A partnership project by Afeafe O Vaetoefaga, Samoa  and the Family Centre, to revive indigenous knowledge to build traditional Samoan housing to combat climate change risks, has won one of just 26 international development funding prizes from the World Bank.

“100 ideas to save the planet” was the slogan for the 2009 World Bank Development Marketplace Competition. The “100 ideas” were selected from 1755 proposals from developing nations on how to combat climate change.

Nearly 200 sector specialists and development experts from inside and outside the World Bank volunteered their time to review the proposals and select the most promising as finalists.

The project was developed by Tafaoimalo Loudeen Parsons, Taimalie Kiwi Tamasese and Charles Waldegrave. Afeafe O Vaetoefaga, a non-governmental development organisation based in Nofoalii, Samoa, in partnership with the Family Centre, now have enough funding to put their ‘planet-saving’ idea into action over the next two years.

Tafaoimalo Loudeen and Charles Waldegrave were at the World Bank in Washington DC from 9 – 13 November to present their project to World Bank jury teams and network with other teams from South America, Africa, South-East Asia and Russia. They were one of only two South Pacific entries selected as finalists. Taimalie Kiwi planned to present the project in Washington DC with the team, however because of the Post Tsunami Relief work she is leading in Samoa, she remained there.

On Friday, they won one of the very keenly sought after prizes. The award is a significant achievement for both Afeafe O Vaetoefaga and the Family Centre. It recognises the innovation and quality of development work by these organisations in this project, on an international stage. It was the only South Pacific entry to win a funding prize

See video of the winning project here:

See all the winners on the World Bank blog site here:

See main website for the Development Marketplace here:

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