Participants from 10 Pacific island countries and health experts will convene in Nadi on July 28-30, 2014 to exchange information and ideas and discuss adaptation strategies under the theme: Disaster Risk Management for Health.
The World Risk Index of the World Risk Report ranks 10 countries in the Western Pacific Region among the top 20 countries in the world that have the highest risk of disasters. In particular, it includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu among the Pacific island countries.
The Western Pacific Region is prone to emergencies and disasters that result in enormous loss of life, extensive disabilities and damage/destruction to health infrastructure and health systems.
Member States especially Pacific island countries and areas, regularly experience disasters such as typhoons, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and droughts.
To reduce the risk of health impacts and social disruption during disasters, strengthening national capacities in disaster risk management for health is vital. Based on consultations with Member States and regional partners, a final draft of the Regional Framework for Action for Disaster Risk Management for Health was developed to guide national capacity strengthening.
The workshop is in line with the actions proposed by the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific in 2011 under agenda item 17, Emergencies and Disasters: “strengthening mechanisms for documentation and dissemination of lessons learnt from disaster response in the Region, as well as emergency preparedness, and the enhancement of post disaster recovery and reconstruction”, the Regional Office has undertaken various efforts to address these challenges.
Despite encouraging improvements in preparedness and response capacities of Member States and the international community, many challenges remain, including the need for improving health cluster coordination and national capacities for disaster risk management.
Dr. Liu Yunguo, WHO Representative/Director Pacific Technical Support, said various studies have shown that the effects of climate change will impact the entire Region over time and it is time to prepare well and get our acts together as Floods, droughts, damaging winds, extreme high temperatures and higher sea levels are likely to occur with increased frequency.
In recent years, the Western Pacific Region, including Pacific island Member States, has experienced various major disasters that have overwhelmed even some of the most prepared nations, such as China, Japan, New Zealand and most recently, the Philippines which experienced an unprecedented devastation that was caused by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, and the flash floods of April 2014 in Solomon Islands.
The Western Pacific Region has seen multiple Foreign Medical Team (FMT) deployments over the last 5 years including to disasters in Samoa, New Zealand, Solomon Islands and the Philippines. The Philippines response was the first time the new FMT classification and minimum standards were put into practice, resulting in a clearer and more readily coordinated response from FMTs.
Pacific island nations are arguably amongst the most likely to require FMT assistance for surge capacity in the event of a Sudden Onset Disaster (SOD) due to their high risk index rating and a health capability more readily overwhelmed by scale in terms of percentage population affected.
This workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss priority actions to enhance disaster risk management for health (DRM-H) and to translate the regional framework into national plans on disaster risk management for health.