This report covers the period 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2009.
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 management, health and care as well as organizational development to support the most vulnerable in the region.
National society reports indicate that collectively, Red Cross emergency operations in the region have, so far, enabled a total of 5,880 vulnerable families (29,390 vulnerable women, men, girls and boys) to transcend immediate distress and start to rebuild their lives after disaster. Additional assistance to Pacific national societies, including the maintenance, repair, stocking, and in some cases, replacement of the container in its entirety, was made possible with the support of the International Federation and Australia, Japanese and New Zealand Red Cross. In this reporting period, successful efforts have been made to repair and re-stock containers in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. Disaster risk reduction projects were also conducted in Kiribati, Samoa and Tonga.
The international disaster response laws, rules and principles (IDRL) delegate arrived in Suva in January and has, in the initial months of the IDRL Pacific programme, focused on advocacy and dissemination of the IDRL guidelines, and initial preparations for regional- and national-level IDRL training to be conducted this year.
In health and care, Global Alliance on HIV members including Kiribati, Cook Islands, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia continue to work with youths and communities in raising awareness and sensitization to HIV. A seven-day Pacific regional training workshop on project planning, monitoring and evaluation was held in Suva in February with participants from Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu Red Cross. To address the recent outbreak and escalation of A (H1N1) on a global level, the regional health delegate prepared and shared with all the Pacific national societies materials to provide rapid orientation for the staff and volunteers in the national societies on A (H1N1) and how to plan for responding to the pandemic.
In organizational development, there continues to be healthy and mutual support between all national societies in the region on a range of issues including fundraising initiatives, constitution revision and strategic planning. In addition, Tonga, Samoa and Solomon Islands resubmitted their specific organizational development support (SoS) applications in February and were approved in May 2009, and the Asia Pacific zone volunteering development manager will be supporting them in the coming months with this initiative.
Financial situation: The total 2009 budget is CHF 1,988,504 (USD 1.82 million or EUR 1.3 million), revised down from the original budget of CHF 2,307,203 (USD 2.11 million or EUR 1.51 million). The plan is 76 per cent covered to date. Expenditure from January to May 2009 is 20 per cent of the total 2009 budget.
See also:
Solomon Islands: Earthquake and tsunami (MDRSB001), Final Report
Papua New Guinea: Cyclone Guba (MDRPG002), Final Report
Papua New Guinea: Floods (MDRPG003), DREF operation update no. 1
Cook Islands: Dengue outbreak (MDRCK001), DREF operation
No. of people we help: The Pacific regional office supports a total of 14 national societies in the region.
Our partners: During this reporting period, the regional office worked with the 14 national societies in the region, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the whole United Nations (UN) family based in Suva as well as national and regional organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Pacific Island AIDS Foundation (PIAF), the Secretariat of Pacific Communities (SPC), the Asia Foundation/ office of U.S. foreign disaster assistance (TAF/OFDA), AusAID and NZAID. The Pacific appeal is supported by Australian Red Cross/ Australian government, Canadian Red Cross/ Canadian government, Red Cross Society of China/ Chinese government, Japanese Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross/ Norwegian government and the Spanish Red Cross. Funding support was also provided by the Global Fund from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Israel government.
The International Federation, on behalf of the national societies in the Pacific region, would like to thank the abovementioned partners and donors for their generous support.