Introduction
Natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and droughts can affect all four countries under the UNDP Multi-Country Office (MCO) in Samoa. Damage caused by these natural disasters, as well as the compounding impacts of climate change, threaten to undermine advances made in development. Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management (DRR and DRM), along with climate change adaptation are therefore essential elements of sustainable human development and should be considered mainstream issues in policy development and project implementation.
Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation and Poverty Reduction
It is becoming a well recognised fact that some strategies addressing DRR/DRM, climate change adaptation and sometimes even poverty reduction are very similar in scope, implementation and desired outcomes. However, traditionally these practices operate independently and come from vastly different backgrounds. Development agencies and stakeholders need to recognise the synergies existing between these practices and embrace the similarities, which provide strategic entry points to collaborative efforts with the end result being reduced vulnerability, and enhanced resilience to risks. UNDP aims to better coordinate efforts to address DRR, DRM and climate change adaptation by working with partners in both spheres to maximise efforts in reducing vulnerability and enhance the capacity of local counterparts to cope with the impacts of disasters.
Disaster Response in the Pacific
In addition to country programmes, the UNDP MCO in Samoa is actively involved in the new developments in how disaster response is co-ordinated in the Pacific. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Fiji is leading all stakeholders (including governments, UN agencies, NGOs, IFRC, faith-based organisations and donors) to better work together and achieve a well coordinated response to disasters.
Joint Programme on Disaster Management
With disaster mainstreaming at the national level a priority for the UNDP Pacific Centre, the MCO in Samoa is turning to community level DRR/DRM initiatives to better prepare local people for the risks of natural disaster and climate change. The Joint Programme in Community Based Disaster Risk Management aims to strengthen the capacity at the local level to cope with natural disasters. This programme will cover all four countries under the UNDP MCO, beginning with Samoa with Village-Based Workshops on disaster preparedness, an initiative spearheaded by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).