A major achievement
As the year 2020 drew to a close, the Statistics and Policy units of the MoA were able to conduct, for the first time ever after TC Yasa, the Initial Damage Assessment in just 72 hours and the Detailed Damage Assessment on the food security and agriculture sector as per international standards and FAO methodology. This is a major achievement in terms of timeliness and methodology compared to the post- disaster assessments that were conducted in past years by the national authorities after previous cyclones.
Ms Sainiana Kirisitiana, Acting Principal Economic Planning Officer (Statistics) of the MoA, cannot emphasize enough how the FAO support has made an impact on the capacities and position of the MoA in the disaster analysis and programming. “This is really a game changer on how the MoA is analysing and responding to disasters. FAO assistance has produced greater impacts to the agriculture sector. The efficient and timely collection of quality agriculture data resulted for TC Yasa in effective planning, decision-making and implementation to provide relief and humanitarian support to the affected farmers.”
The comparative advantage of FAO in Fiji is to work within the MoA on a daily basis and to design jointly with the MoA responsible units for the programme and adapt it to the context, the capacities and the needs of the MoA.
Adding value
The added value of this assistance is that the tools and capacities are now fully embedded within the Ministry without FAO substituting for the role of the national authorities. The MoA-led Food Security and Livelihood Cluster, which includes all the national institutions, the major food security stakeholders and the international donors, have directly benefited from the strengthened disaster analysis to coordinate better their interventions and avoid duplications or overlaps in supporting affected communities. The strong partnership between FAO in Fiji and the MoA senior leadership facilitated the alignment of the training activities and success of the programme.
The Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment, Dr Mahendra Reddy, expressed his appreciation to FAO for providing support by working with the Ministry in the past six months, reviewing its preparedness, response and rehabilitation plans and standard operating procedures. “The technical support provided timely assistance during the Ministries’ TC Yasa response operation whereby we were able to implement our response plan in a more timely and well-coordinated manner ensuring distribution of agriculture rehabilitation items within a few days after TC Yasa,” Dr Reddy said.
Mr Ritesh Dass, Permanent Secretary for Agriculture witnessed firsthand how sound analysis supports his leadership in planning and implementing the relief activities: “This strong evidence base allows the MoA the confidence to take difficult decisions in the heat of the response”.
The quality of the analysis and work done by MoA has been obvious and positively recognized by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other international partners. Mr Dass is looking forward on how FAO can assist the MoA to build on this success and strengthen further its capacities. “We will require additional support in providing equipment and GIS software to facilitate the accuracy and efficiency of data collection. At the same time, while we plan to conduct a lesson learnt exercise to identify the successes and challenges of the 2020/21 Cyclone season response, the MoA would appreciate FAO assistance to review jointly how to make sure that the analysis of data collected can better inform decision-making and planning. Finally, a key challenge lies in the expansion of the tool rollout through NDMO to include other Ministries and Clusters for a more inclusive and prepared food security sector in Fiji.”
Project Background
The Pro-Resilient Fiji project aimed at reducing food and nutrition insecurity derived from the negative impact of climate change-induced drought disasters in Fiji. Its main outcome is to improve climate risk identification and management capacities at national, provincial and village levels through strengthened Information Management capacities, establishment of an Early Warning Early Action system for drought as well as Community-Based Disaster Risk Management planning; and Climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, food preservation and processing technologies and agriculture water irrigation techniques adopted by vulnerable small-holder farmers.
The project was funded by the European Union and implemented by FAO in close collaboration with the MoA and other national institutions, with a successful completion by March 2021 after three years of implementation.
Obs: This practice has not been subject to an external evaluation.