Vanuatu identifies gaps in relief effort

Transcript

Vanuatu disaster authorities, NGOs and humanitarian organisations are looking forward to the government's endorsement of the latest damage assessment report after Cyclone Pam hit last month.

The Operations Manager of the National Disaster Management Office, Peter Korisa, told Koroi Hawkins experiences from the first phase of relief distribution revealed many gaps in the ongoing relief effort.

PETER KORISA: Okay we are working on, currently there is all the clusters have come together to formalise a short to medium term action plan which is we focus mainly on humanitarian issues which is until recently early recovery. We have, they have just completed the assessment and now they are putting together a report a compiled report and should be released by sometime next week number 23. But again there will be another assessment which is more to do with long term reconstruction which is PDNA we call it. Post Disaster Needs Assessment and that will come after. But for in the meantime all the clusters have already completed the assessment and now they are trying to put everything together and again government can endorse it so that it can be an action plan for the next two to six months period time. To more or less concentrate on the humanitarian response.

KOROI HAWKINS: And is there any finding in this report that is about to come out next week that is new or different to what you have already been doing for the past month?

PK: Ah yeah in fact it is more to do with sequencing of time and I think its. There has been several assessments going on ever since in the beginning. We had rapid assessment done in the beginning and initial aerial surveillance assessment. Now we, this assessment is more or less a pick up of the one already done in the beginning of the period. So it is more about the ongoing and this one will just support it, the previous assessment already done and will identify the gaps, the other gaps from the past assessment and then we will try to address with this new, action plan.

KH: And what are those gaps?

PK: The gaps is more to do with the information because the initially we had a first assessment, rapid assessment and then we did the first relief distribution and relief effort and we realised that we need more data just to confirm the number of households and the exact number of damages to different sectors especially schools and health facilities and water. So now this assessment that will come will be recently done will inform, that will help us address those gaps that has been missed in the first assessment.