Shaped by the ocean
In Kiribati, the ocean has shaped its people’s lives for thousands of years. Situated in the centre of the Pacific, its vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) stretches across an area larger than the size of India and includes the South Pacific’s largest marine reserve.
Scattered across Kiribati’s three island groups – the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands – which together contain 32 coral atolls and a raised coral limestone island across a combined area the size of Western Australia and South Australia. Twenty of these atolls are homes to local communities. These communities are among the lowest-lying places in the world. As communities live only metres away from the sea, it makes Kiribati extremely vulnerable to rising seas and other climate impacts. For Kiribati, building disaster preparedness and long-term resilience is essential to Kiribati’s future.
For more than a decade, Anthony has travelled to Kiribati as a humanitarian and disaster response specialist, working to advance the Pacific’s disaster and climate resilience. Today through Australia Assists, Anthony is deployed to Kiribati Office of the President’s National Disaster Risk Management Office (NDRMO) as a Disaster Coordination & Risk Management Specialist.
Climate change in real-time
Kiribati faces a diverse range of climate-related challenges, including droughts, regular high tides or king tide events, and storm surges. Coastal erosion and the risk of flooding are one of the most existential threats for Kiribati communities. ‘Climate change is very real in Kiribati,’ said Anthony. ‘When we talk about climate change in Kiribati, it’s not like just “another” disaster – it is very real, and people’s coastlines are being eroded right in front of your eyes.’
‘As part of our work, we support coastal protection through the provision of sandbags, as a temporary measure, or permanent seawalls, as a long-term measure,’ noted Anthony. ‘We’ve found that over the last 5 to 10 years… more and more islands are coming in requesting support, especially to protect coastal roads which connect villages.’
In times of emergency, Kiribati’s geography and its vast territory spanning across 3.5 million square kilometres of ocean makes timely and rapid emergency support challenging. Ensuring Kiribati is prepared and resilient for disasters is fundamental to Anthony’s work.
‘When we talk about climate change in Kiribati, it’s not like just “another” disaster – it is very real, and people’s coastlines are being eroded right in front of your eyes.’
Kiribati Humanitarian Warehouse
A key priority for Anthony is supporting the Government of Kiribati as it establishes its first humanitarian warehouse, one of the first of its kind in the South Pacific. Delivered under the Pacific Humanitarian Warehousing Program (PHWP), this initiative is being implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) and funded by the Australian Government and New Zealand with support from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.
The journey to build the Kiribati Humanitarian Warehouse began in 2022, when Kiribati declared a State of Disaster due to drought. This drought affected around 120,000 people, roughly 92% of the country’s population. At the time, the lack of warehousing and storage options made it difficult to maintain humanitarian supplies. ‘During the drought response, when the relief supplies arrived in Kiribati, they were left at the airport,’ said Anthony. ‘Because there was no warehousing at the airport, it rained, and the supplies got wet and some were damaged.’
In the Pacific, Kiribati’s NDRMO is one of the smallest in the region, and works across disaster response, climate change and project management. ‘Just to give you context, the NDRMO in Kiribati is only three people and they manage the whole country,’ said Anthony. ‘While many projects are running, the challenge is having the people to manage and monitor them, so one person can be monitoring five different projects and that doesn’t include their own core job that they have to do.’
From a project and stakeholder management perspective, this was highly challenging. When faced with multiple requests from partners, Anthony was integral in helping to manage their expectations: ‘The hard part was getting people to understand that there’s only 3 people in this office,’ said Anthony. ‘The way we work, it looks like we’ve got a team of 10, but it’s actually only 3.’
As a technical specialist and adviser, Anthony maintained a way of working that supported and enabled local humanitarian action, not replacing it. ‘The key is always maintaining that whoever is the local staff, that they maintain responsibility for it and that they stay in front – not that I come in and take it over,’ reflected Anthony.
The House of Many Things
In June 2025, the Kiribati Humanitarian Warehouse, locally named “Auti Ni-Bwai” (translates to “House of Many Things”), was launched by His Excellency Taneti Maamau, Kiribati’s President. The Kiribati Humanitarian Warehouse serves as a symbol of Pacific resilience and a beacon of hope in times of need. ‘In the context of disasters, we would say that this is a house of many things that would help people in a time of disaster,’ said Anthony.
