Strengthening Fiji’s Public Investment and Climate Planning Frameworks Remains Critical

The IMF and PFTAC assessment finds that while Fiji has strong public investment and climate policy frameworks on paper, significant gaps remain in planning, multi-year budgeting, maintenance funding, and climate integration, limiting effective implementation. The report recommends consolidating project pipelines, strengthening appraisal and budgeting systems, improving maintenance practices, and enhancing cross-government capacity to better deliver resilient, high-quality public investments.

The 2025 Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) and Climate PIMA for Fiji, researched by the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department, the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center (PFTAC), and supported by Japan’s Infrastructure Governance Facility, offers a detailed look at how the country plans, finances, and delivers public investments in an era defined by climate vulnerability. Conducted at the request of the Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development & Statistics, the assessment highlights Fiji’s strong commitment to scaling up infrastructure and climate-resilient development, while underscoring persistent gaps between institutional frameworks and practical implementation.

A Modern Framework Still Struggling in Practice

Fiji has introduced several reforms aimed at strengthening investment governance, including National Development Plan “implementation booklets,” updated PSIP guidelines, and the rollout of a more capable Financial Management Information System, alongside new procurement rules issued in 2024. These reforms suggest momentum toward greater transparency and accountability. Yet the assessment finds that while Fiji’s legal and regulatory foundations, the Financial Management Act of 2004 and the 2023 PSIP guidelines, are modern and well-structured, they are not consistently applied. Ministries often lack clear processes for translating policy intent into operational decisions, resulting in uneven progress across government.

Planning Weaknesses Undermine Project Prioritization

A major challenge identified in the report is the absence of a consolidated, prioritized, and costed national list of capital projects. Without such a pipeline, Fiji struggles to evaluate trade-offs, coordinate across ministries, or align investments with fiscal realities. Sectoral planning also varies widely in quality, leaving some ministries without integrated roadmaps linking infrastructure needs to broader development objectives. These gaps weaken the ability to manage capital spending sustainably at a time when the government seeks to accelerate investment while safeguarding fiscal stability.

Budget Visibility and Maintenance Funding Remain Major Gaps

The budget process lacks strong multi-year visibility, with capital planning conducted largely on an annual basis. This limits ministries’ ability to forecast funding needs, monitor ongoing commitments, and manage the overall project portfolio. Without published total project costs, transparency and public accountability also remain constrained. Maintenance funding emerges as a chronic weakness: routine asset upkeep is not clearly identified in the budget and remains underfunded, raising the risk of early deterioration, an especially costly vulnerability for a country exposed to severe weather events. While procurement processes are strong, project monitoring is still shallow, with limited reporting and minimal ex-post evaluation.

Climate Policy Strengths Meet Gaps in Execution

Fiji’s climate governance framework is comparatively advanced, anchored in the 2021 Climate Change Act and national adaptation planning efforts. Climate considerations are being incorporated into project appraisal and disaster-related fiscal risk management, and the country benefits from robust ex-ante disaster financing mechanisms. Still, systematic climate integration remains incomplete. Sector plans rarely include detailed climate risk modelling, climate-related expenditures are not tracked in the budget, and asset registries do not document infrastructure vulnerabilities such as exposure to sea-level rise or cyclones. This limits government capacity to direct investment funds toward the most climate-sensitive priorities.

A Reform Pathway Aimed at Closing the Implementation Gap

The IMF lays out a set of priority reforms designed to strengthen both investment management and climate responsiveness. These include creating a unified national project pipeline; standardizing project appraisal with clearer cost and risk templates; adopting a multi-year budgeting system that aligns with the medium-term fiscal strategy; improving identification and funding of routine maintenance; and reinforcing cross-cutting capacities such as IT-based portfolio management and a whole-of-government asset register. Together, these measures aim to help Fiji transform strong policy intent into consistently effective practice, improving the quality, resilience, and long-term value of its public investments at a time when economic development and climate adaptation increasingly depend on strategic, well-governed infrastructure choices.