Executive Summary

This document reports the findings of a UNICEF/UNESCO Mapping of Global DRR Integration into Education Curricula consultancy. The researchers were tasked with capturing key national experiences in the integration of disaster risk reduction in the curriculum, identifying good practice, noting issues addressed and ones still lacking and reviewing learning outcomes.
The methodology employed has been one of meta-research of available literature and case study documentary research into the experiences of thirty countries.

Updated December 13, 2011 09:24:21

A month-long publich health emergency has been declared at Fiji's Nanoka Village, due to the typhoid outbreak Pacific Beat reported last week.

The Fiji Interim Government's Ministry of Health have deployed soldiers and police to monitor the situation and enforce a ban on mass gatherings and movement of the villagers. as well a national health team has been deployed to help the divisional team contain the disease.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts

Fiji Health Ministry spokesman Peni Namotu

In brief

Programme summary:

Cross sectoral initiatives during this period include:

- A dialogue with the Pacific Island Forum on potential cooperation initiatives.

- Delivery of the regional Community Resilience Forum, aimed at improving understanding of members in integrated approaches to working with communities.

- A monthly regional newsletter contributed to sharing best practice and improved coordination between Pacific members and Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners.

- A monthly roster of travel by all

In brief

Programme summary:

The last six months have been marked by a number of small and large scale disasters in the Pacific region. The Red Cross Societies of Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji have responded to the needs of communities affected by a devastating earthquake and tsunami, a sunken Ferry, a triple epidemic (cholera, dysentery and influenza), a volcano eruption, floods and a cyclone. Pre-positioned emergency relief items in each country meant that help was immediately at hand for

The World Health Organisation office in Fiji has confirmed it will begin distributing free swine flu vaccines next month.

The office says it's currently waiting on the H1N1 flu vaccines to arrive from donor countries, and will then begin shipping them around the region.

It is hoped that there will be enough of the vaccine to be provided free of charge to about ten percent of Pacific Islanders.

However, the World Health Organisation's Representative to the South Pacific, Doctor Ken Chen, told Radio Australia's

In the context of the Asia Pacific zone, its demographic, socio-economic and environmental trends, and the International Federation's strategic priorities, the Pacific region covers a vast geographical area comprising thousands of islands and atolls. The majority of Pacific island countries contend with the challenges of smallness and geographic isolation. The Pacific island countries are the most heavily aid-assisted part of the world on a per capita basis. The high rates of migration in the region are primarily a response to real and perceived inequalities

Australia is one of a number of countries in the Western Pacific Region to have shifted to a mitigation phase in its response to the disease and is no longer testing all suspected cases. Also, some countries are not reporting new cases on a daily basis. As a

Health authorities in Australia, which has the highest number of cases in the Western Pacific Region, said the funding would be provided for 41 projects to help national authorities tailor their responses to the virus. The research to be supported will examine, among other topics, why some people develop more severe symptoms

In brief

Programme summary:

The Pacific regional office works with and supports a total of 12 national societies and two in formation in the region, including Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati Islands, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

In this reporting period, the regional office continues to engage with national societies in the region on disaster