In June 2022, GIZ hosted the inception meeting for the Climate Smart Resilient Islands Initiative in Bonn, Germany. Chaired by H.E Khadeeja Naseem, Minister of State for Environment, Climate Change and Technology of the Republic of Maldives, the meeting had the purpose of providing interested countries with more information on the GCF Readiness support for the CSRI Initiative. After presentations about the Initiative and a Q&A session, these were the key takeaways:

• Regional approaches and learning across all three regions (Caribbean, Pacific, Indian Ocean) are key to safeguarding SIDS’ future and sustainable development. They should play an important role in implementing CSRI readiness support. 
• The central role of regional organizations and the work they are already doing as well as the knowledge they have started to build up must be acknowledged and put to use. This readiness support will investigate how to best integrate and capitalize on the knowledge and strengths of regional organizations in operationalizing the CSRI Initiative. 
• The CSRI Initiative and this readiness support will not duplicate ongoing collaboration efforts but deepen synergies with the existing initiatives. It is also critical to make sure that we take the capacity constraints of SIDS institutions into consideration in the design of future work. 
• To tackle the climate crisis, it is critical for islands to work together, capitalize on good practices, and collaborate on common issues.