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Overview of the Early

Recovery Cluster for

Samoa Tsunami Response

Pacific Humanitarian Team Workshop

Nadi

, Fiji: 2

–

4 December 2009

Background

•

At 6.48am on 29 September 2009, an 8.3
earthquake struck south of Samoa and
generated tsunami waves that impacted
the southern coast of Samoa

•

143 deaths (10 tourists) and 5 missing

•

5,274 people were directly affected from a
resident population in 19 villages in the
affected areas of 12,406

Faafetai

Early Recovery Framework

Process

•

Joint assessments carried out under the aegis of the
IASC/PHT and DAC from 7-9 October and used as the
basis for the Early Recovery Framework. Led and
coordinated by the Early Recovery Cluster under
oversight of the RC.

•

Day 10 (Oct 9

) – Draft ER Framework was presented to

the Prime Minister and Cabinet

•

Oct 29

– Revised ERF was submitted & Final revised

version submitted on Nov. 9th

•

Reporting to the Disaster Advisory Committee (DAC) on
a daily basis

•

Regular reporting to the Cabinet level National Disaster
Council chaired by the Prime Minister

Key Lessons Learnt

Coordination

Communication

Information Management

Implementation

Lessons Learnt: Coordination

•

The IASC was coordinated exceptionally well by the UN
Humanitarian Coordinator/RC, Mrs Nileema Noble enabling the
Cluster system to function efficiently and effectively.

•

Coordination of the Early Recovery Cluster was considered to be
quite satisfactory.

•

Need more familiarity with some critical formal procedures of the
IASC system as it relates to the ERC.

•

Although critical information was transmitted from the
NDC/DAC/NDMO to the ERC, it was felt that government presence
in the Cluster would be beneficial, if not essential in future.

•

Coordination with other major humanitarian partners/donors such as
ADB, WB, etc., was very good.

•

ERC members demonstrated a high degree of cooperation and
professionalism in a time of great mobility and stress and this was
an indispensable factor in getting the job done quickly and to a high
standard.

•

Inter – Cluster coordination could be strengthened.

Lessons Learnt: Communication in

ERC

•

Communication was good and mostly through
email so the availability of email connectivity was
essential. This was difficult for some field-based
members.

•

Pre-designed forms for tracking in-coming and
departing ERC members is suggested for future
to make it easier for dissemination of information
(& security) purposes.

•

Use of radio communication was not fully
utilized.

•

Regular communication was maintained with the
NDMO and rest of the Clusters through the
IASC.

Lessons Learnt: Information

Management

The availability of base information on demographics,

maps, photographs, socio-economic data, household
data, etc., of affected areas would have been very
helpful at the start.

The raw data collected from the 4 field assessments

(environment; agriculture & fisheries; and socio-
economic; and DaLA) should be made available to
public;

Pre-designed assessment templates useful for future;
People did not refer readily to the PDN and UNDAC sites

for information – greater familiarity needed;

Generally though information flow in the ERC was

satisfactory and UNDP did a good job in maintaining
regular contact with its members;

Lessons Learnt: Implementation

The early integration of early recovery terminology and concepts during the response

phase paved the way for the ERF and allowed early recovery/recovery efforts to kick
in sooner than later – leads to more sustainable recovery that take into account
DRR/DRM concepts.

Coordination of a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary ERF drafting team was managed very

well by UNDP resulting in the ERF being presented to the Prime Minister and NDC on
9

October, a record 10 days after the disaster.

Both the ERC and IASC members were afforded the opportunity to review the drafts and

comment – comments were incorporated where appropriate & bearing in mind the
principles highlighted in the ERF.

The government and development partners were also consulted at key stages during the

drafting process for verification and to seek further information, data, etc.

The final revised edition was submitted to the government on 29

Oct. & 9

Nov.

As reported by the RCO, the government was fully and deeply appreciative of the efforts

and contributions of all humanitarian partners and which enabled the government to
develop the government Recovery Plan quickly based on the ERC & DaLA in time for
supplementary budget session in first week of December 2009 and resource
mobilization.

Faafetai