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UN Immediate Response

DAY 1: Tuesday 29 Sept 2009

•

7-11am: UN Designated Official/RC and UNDSS
determined the safety of UN staff and their dependants

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10.30am: Samoa based UNDAC and UNDSS staff and
vehicles were deployed by the RC and DMT to the
affected areas to provide support for rescue operations
and for transportation of injured and affected to the
hospital in Apia

•

1pm: RC convened the Samoa UN Disaster
Management Team (DMT) meeting in the UN Situation
Room to determine fully the DMT response/support to
the Government

•

Decision to mobilise an UNDAC team to Samoa immediately

•

Consultation on activating the IASC/PHT cluster system in
Samoa

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4pm: RC and DMT members attended the National
Disaster Council Meeting

IASC/PPHT Immediate Response

DAY 2: Wednesday 30 Sept 2009

•

UNDAC Team deployed to Samoa

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UN Agencies provided list of resources indicating the
type of resources (both technical and immediate) they
were able to immediately dispatch.

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A letter from the RC delivered to the Prime Minister of
Samoa conveying the UN systems sympathies and
offering assistance to the Government’s efforts in
meeting the immediate and humanitarian needs of the
people of Samoa.

DAY 3: Thursday 1 Oct 2009

•

Disaster Management Team meeting convened and formally decided to

activate the Humanitarian Cluster System. Lead agencies were confirmed
for each of the clusters.

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RC letter to the Emergency Relief Coordinator to formally activate the
humanitarian cluster system in Samoa

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Disaster response specialists started arriving from FAO, WHO, UNICEF and
IASC/PHT members in the region.

•

UN staff contributed personal monies, water, clothing to the relief aid
through Samoa Red Cross.

•

Request from the Prime Minister to the UN system to proceed with a rapid
assessment in conjunction with the Government. The Rapid Assessment to
cover immediate, medium and some long term effects of the disaster

IASC/PHT Immediate Response

Samoa Tsunami Cluster Activation

•

IASC set up and operationalized on the 1

October comprising of humanitarian and
development partners

•

Cluster system under the leadership of the UN
RC and support of UNDAC/OCHA

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7 Clusters activated on the 1

October

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WASH : SWA / UNICEF / OXFAM

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HEALTH : MOH / WHO (UNICEF for Nutrition)

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PROTECTION : MWCSD / OHCHR

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EDUCATION : MESC / UNICEF/ SAVE THE CHILDREN

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EARLY RECOVERY : MOF / UNDP

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LOGISTICS : NDMO / WFP

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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT : NDMO / UNOCHA

IASC/PHT operations

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Chaired by the RC in consultation with the NDMO/MOF

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60 Government, NGO, UN Agencies, Non UN Agencies participated
in the cluster system

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RC Office provided secretariat support to the IASC/PHT and
UNDAC

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Daily IASC General meetings (telecon with Fiji PHT members) at the
UN Situation Rm (Samoa) /UNICEF Conference Rm (Fiji)
8.30am/7.30am from Friday 2

to Monday 12

October. Minutes of

the IASC General Meetings provided same day in the afternoon by
RC Office.

•

Contact list of IASC updated daily by RCO and UNDAC/OCHA

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Resource Matrix of IASC members’ support to the Humanitarian and
early recovery efforts provided by Monday 5

October and updated

by the RCO every three days.

•

Information from the IASC General meeting and clusters uploaded
daily onto the Pacific Disaster net website by UNDAC daily from
Sunday 4 October 2009

IASC Samoa members

ADB

ADRA

Apitaga mo Tagata Soifua Samoa

AUS AID

Australian Red Cross

AYAD

Caritas

Faasao Savaii

10.

FAO

11.

Habitat for Humanity

12.

IFRC

13.

ILO

14.

JICA

15.

Medecins Sans Frontiere

16.

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAFF)

17.

Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC)

18.

Ministry of Health (MOH)

19.

Ministry of Finance(MOF)

20.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
(MNRE)

21.

Ministry of Women, Community and Social
Development (MWCSD)

22.

Samoa Water Authority (SWA)

23.

Samoa Electric Power Corporation (EPC)

24.

Samoa Tourism Authority (STA)

25.

NZ Red Cross

26.

NZ AID

27.

Telecom Sans Frontiere

28.

UNDAC

29.

UNDP

30.

UNDSS

31. UNEP
32. UNESCAP
33. UNESCO
34. UNICEF
35. UNFPA
36. US Embassy

37.

OCHA

38.

OHCHR

39.

Oxfam

40.

Peace Corps

41.

Resident Coordinator

42.

Rotary NZ

43.

Samoa Hotel Association

44.

Salvation Army

45.

Samaritan’s Purse

46.

Samoa NDMO

47.

Samoa Red Cross

48.

Save the Children

49.

