23/4/13 - CABINET APPROVES FIJI’S FIRST POST DISASTER NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT

23/04/2013

Cabinet has approved Fiji’s first ever Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) Report.

The PDNA was undertaken for TC Evan, a Category 4 cyclone which had ravaged Fiji in November 2012.

Cabinet based its decision on a submission by the Minister for Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management, Colonel Inia Seruiratu.

The PDNA is a World Bank initiative used the world over for post disaster assessments.

The PDNA is a synthesis of Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) and human recovery needs assessment.

It has gained universal acceptance as the template for assessing net disaster impact.

PDNA typically includes a recovery and reconstruction framework that guides the post-disaster recovery strategy.

The PDNA contains: damage, loss, and macro-economic impacts on the affected economy; impacts on livelihoods, incomes, and human development; short, medium, and long-term recovery and reconstruction needs; and measures for mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction plans.

The Minister said that according to the PDNA findings, the total economic value of the disaster effects caused by TC Evan is estimated at F$194.9 million (USD108.4 million) equivalent to about 2.6 percent of Fiji’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) demonstrating the scale of the cyclone.

He said that the total damage from TC Evan, that is the value of destruction or damage to physical assets in the affected areas, is estimated to be F$ 121.5 million. An additional F$ 73.4 million was identified as losses to the economic flows that are expected to occur in the short to medium term.

The Minister said that according to the PDNA findings, approximately 60 percent of the total population were affected in the post disaster period.

“The Northern division recorded the highest percentage of people affected in proportion to their total population, where about 52 percent of the population was affected, followed by the Western Division at 38 percent and 23 percent for the Central and Eastern divisions respectively.”

He said that the PDNA also considered the impact on infrastructure as well as the productive sector.

In addition, he said that the PDNA findings showed that Fiji has a number of good practices for Disaster Risk Management (DRM).

“The PDNA findings indicated that Fiji has an effective and timely deployment of DRM system, there are public-private partnerships for DRM, and the Government offers a range of incentives and concessions to facilitate funding for repair and recovery.”

The Minister said that the PDNA also considered the impact of gender.

“The inclusion of in any disaster-related policy, strategy and/or programme is critical to ensuring different needs and interests of the most affected are adequately addressed.

“Accordingly, post-disaster damage and loss assessments should be gender responsive and equitable. Central to such assessments is the disaggregation of data by age and sex, including wherever possible other diversities like disabilities and ethnicity, in order to clearly see trends or impacts across geographic regions, which in turn informs equitable recovery and reconstruction programmes.”

He said that no fundamental gender issues became apparent during the assessment.

The Minister said that the PDNA was undertaken to take account of the intangible aspect of disaster assessment, which has never been done in the past.

He said that the PDNA exercise has been very useful strategically for capacity-building given the level of exposure and the requirements needed from such a comprehensive exercise.

“The wealth of baseline, disaggregated data on the respective sectors gathered from the exercise will complement Government’s routine policy analysis work for informed, evidence-based decision-making.”

He said that a separate submission on the PDNA Resourcing Needs will be tabled in Cabinet at a later stage.

-ENDS-