SUVA – Members of the Inter-Cluster system convened in Suva on Monday for their first meeting following the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Yasa.
The meeting was held to enable members of the six clusters to better plan and coordinate during the current recovery phase and response operations for TC Yasa.
The Fiji Cluster System is administered by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and chaired by the relevant Permanent Secretaries.
The six Clusters are the Food Security & Livelihood Cluster, Health Cluster, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene commonly known as WASH Cluster, Shelter Cluster, Communications Cluster and the Safety & Protection Cluster.
The cluster system is a government-led mechanism that coordinates with local and international partners.
They are sector based and identify very promptly the needs and also resources available within each sector.
Speaking during the meeting, Permanent Secretary for Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management and National Disaster Controller, Mr David Kolitagane reminded the Cluster members that they were all targeting to help the same people on the ground and it was crucial that they coordinate better by sharing information.
“At this time there may be a lot of information floating around coming to the PSs level, I think it is the technical officials on the ground that needs to ensure to weed out that the critical information is going to your PS and Cluster lead. These should be the critical ones that needs to be addressed on time,” Mr Kolitagane said.
He also pleaded with the Cluster leads to feed critical information received from the ground to Ministers during daily briefings.
Mr Kolitagane said their priority now was the Initial Damage Assessments (IDA) conducted by teams deployed on the ground.
“At the moment we are looking at a Response Plan and a Response Assessment that the UN and the World Bank team will be working on together; that’s a key plus for Government,” he said.
During the meeting, Cluster leads also updated members of the Inter Cluster System about progresses from their respective Clusters.