SPC Geoscience Division

SOPAC, at the behest of Pacific Leaders, facilitated the establishment of the Pacific Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network in 2006 to provide a collaborative and cooperative mechanism to support disaster risk management capacity building in the region and assist Pacific Island Countries and Territories adapt and implement the Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management Framework for Action 2005 – 2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (Pacific DRR & DM  Framework for Action).

The Partnership is an “open-ended, voluntary” membership of international, regional and national government and non-government organisations, with comparative advantages and interests in supporting Pacific countries toward mainstreaming DRM through addressing their disaster risk reduction and disaster management priorities.

The Charter

The Members of the Partnership Network Agree:

• That disaster risk reduction and disaster management are sustainable development issues within the broader context of economic growth and good governance.
• That national governments have a critical role in developing disaster risk reduction and disaster management national programmes and plans that reflect the needs of all stakeholders in a whole of country approach
• That a regional effort must be responsive to and support and complement national programmes and plans to strengthen resilience to disasters
• That as regional partners we commit to coordinating our activities and to work cooperatively and collaboratively under the guidance of the Pacific Plan and Regional Framework for Action 2005 – 2015
• That we can build safer and more resilient nations and communities to disasters if we work in unison and accept this disaster risk management charter as a basis for future action

Initiatives developed for the Partnership

SOPAC has developed, in collaboration with DRM partners, tools to access DRM information, map “who does what where” and report progress of implementation against the Pacific DRR and DM Framework for Action.

Disaster Risk Management National Action Plans

The Pacific Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network (Partnership Network) at its inaugural meeting agreed to support the development and implementation of DRM National Action Plans (NAPs).

Work in relation to NAPs are underway in 12 of the 14 Pacific ACP states as follows: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The Partnership Network continues to provide strong support in realising DRM initiatives linked to NAP exercises and also for other risk reduction and disaster management related activities.

Pacific Disaster Net (PDN - www.pacificdisaster.net) is the DRM web portal for the Pacific. It is designed to become the largest and most comprehensive information resource in relation to disaster risk management in the Pacific. Launched on the 18th September 2008 in Suva, the PDN was developed by SOPAC, IFRC, UNDP-Pacific Centre and UN-OCHA as an initiative under the PDRMPN.

Projects and Capacities Portal (Partnership Capability Matrix - www.pdrmpn.net/pdrmpn/) maps “who does what where”. It contains information on Partners’ capabilities and capacities to implement specific activities outlined in the Pacific DRR and DM Framework for Action.

In addition to information provided by Partners in relation to their capabilities and capacities a stocktake has also been done of DRM initiatives and activities implemented in the Pacific region. The stocktake identifies gaps and as well opportunities for collaboration between partners.

The projects for the Pacific have been transferred to and updated in a new system – the Disaster Risk Reduction Projects Portal (DRR PP – online available under http://www.drrprojects.net).

The portal improves information sharing on past, ongoing and planned DRR initiatives from 2005 onwards in Asia and the Pacific region. It facilitates better coordination and programme planning by regional stakeholders, enhances the use of resources, reduces duplication, shares lessons learned and identifies gaps in DRR efforts in the region. It is hosted by the Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) as executing agency for the ADB Technical Assistance – Regional Stock Take and Mapping of DRR Interventions in Asia and the Pacific, established under the UNISDR Asia Partnership (IAP) with SOPAC (now the Applied Geoscience & Technology Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community) as the Pacific focal point.

RfA Monitoring Tool (www.pacificdisaster.net/rfa/) for progress of implementation of the Pacific DRR and DM Framework for Action

SOPAC as the facilitator of the Pacific DRM Partnership Network has the responsibility to coordinate reporting of progress towards the achievement of the expected outcomes under the Pacific DRR and DM Framework for Action. The RfA on-line monitor (http://www.pacificdisaster.net/rfa/) was developed to facilitate this.

For more information and new membership procedure / enquiry, contact:

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Adviser Community based Disaster Risk Management