WFP Food Assistance, Emergency Logistics and Telecom Capacity in support of the Government of the Republic of Fiji’s response to Tropical Cyclone Winston

This operation has been revised as per Budget Revision 2 (see below)

On 20 and 21 February 2016, Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston (TC Winston) made landfall on the islands of Fiji with sustained wind speeds of up to 320 km/h. This was the most violent storm ever registered in the Southern Hemisphere. Initial estimates of humanitarian impact indicated large devastation over a wide geographic area, affecting several islands and causing severe crop damage. The country’s logistic infrastructure and communications network sustained damage, and the remoteness of some of the most affected islands makes access to the affected population a challenge. On 21 February 2016, the Government of Fiji declared a one-month national disaster and called for international assistance. On the 04 March 2016, a formal request for food assistance was sent to WFP.

Under the initial emergency response phase, some 350,000 people are being assisted (equivalent to 40 percent of Fiji population) by the Government with support from the

international community. WFP support was initially provided by the Logistics and ICT team already on the ground at the time of the Tropical Storm. After a Government agreement on augmenting the UN support role, an IR-EMOP was launched on the 4th of March. It enabled the deployment of a more versatile WFP response team (including in the fields of logistics, assessments and programme design). This team furthermore designed, in collaboration with the Government of Fiji, the joint response for months 2 and 3 of the emergency situation.

This EMOP is launched with a view to providing further assistance to the Government of Fiji in meeting emergency food assistance needs for 12,000 households in the most affected areas during the period 01 April to 31 May 2016. This will be done through Cash Based Transfers (CBT) using the Government of Fiji existing social safety nets (SSN) -SSN 1, “Poverty Benefit Scheme” and SSN2, “Care and Protection Allowance.” Under this EMOP, WFP, in its capacity as lead agency in the Logistics and Emergency Telecommunications Clusters, also helps reinforce logistics coordination, addresses severe shortfalls in local storage capacity for relief items and re-establishes communications with remote island locations.

In line with the WFP Strategic Plan (2014-2017), the overall goal of this EMOP is to save lives and protect livelihoods (Strategic Objective 1). The Government of Fiji is leading and coordinating the overall humanitarian response through its National Disaster Management Office and relevant local authorities in the affected islands. A UN Humanitarian Coordinator has been appointed and coordination support is being provided by the Pacific Humanitarian Team

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BR 1 to EMOP 200957 proposes an extension of three months to 31 October 2016 with no change to the cost.