In 2020, Cyclone Harold ripped through the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.
On the island of Espiritu Santo, the Tasmalum school was destroyed.
CEO of PASIFIKAID, an organisation working to rebuild the school, Peter Jamieson said it still lay in ruins when he visited four years later.
"Kids were playing at lunchtime and climbing over the rusty tin and great big timbers that lay on the ground and up on it, leaning up to the roof," he said.
"Nothing had been done to restore the school. It’s not that the government didn’t want to. The government hasn’t got the money because there’s so many disasters."
Head of Country Delegation for Papua New Guinea at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Maki Igarashi said the remoteness and scale of the country, as well as the capacity of aid organisations, affects recovery responses.
"Sometimes we have to use a small dinghy, like a fishery boat, which takes several hours," she said.
"The other day I was talking to Cook Islands. It takes [about] one week to get to the island. So you can see the scale, the distance, or the access challenge in the Pacific.”
General Manager of International Development at the Bureau of Meteorology Andrew Jones said the impact of climate change is not helping.
“The compounding effects of sea level rise and extreme weather events is one of the biggest risks that the Pacific faces now and in the coming years," he said.
"The impact it's having on the Pacific is just unprecedented, and really, not enough is made of it on the global stage."
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