Creating local disaster solutions

Attendees at the North Pacific region disaster response workshop held recently in Majuro.
Attendees at the North Pacific region disaster response workshop held recently in Majuro.

KELLY LORENNIJ

The World Food Program (WFP) gathered North Pacific countries and humanitarian aid participants from the region for the “hatching” of local solutions regarding emergency logistics, a five-day event that took place last week.

Chief Secretary Benjamin Graham officially opened the event, the very first Logistics Cluster Workshop in Micronesia. Over 40 emergency response experts discussed the challenges involved in logistics that hinder emergency and disaster response, in addition to “locally-led” solutions during the first three days.

A disaster simulation based on a tsunami emergency response scenario took place on Thursday where participants had to apply skills and knowledge learned on humanitarian logistics in order to coordinate a national logistics operational hub and remote teams in the outer islands. For practical insight on the logistics components of emergency preparedness and response, site visits were made to local warehouses and sea ports.

In 2015 the WFP responded to tropical cyclones Pam in Vanuatu and Winston in Fiji. Since then, it has been working towards strengthening the preparedness and disaster response capacities of regional governments.

“It’s been a productive week with humanitarian responders from across Micronesia, working together and sharing ideas on locally-led solutions to the logistics challenges posed by natural disasters in the North Pacific,” Florent Chané, Logistics coordinator at the World Food Program Pacific

Office shared with the Journal. He added, “This is just the beginning of strengthening national and regional logistics collaboration during preparedness and response.”

The NDMO’s director Timmy Langrine told the Journal that the week was full of informative presentations, all of which improve the NDMO and neighboring countries to be well equipped with the shared knowledge and information.

Read more about this in the April 27, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.