Design-led strategic engagement for climate change adaptation in Tuvalu
Background
Tuvalu is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, where rising sea levels, storm surges and saltwater intrusion threaten the very habitability of its islands. Funafuti Atoll, home to the capital and the majority of Tuvalu’s population, faces compounding risks from extreme weather, coastal erosion, and limited land area. Previous infrastructure and adaptation efforts were often fragmented, short-term and reactive. Tristan led the consultancy, as Climate Change Adaptation Strategic Engagement Specialist consultant to ADB. The team comprises a consultant Coastal Engineer Specialist, Land Use Specialist and a Climate Change Specialist staff from ADB. Together, a Fogafale Integrated Coastal Adaptation Plan (FICAP) will aim to address climate change adaptation and coastal resilience by developing a medium-term national strategy that integrated engineering, environmental, social and cultural adaptation measures into a single coherent framework. The project’s central problem was how to design a resilient, inclusive and forward-looking adaptation pathway that responds to the immediacy of hazard exposure while enabling community-led transformation.
Tuvalu Integrated Coastal Adaptation Strategy required reconciling complex spatial, cultural and environmental considerations through inclusive, place-based engagement. This demanded sensitivity to trauma, deep respect for local knowledge, and design thinking that bridges community aspirations with technical and policy imperatives. It required navigating competing values—between urgent infrastructure needs and long-term cultural and ecological resilience. It requires designing processes that bring clarity to complexity, translate data and science into accessible visual frameworks, and build shared ownership among diverse stakeholders.
Opportunity for futures
Providing a coherent and accessible medium-term coastal adaptation plan is crucial for small island, low-lying atoll nations such as Tuvalu. These countries, unfortunately, compete for global development partners and funders on the international stage. A stage often purporting to have only a limited amount of funds. When funders can clearly see the forecasted impact their funds will have along a country’s adaptation pathway it provides for strong due diligence, sound economic risk mitigation and ultimately, stronger, faster climate adaptation success.
Our approach
Our work integrated systems thinking, participatory design, communication design and futures-led strategy. Relative Creative led the design and facilitation of strategic engagement, futures-focused workshops and communication tools to support the development of Tuvalu’s first integrated coastal adaptation strategy. Working closely with the Climate Change Department, ADB and other technical experts, we designed and delivered a multi-phase engagement program that included participatory scenario planning, systems mapping, and adaptation pathways co-design with government, civil society, traditional owners and international partners. We produced a suite of highly visual artefacts—including adaptive pathway maps, stakeholder synthesis frameworks, and narrative-driven presentations—to make complex technical and policy information accessible and actionable. Our scope also included mentoring government staff in participatory methods, supporting synthesis across engineering, land use and social domains, and guiding consultants in aligning outputs within a unified strategic framework.
The process is shifting national adaptation planning in Tuvalu from a reactive to a proactive, long-range orientation. FICAP now serves as the central coordinating framework for coastal adaptation, aligning engineering designs, land-use planning, and socio-cultural resilience initiatives under one strategy. Relative Creative’s participatory approach fostered a high level of government ownership and built institutional capacity within the Climate Change Department to lead future adaptation planning independently. Our visual storytelling and systemic synthesis produced clarity from complexity, facilitating strong alignment between technical specialists and policymakers. The resulting framework is providing a clear pathway for phased, transformational adaptation through 2050.
