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Lessons Learned from the Response to Cyclone Amphan - Office of the UN Resident Coordinator, Bangladesh and Localisation Technical Working Group (LTWG), November 16, 2020

Evaluation and Lessons Learned
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  1. INTRODUCTION

Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan was a powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern India, specifically West Bengal, and also Bangladesh in May 2020. On 20 May 2020, Cyclone Amphan made landfall near Jammu Island, West Bengal at 5.00 pm BST with 130-140 km/h wind speed. 26 people lost their lives and that 7 people were injured due to falling of trees, boat capsizes, wall collapses and drowning.
The cyclone affected 10 million vulnerable people in 19 districts.

One behalf of the Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT), the Needs Assessment Working Group (NAWG) issued Situation Analysis and Anticipatory Impacts Assessments prior cyclone landfall. The HCTT activated its Humanitarian Preparedness and Response Plan (HPRP) in line with the HCTT contingency plan for climate-related disasters in time of COVID- 19 pandemic. On 31 May 2020, the NAWG co-led by the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) and CARE Bangladesh completed the Joint Needs Assessment and the HCTT issued its Humanitarian Response Plan for Cyclone Amphan. The prioritization process led to the targeting of 700,000 persons most impacted and destitute communities including people with disabilities in 7 districts among the 9 districts most severely affected: Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Barguna, Bhola and Jashore. The priority sectors were: WASH, Shelter, Food Security, Protection and Nutrition. The HRP valued US$ 24 million had the following three strategic objectives:

  1. Ensure an effective, principled and equitable humanitarian response which does no harm and abides by the duty of care (SO1);

  2. Support national authorities and CSOs in delivering assistance to most vulnerable communities capitalizing on comparative advantages (expertise, field presence) (SO2);

  3. Reduce vulnerabilities and restore the safety, dignity and resilience of the most vulnerable populations (SO3).
    The humanitarian community produced 4Ws reports and Monitoring Dashboard reports to strengthen accountability mechanisms, to support decision-making processes including those related to funding and to report on progress in the implementation of the Localisation Agenda. As per the final dashboard report issued on 14 October 2020, US$ 13,794,571 (55 percent) has been mobilised among the required US$ 25 million for the benefit of 758,9431 persons reached with some level of multi-sectoral assistance.

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