The Pacific Humanitarian Team - Annual Report 2022

Introduction

The Pacific Humanitarian Team (PHT) is a network of humanitarian organizations working together to assist Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) to prepare for and respond to disasters. The PHT’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) covers the following 14 PICTs: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The PHT consists of humanitarian organizations which have the technical expertise and operational resources to support disaster preparedness and response. It works with Pacific governments and partners to ensure that necessary arrangements and systems are in place to support nationally led disaster responses.

The PHT was endorsed as a coordination body by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) in February 2012.

PHT members include representatives of UN agencies, NGOs, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and works through three main structures:

1. PHT Principals Group: consisting of heads of the respective humanitarian agencies forming the membership of the PHT. This forum is co-chaired by the UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) from the Multi-Country Offices Fiji, Samoa and Micronesia and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The forum provides strategic direction for collective inter-agency humanitarian action.

2. Regional Inter-Cluster Coordination Group: In 2022, this platform consisted of ten openended regional clusters: Food Security, Logistics, Health & Nutrition, Protection, Shelter, Water Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Emergency Telecommunications (ETC), Education, Evacuation Centre Management & Displacement (ECMD); and Early Recovery. It is chaired by OCHA. The group focuses on operational issues and provides support to national disaster preparedness and response systems.

3. Cluster Support Teams: each of the ten clusters assists national counterparts in preparedness and response activities. OCHA Office of the Pacific Islands (OoP) functions as the Secretariat of the PHT. During disasters, the PHT provides support to governments (mainly National Disaster Management Offices) and relevant line ministries, humanitarian partners, and affected communities in delivering a timely, effective, needs-based, and principled disaster response.

During non-emergency situations, PHT members provide preparedness support to their national counterparts in the form of training, mentoring, provision of technical expertise and resource strengthening, in line with national priorities.

In 2022, the PHT was faced with several emergencies. Among them were the Hunga-TongaHunga-Ha’apai (HTHH) volcanic eruption and tsunami in January 2022, and two deteriorating drought conditions in Kiribati and Tuvalu. As concerns cyclones in 2022, the region saw a small number of low-intensity Category-1 Tropical Cyclones (TC) such as TC Cody (January) affecting Fiji; and TC Dovi (February) and TC Gina (May), both affecting Vanuatu. Due to the low intensity of these storms, the number of people requiring assistance was small and humanitarian needs were met by existing partners on the ground, supporting government responses.

While in 2020 and 2021, Fiji was the only country in the PHT’s AoR (Area of Responsibility) dealing with community transmissions of COVID-19, 2022 saw all 14 PICTs covered by OoP