Organization in March 2022, disbursement was triggered, and the Government of Samoa drew down the available USD$10 million to continue to support pandemic response efforts in April 2022.