School Aid

50.

SOPAC

51.

SPC

52.

SPREP

53.

SUNGO

54.

WFP

55.

WHO

56.

WIB

57.

WMO

58.

World Vision

59.

World Bank

60.

National Council for Early Childhood Education

Early Recovery Framework

Process

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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.

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Day 10 (Oct 9

) – Draft ER Framework was presented to

the Prime Minister and Cabinet

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Oct 29

– Revised ERF was submitted

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

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

2 months after the Tsunami

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Cabinet formally approved ER Framework – Option 2 on
the 18

November

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Supplementary budget of $71m to finance the ER
Framework will be submitted to Cabinet on 1

week of

December.

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ER Framework FULLY capitalized

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Humanitarian Phase over – 30

November 2009

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IASC/PHT Lessons Learnt workshop coordinated by the
RC Office and Ministry of Finance completed on 19

November

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M&E system being put in place to monitor the ERF
implementation

Key Lessons Learnt

Coordination

Communication

Information Management

Implementation

Lessons Learnt: Coordination

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Initially, within the first week of the tsunami response, there was lack of knowledge
/limited awareness of the IASC/PHT process by government and NGOs in Samoa
(especially in the clusters/sectors) and also with some UN staff. This is despite the
OCHA / NDMO organised Inter Agency Contingency Planning Workshop in Samoa in
April 2009.

•

Information/Awareness of the IASC/PHT and the links with the DAC and NDC needs
to be clarified and communicated to all disaster management stakeholders in Samoa
and in the region.

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IASC to be fully integrated into the Government disaster management system

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Overall,

–

at the strategic level, coordination between IASC/RC and central government ministries was
satisfactory

–

coordination within clusters was good

–

coordination between clusters needs improvement

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Despite the good coordination efforts, some stakeholders feel that there were still too
many assessments of affected areas/populations taking place

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UN Situation Room too small for the IASC general meetings

Lessons Learnt: Communication

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Terminology/ jargon need clarification to avoid confusion – IASC/PHT/DMT

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Local telecommunications network providers to address issue of server
capacity during emergency phase

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Pacific Disaster Net or another dedicated website should be used
immediately to upload information on the response and more widely
promoted as a tool for accessing tsunami/cluster information

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Media – too many negative stories published. Need daily press releases,
press conferences to highlight the positive work on the ground

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Need to develop standard methodology/ templates for disaster damage and
needs assessments

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Need to review the PHT Communication Plan and the OCHA Situation Rep
Report to ensure more equal representation of IASC members contributions
to the humanitarian and early recovery support efforts and ensure public
awareness of the IASC/PHT/DMT mechanisms

Lessons Learnt : Information

Management

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Limited analysis/collation of raw data for sharing with all clusters and
stakeholders. Sharing raw data from initial assessments with
subsequent incoming assessment teams is crucial in order to avoid
duplication

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Organizations need to be encouraged to use the Pacific Disaster
Net (

www.pacificdisaster.net/ts2009

) to access relevant documents

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A system is needed on how information can be shared between
clusters.

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An M&E Framework needs to be developed to monitor how the ERF
is being implemented

Lessons Learnt: Implementation

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Next Steps?

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Official closure of the IASC/PHT cluster activation for the Samoa 29
September 2009 Tsunami. IASC disaster preparedness and
contingency planning to revert back to the PHT/DMT in close
coordination with the Samoa DAC/NDC

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Implementation of recovery plan scheduled to begin in the first week
of January 2010.

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IASC/PHT/DMT support requested : technical assistance a high
priority of the Government therefore advisory services for the
implementation of the ER plan will be required

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Identify a focal point to ensure that recovery work is coordinated and
information sharing continues.

Summary

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Considered as one of the most successful emergency response and early
recovery processes in the Asia-Pacific region – simultaneous humanitarian
and early recovery

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Strong Government leadership – Ministry of Finance and NDMO

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Buy in of the ER process by Government and partners

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Large number of humanitarian and development partners working together to
support the Government

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Lessons Learnt

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Need to improve awareness of the IASC/PHT at the national level

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Need to improve links between the IASC/PHT and the national disaster
management coordination mechanisms such as the UN Disaster Management
Team, Samoa National Disaster Council and DAC.

–

Need to improve timely and efficient/effective information
management/collation/analysis and dissemination in future disaster response

•

Next Steps

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Careful monitoring and tracking of the needs of the displaced population

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Lessons learnt to be fed into the national and regional cluster mechanisms to
improve IASC/PHT “national” support to countries following future disaster
events.

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Proposed national workshop for Government is required on the ER Framework
and areas where partners can assist the affected population

–

Government will inform the IASC and partners of what is requested for
implementation of the ERF. For now, priority is technical assistance as most of
the resources required has been committed by development partners already.