Honiara, Solomon Islands Solomon Islands Government (SIG) representatives and key stakeholders involved in disaster preparedness, recovery and planning have agreed to work more closely together in a concerted effort to minimize the risk from future disasters. This includes dedicated focus on enhancing institutional support structures, refresher mandatory post – disaster trainings and stronger collaboration on data management and information sharing that will strengthen Solomon Islands resilience to natural hazards and lessen disaster damages and losses.

The commitment to take a long-term strategic approach was made at the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) training held in Honiara in March this year. PDNA is an internationally accredited and credible methodology developed by the World Bank, European Union and United National Development Group (UNDG). It is recognised by key development partners and guides all stakeholders in the government-led coordination to mobilise resources at national, and potentially regional and international levels, aligning support and recovery in a standard systematic manner.

Pacific island countries have experienced their fair share of natural disasters with frequently occurring climate and geophysical related hazards. The Solomon Islands, with a population of around 515,000, 80 percent of which reside in rural areas, are vulnerable and in the aftermath of a disaster, access to rehabilitation funds is an ongoing challenge.

In 2007, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale and subsequent tsunami hit Solomon Islands and caused the death of 20 people and destroyed villages and livelihoods. The damages and losses, including loss of life have associated socio- economic losses that further exacerbate the country’s and community’s capability to recover, rehabilitate and reconstruct.

The one-week training brought together over 30 participants from key ministries including eight women, trained to calculate economic and social costs of disasters, inform recovery strategies and assist in prioritizing reconstruction and recovery of the physical and social structures of disaster affected communities.

“UNDP through the Russian-funded “Disaster Resilience for Pacific SIDS (RESPAC)” project contributes to building resilience of countries by enhancing national and regional capabilities to assess, plan, implement, and monitor post-disaster recovery processes,” said the RESPAC Project Manager, Noud Leenders.

“Post-disaster recovery processes are to be used as opportunities to promote resilient development. Recovery and reconstruction are not just about getting back to business as usual; simply rebuilding will only replicate the conditions which make communities vulnerable to disasters in the first place,” Leenders added.

Permanent Secretary for MDPAC, Shadrach Fanega, added “PDNA not only gives us the opportunity to better position our collective capacity to respond when disaster occurs, but it also takes on a long-term strategic approach on how to best mitigate, adapt and minimize the risk from future disasters which have become more regular.”

“Having gone through several disasters in past years, Solomon Islands is struggling in the long-term recovery and has been unsuccessful in attracting new funding to source recovery. Harmonizing the PDNA tool with Disaster Sector Assessment (DSA) is very timely, because now we will address the loss component when disaster strikes,” said Director Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Loti Yates.

Undersecretary – Technical, Ministry of Development Planning & Aid Co-ordination (MDPAC) in Solomon Islands, Roy Mae said “the PDNA training was very effective and recognised by donors and development partners who are involved in the process from the very beginning. Formulating cost recovery has always been the challenge and donors are usually reluctant or hesitant to fund.”

 “The training was very productive. When we all came together from various sectors and representatives of Government, we realized that we needed to work together. We hold critical information and data that is needed for disaster preparing, planning and rehabilitation and that information needs to be shared,” said Anna Pitaboe, Statistician with the Ministry of Finance.

Strengthening South-South cooperation between the Government of Fiji and Solomon Islands, UNDP RESPAC engaged Anare Leweniqila, Director Fiji NDMO to share Fiji’s experience in applying PDNA and DRF 2013 and 2016 for TC Evan and TC Winston.

“In the PDNA, we cover disaster management aspects issues, economic damages and losses as well as socio-economic components. This sets PDNA apart from any other assessment. We look at the affected population; we look at gender, people with disability, children, poverty, and rural and urban issues; we look at ethnicity and identify needs. All this informs the disaster recovery framework. The PDNA is people-centered process and it is inclusive of all key stakeholders. If they are not part of this planning, they will also not appear in the recovery framework, it is critical that all are part of the PDNA process,” said Leweniqila.

Moving forward Mae added, “The PDNA training should also be taken to the provinces, as this ensures that the voices and needs of the vulnerable in communities including women, children, people living with disabilities, elderly are heard and considered during recovery and rehabilitation plans.”

MDPAC is tasked to develop a Terms of Reference for a Technical Working Committee to operationalize the action-items coming out of the Way Forward Discussions, which includes refresher trainings, sharing of best practices and lessons learnt, and the identification of PDNA focal points for all line ministries.

 “Through trainings and consultations, we will start to understand our weaknesses and strengths and what components of the longer-term recovery program we are looking at to come up with disaster recovery framework etc. It’s a long way ahead, but for us the work that has started is really useful and it has been a real eye-opener for the key agencies of government,” said Yates.

Participants of the training included representatives from key ministries including Finance & Treasury, Health and Medical Services, Agriculture & Livestock, Foreign Affairs & External Trade, Fisheries & Marine Resources, Environment/Climate Change/Disaster Management & Meteorology, Women/Youth/Children & Family Affairs, Rural Development, Culture & Tourism, Infrastructure Development and Communication & Aviation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The training was organised by UNDP Disaster Resilience in the Pacific SIDS (RESPAC) project in collaboration with the Pacific Community (SPC) Pacific Resilience Programme (PREP) and the Solomon Islands National Ministry of Development Planning and Aid Coordination (MDPAC) and the Disaster Management Office.

Contact information

Andrea Waqa - Montu, Communications Officer, RESPAC, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, Tel: +679 3227 579; Email: andrea.waqa-montu@undp.org Twitter Handle:  @RESPACatUNDP