When a disaster strikes, the Kiribati Humanitarian Warehouse can support approximately 1,200 people and enables humanitarian supplies and equipment to be quickly delivered to communities in the first 48 hours of an emergency. ‘This gives the NDRMO a strategic asset to be able to monitor and distribute relief items quickly in a crisis event, and then replenish stock gradually over time,’ said Anthony.
This also includes pre-positioning and storage of humanitarian supplies for other partners, such as the Kiribati Red Cross and UN agencies. ‘We were able to put in Red Cross hygiene kits and shelter kits in the warehouse,’ noted Anthony. ‘We also got equipment from UNICEF, particularly for childhood education, such as a School-in-a-Box, Recreation-in-a-Box, and a school tent, as well as solar-powered desalination units for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy.’
One of the key humanitarian supplies that has also arrived are Assistive Products (AP), an initiative developed through Australia’s Humanitarian Logistics Capability. These assistive products include a range of key items that will support people with disabilities and the elderly who have a diverse range of physical, neurological, and accessibility needs.
‘This is a pilot that’s being done with Kiribati, and they’re called “AP Bricks”, and they include items like wheelchairs, crutches, privacy screens, and ramps for wheelchairs,’ said Anthony. ‘In terms of people with disability, the AP Bricks we have will be able to assist at least 10% of the disability population in Kiribati, so this is significant and is a major strategic asset for the Kiribati NDRMO.’
Building preparedness and response capabilities
Now that Kiribati’s Humanitarian Warehouse has been established, Anthony has excitedly turned his focus towards implementation and training, to ensure that the Kiribati NDRMO and relevant agencies are operationally ready in times of emergency.
His efforts are building upon strong foundations, where he has praised Kiribati NDRMO’s high level of academic knowledge. ‘There’s never a shortage of scholarship in Kiribati,’ noted Anthony. ‘Even though there’s only 3 staff members at the NDRMO… there’s a high level of knowledge on the academic side of things.’
For Anthony, the biggest opportunities remain in strengthening their operational readiness. As a starting point, Anthony highlighted the Certificate 4 in Disaster Management through the University of South Pacific and its importance as a standard for all Kiribati public servants.
‘We’re trying to map it out for everybody, but the main thing is the Certificate 4,’ said Anthony. ‘We’re talking to the Public Service Commission, trying to ensure the Certificate 4 must be a minimum for any civil servant in Kiribati that is working within the disaster space. It’s not just the NDRMO, we’re trying to make it attractive to everybody.’
A key challenge is in its accessibility, as the Certificate 4 in Disaster Management is 30 weeks long. ‘Not everybody has 30 weeks, nor would everybody want to do it,’ noted Anthony. ‘So, we’re also exploring micro-qualifications as another avenue, working with the Kiribati Institute of Technology (KIT) to accredit these micro-qualifications, so they can do it at KIT in one-week blocks.’ Micro-qualifications were developed under Phase One of the Pacific Islands Emergency Management Alliance (PIEMA), who are exploring how to roll the program out to partner countries in Phase 2. It’s by breaking up the foundational knowledge and practice into micro-courses, Anthony hopes that this will make it more realistic and attractive for the next generation of Kiribati disaster management professionals.
As part of this, Anthony has also led a series of disaster preparedness exercises and simulations across different agencies in Kiribati. When the Government of Kiribati requested humanitarian assistance for Banaba Island in January 2026, those preparations helped put plans into action – with Anthony supporting the humanitarian request as their Response Coordination Specialist and Civil Military Coordinator.
‘It was amazing to see how the various components of Australia’s humanitarian architecture are woven together [in support of Kiribati], said Anthony. ‘By helping connect local and international response efforts, we ensured information flowed effectively and that support reached the community as efficiently as possible.’
Australia’s Humanitarian Action
Kiribati is on the frontline of climate change and is strengthening its disaster preparedness and resilience steadily. Australia’s humanitarian action, across Australia Assists, PHWP, and Humanitarian Logistics Capability, has supported Kiribati’s efforts – through infrastructure, technical expertise, and humanitarian supplies.
With Anthony uniquely positioned to connect the dots and deepen partnerships in Kiribati, Australia’s humanitarian contributions to Kiribati’s resilience are more effective, coordinated, and responsive to the needs of its people.
Disclaimer: The information and views published here are the individual’s own and do not necessarily represent the partner organisation, Australia Assists or the Australian Government’s views, positions or opinions.