We're very so blessed to be visited this morning by a high delegation team from the UN Habitat Fund. The UN Habitat Fund headed by the secretary who are here to uh to monitor the the progress of the project that have been funded through through the UN uh Habitat Fund. In Fiji, this um the funding started way back in 2018. Uh we we were assisted with close to 4.2 million US dollars. And um the project um in terms of the tenure of the funding will expire in May 2027. For this funding, there is a list of um 16 uh shall I say in vulnerable informal settlements across our municipalities in Fiji that will be assisted through this project. And um >> [snorts] >> these are the the settlements that are so uh susceptible to climate changes um as well as um flooding as well as other disaster uh risks or challenges. And we're thankful that um we've been assisted by the UN Habitat for um by assisting the ministry the government to assist our families that are living in these informal settlements. And if you go to some of these informal settlements they the the status or the nature of the settlements are not really to very good and very livable conditions. There are a lot of challenges as I just said and they're they're not the they even they they can feel the effects of um uh sea level rising as well as um flooding as well as other um disaster uh risks. So, it is very important that we for the government alone uh we cuz we don't have no enough funding to assist our ministry in in doing some infrastructure to upgrades as well as um upgrade the water and sanitation even accessibility in some of the informal settlements. We so thankful and also graded great uh very grateful for development partners and donor agencies like UN-Habitat in giving out funding to assist our country. >> [sighs] >> This is something in line with our sustainable development goal number 11 which is to ensure that we have sustain a sustainable citizens communities and um we're thankful for all the support all the funding that they have given us and um the visit is just for for the secretary to um to come and not tell you assess but to come and also discuss with our team here at the Ministry of Housing on how far we have gone with our projects as well as some of the lessons learned and um what are the what are some things that we can do in terms of capacity building getting the right angle people to support us as well as other areas going to support the ministry and not undertaking this very important project. Like I said, we this project is mainly to support those of our vulnerable people that live in these informal settlements. Yes, we have two types of assistance that we give on. One is the formalization of informal settlements. So, we have continued to provide assistance for them. Uh we have uh projects that are work in progress at the moment, but these are actually uh these are those informal settlements are not part of our formalization informal settlement upgrading project. So, we have also uh given out funding to assist the ministry in completing some of the projects through the funding by the unit uh UN-Habitat Fund. So, just the upgrade of the infrastructure, like I've said, in some areas they need uh evacuation center, also in Nadi. And even some areas where they want the where they need uh some in some areas because when during high tide and um so, they need they they know assistance for them to for the ministry to go in and you know, put some more uh filling on those um on those areas as well as provide you know, walkways or even uh not to assist them in the in the movement around the place. Uh also infrastructure like having some foot bridges so that we have people [clears throat] in crossing cuz you know, in some of these communities they have small creeks running through the settlement. So, these are some of the basic infrastructure uh improvements that we do in most of these informal settlements. All the funding will expire in May 2027. So, hopefully by then we should be able to complete all the book up projects that are work in progress at the moment. One of the challenges that we face is that we know the you know, the capacity in terms of the resources and in terms of personnel. So, now we have hired the ministry has hired the enough technical officers to assist the ministry on doing some of these projects. But uh those this assistance through the funding by the UN-Habitat.