WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Page 293

Standard Project Report 2016
Drawing from this experience in Fiji, WFP is working in collaboration with the Government to develop capacity and
preparedness measures to strengthen national social protection programmes to be more responsive to shocks, and
potentially create a blueprint for the roll-out of similar systems in other Pacific Island Countries. Contingency
agreements are being developed with relevant ministries and with providers of financial, logistical and emergency
telecommunications services to enhance the Government's ability to incorporate cash-based assistance in its
emergency response plans. Guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being developed for multiple
stakeholders to define areas and ways of intervention during emergencies, and boost the administration of food
assistance through social safety nets at the district and divisional level.
In line with its work at the global level on shock-responsive social safety nets, WFP is collaborating with the Fijian
Department of Social Welfare and the World Bank to conduct a series of participatory learning exercises, trainings
and workshops to strengthen social protection emergency response capacities in light of the high probability of
future shocks that disproportionately impact the country's poorest. Areas of proposed development identified during
a joint lessons learned exercise conducted in September 2016 with Government ministries, UN agencies,
cooperating partners and donors, are: (1) food security and vulnerability profiling and mapping, including
identification of target groups with special needs; (2) development of shock-responsive intervention policy, standby
agreements and SOPs; (3) information and database management and the establishment of feedback mechanisms
and Government call centres; (4) programme cycle design; (5) internal and external communication to augment
beneficiary outreach capacity, and the development of networks prepared for surge staff support to the Department
of Social Welfare.
Areas for improvement in national coordination mechanisms activated at the onset of the Tropical Cyclone (TC)
Winston disaster response were also observed during the response. The Fijian cluster system was only introduced
in 2012, and utilized once to coordinate the multi-agency emergency response to TC Evans (December 2012). In its
capacity as global lead agency of the Logistics and Emergency Telecommunications Clusters, WFP supported the
Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Communications respectively in coordinating the TC Winston humanitarian
response. However, confusion over roles and responsibilities; the lack of a centralised reporting system and
information sharing; and gaps in the streamlining of processes and procedures at the national and sub-national
level, decreased the efficiency of the Clusters in meeting some operational requirements.
WFP and the clusters' line ministries conducted a series of consultations with key partners and stakeholders to
develop recommendations to improve the efficiency of future response operations in emergency logistics and
telecommunications. Below are the areas identified for further improvement, which have now been integrated in
WFP's ongoing Pacific emergency preparedness and response (EPR) strategy in Fiji.
Logistics:
(1) Strengthen the role of the National Logistics Cluster to assume greater humanitarian coordination responsibilities
by shifting its designated line ministry from the Ministry of Economy/Fiji Procurement Office to the National Disaster
Management Office (NDMO); (2) expand private sector engagement in emergency response procedures and
requirements; (3) enhance coordination and information flow of logistics procedures at the national and sub-national
level; (4) ensure early dissemination of SOPs, requirements and frameworks for receiving international relief items
(related to customs, sea freight, biosecurity, warehousing, goods handling, inventory management); and (5)
increase information sharing on logistics constraints, transport and storage availability, and tracking tools to
enhance pipeline visibility to support decision-making and minimise duplication.
Emergency Telecommunications:
(1) Strengthen the emergency communication infrastructure available to the Fiji NDMO to communicate in times of
disaster; (2) strengthen the national Communications Cluster in Fiji as a central coordinating mechanism for
emergency response relating to telecommunications; and (3) improve coordination between actors to ease the
deployment of technical specialists to affected areas.
In line with these recommendations, capacity development services are being developed in collaboration with key
regional, national and local