Attachments
• This Operations Update (OU) reports on the accomplished objectives achieved since the beginning of the Emergency Appeal (EA). The South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) Emergency Appeal for floods in KwaZulu Natal province has managed to conclude 70% of the planned response interventions.
• There have been major delays in implementation due to tension between government officials and affected communities, which brought about challenges of access for SARC to continue with the implementation. Activities also had to be postponed to ensure the safety of the staff and volunteers involved in the response until the situation improved.
• This Operations Update has also been done to inform of the timeframe extension of the Emergency Appeal until 1 December 2023. This extension is being requested as part of the planned transition of the activities from the Emergency Appeal to the response operation. As part of the Unified Planning modality, at the completion of the EA timeframe, the remaining activities will be transitioned and implemented as part of the country’s Unified Plan. Nonetheless, it is important to note that all financial mechanisms will remain in place until the response is finalized to ensure accountable reporting. In the month leading to the end of the EA, a revised operational strategy will be released to reflect how final activities will be implemented. This will be launched as an annex to the Unified Country Plan.
• The additional timeframe requested for the operation is needed to finalize activities planned as recovery interventions aimed at building community resilience (e.g., drilling more boreholes, installation of water pumps and support livelihoods), raising community awareness and training response teams in disaster risk reduction, preparedness, first aid, and CBHFA. Following the Preparedness for Effective Response (PER) full assessment which the SARCS embarked on early this year, there has been enhanced capacity and readiness to conduct major operations. There is a great need to enhance community preparedness and build resilience for them to withstand the impact of future incidents; the implementation under the Unified Plan will be also used to support this.
• Lastly, through this operational update, the original indicators and targets under the Operational Strategy (OS) are also being updated. Revised indicators and targets are included in the sections below.