Over 100 stakeholders from across the Pacific are attending a logistics and communications cluster workshop with the aim to help Pacific nations to plan, prepare, respond and recover from emergencies such as natural disasters in Port Vila, Vanuatu, from 12 - 16 June.

The first-ever joint meeting of the Regional Pacific Logistics Cluster and Emergency Telecommunications (ETC) Cluster is convened by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and will look at strengthening the coordination of existing resources at a national, provincial and community level.

Hon. Ham Lini Vanuaroroa (MP), Vanuatu’s Minister of Climate Change, officially opened the meeting highlighting that both clusters play an instrumental role during emergencies.

“The Logistics and ETC Clusters are critical in that they provide a support function and consequently represent the backbone of programme delivery.”

“We have learnt many valuable lessons from Cyclone Pam, but we are not complacent. We have a capable and growing National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), and we are looking at identifying and coordinating available support to pool together,” he said.

Logistically, challenges for a humanitarian operation in the Pacific are immense because of the vast expanse of waters and scattered islands.

Florent Chané, Logistics Coordinator at the WFP Pacific Office said that the “good news is that the region has a relatively small population, so we have the wonderful opportunity to bring together all relevant partners to work out local solutions”.

“By coming together in a forum such as this we can share our knowledge and learn from each other’s experiences to improve emergency communications for the Pacific.”  

Stakeholders attending the meeting include NDMOs, government ministries, regulators, NGOs, the Red Cross, the private sector, and UN agencies. 

WFP established a technical presence in the Pacific in 2015 in Fiji to assist regional governments with their emergency preparedness methods and to increase their capacity to help people in need. It is the head of the clusters for emergency logistics, telecommunications and the co-lead for food security.

The regional programme focuses on helping five Pacific Island nations, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

Plans are underway to expand their support to the Northern Pacific Island States.