Tonga | Mid-term review: TRCS and IFRC Tonga Operation on Volcano and Tsunami Response Final Report

1. Executive summary

Introduction

On 15 January 2022, the explosion of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haapai (HTHH), two sister underwater volcano located in an uninhabited area about 65 kilometres north of Nuku'alofa, Tonga's capital, triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami wave of up to 20 metres1 which struck the west coasts of Tongatapu, Eua and Haapai island group. The explosion plume dispersed ash of 5-50 mm (0.2-2.0 inches) thickness across the Haapai, Tongatapu, and Eua islands2 The Emergency Appeal (EA) No: MDRTO002 Tonga | Volcano and Tsunami Operation was launched on 21 January 2022, following an initial IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (IFRC-DREF) allocation on 19 January 2022. The Revised Emergency Appeal was published on 5 April 2022, covering the period up to 21 January 2024, seeking CHF 4 million (CHF 4.4m FWA) and keeping the target of original target of 17,000 people to be reached. This EA was quickly fully funded. The circumstances surrounding the operation, in particular the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown in 2022, have played an important role in the prioritisation of activities.

Methodology

Data collection for the mid-term review (MTR) was carried out through 31 key informant interviews (KII), 4 focus group discussions (FGD), 20 responses to a survey to staff related to the Operation and a 10-day field trip to Tonga. A total of 62 people took part in the MTR, 33 women (53%) and 29 men (47%). The number of staff and representative community members interviewed was limited by those made available within the time frame of the review. There was no requirement for a representative sample of the target population.

The MTR team consisted of three people who were not involved in the response operation:

• Lead consultant – team leader

• IFRC Secretariat PMER

• TRCS PMER

Top 5 Findings

1. There were clear challenges at the start of the operation due to COVID.

2. The Appeal was very successful in terms of being fully funded. However, expenditure remains low with the corresponding limited impact to date.

3. At the time of the review, the Operation has not been fully relevant in terms of helping the affected population to self-recover from the crisis sustainably and strengthen their resilience to future events.

4. Nor has it fully contributed to strengthening TRCSs response to future disasters and crises through preparedness, humanitarian assistance and protection.

5. A good example of where capacity development did take place was through the CVA where TRCS delivered a project resulting in a high level of satisfaction among the assisted population.

Top 5 Recommendations

1. Assess the needs of the most vulnerable who have not been able to recover and build resilience. This needs assessment should be carried out by the local authorities together with TRCS staff and/or volunteers. This should include families still living in emergency conditions.

2. Review the recovery plan based on the assessment and considering the approach stated in the Operations Strategy to apply adaptive principles to meet shifting needs and grasp opportunities to be innovative and strategic in building community, organizational and coordination resilience as Tonga recovers from this crisis.

3. Prioritise the PER to help assess the capacity and develop a plan with the NS.

4. Define a detailed NSD plan to make TRCS stronger. Including lessons learned from the HTHH operations.

5. Strengthen coordination and collaboration with the IFRC Regional Secretariat. Improved coordination should result in increased technical expertise for the programme, which would also have a positive impact on efficiency.