Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation of the Response to Cyclone Nargis

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Another “atypical” partner that played a significant role during the humanitarian response was theMyanmar business community. From interviews with private sector representatives, local agencies,communities and observations by the IA RTE team it was evident that the business community inMyanmar had spent significant amounts of their own resources in providing humanitarian assistance.Some companies started relief activities almost immediately, even before the government requestedtheir support. Activities ranged from distributing relief items, to mobilizing their employees intorelief teams, to constructing shelters, to provision of logistic support to humanitarian operations(including providing warehouse space and transport for aid donated by international organizations atno cost). Some companies have also committed to constructing cyclone shelters. As with localagencies, the role of the private sector in the response to Cyclone Nargis remains largelyundocumented and invisible outside of Myanmar.Interviewees and reports indicate that activities of local businesses were coordinated to some extentby the government, but remained mostly uncoordinated with/by the international community withsome exceptions of NGOs and donors utilizing private companies for specific tasks (e.g. customsclearance, transport and logistics). In future emergencies it may be possible to utilize thesepartnerships more effectively.3.12 Coordination StructuresCoordination involving international actors occurred at various levels, and included both standardand “atypical” coordination mechanisms, of which one example is the Tripartite Core Group (TCG),an ad hoc coordinating body that brings together senior levels of Myanmar government, the UN, andASEAN to facilitate humanitarian operations in the Delta. Based on interviews of both national andinternational agencies along with a review of minutes, guidelines and tools, coordination has beenrelatively good at the central level. There was unanimous praise from international agenciesregarding TCG achievements in opening humanitarian space, and similarly that HumanitarianCoordinator had fulfilled his mandate extremely effectively under challenging circumstances.The NGO Liaison Officer position in Yangon combined with the Local Resource Center (LRC) wereobserved to perform a number of particularly useful functions including acting as a liaison betweeninternational and national agencies, facilitating access to information and providing outreach tonational NGOs, capacity-building for local NGOs, and providing an alternative meeting space foragencies. The IA RTE itself can be seen as a successful “test” of this model since in the absence ofthese resources it would have very difficult to have such a substantive NGO involvement in theprocess. The team’s assessment is that this model provided the basis for similar outreach initiativesat hub level.The body best positioned to lead the international component of planning and prioritization is thelocal IASC. However, as currently constituted it more resembles a standard humanitarian briefing.While this continues to be required it should be chaired by OCHA and include nationalorganizations. With the departure of the Humanitarian Coordinator it is an opportune time to reviewthis mechanism and establish a truly strategic, policy setting IASC. This would require theinternational NGOs, through their existing forum, to elect representatives to the IASC.A hub-level LRC, with national NGO Liaison Officers, could serve to ensure national actors arebetter integrated into planning and coordination exercises, assist with data collection to improvenational inputs to ongoing information management, provide capacity building services, and bring toattention issues raised by national actors working outside the traditional coordination structures.26
Findings on cluster coordination are detailed in Section 16.8.3.12.1 Coordination RecommendationsR.10. As is increasingly common practice in other countries, the Humanitarian Coordinator shouldoversee the formation of a strategic, policy setting local IASC which includes the UNmembers of the global IASC, the IFRC and ICRC (as an observers) and a small number ofelected NGO representatives;R.11. To better support recovery at community level, the IASC should examine the feasibility ofassigning a lead agency for those village tracts which have been most severely impacted, toimprove coverage and aid effectiveness. Lead agencies could be UN agencies, INGOs ornational organizations and possess sufficient capacity to fulfill a lead role and plan to remainfor two to three years;R.12. OCHA should guide the adjustment and adaptation of coordination systems that are bettersuited to local actors. This would include raising awareness amongst international agenciesabout alternative coordination mechanisms commonly employed within Myanmar. OCHAshould also support the development of outreach systems that are designed not only toimprove communication and coordination with local agencies and communities, but also helpto improve the reliability and consistency of data collection; andR13. Local Resource Centers, based on the model in Yangon, should be established at the hublevel, staffed with national NGO Liaison Officers, to provide outreach, improve access toinformation, strengthen hub-level coordination through working with their UN and ASEANcounterparts. National NGO Liaison Officers should be able to easily combine their outreachactivities with information collection to help improve the reliability of assessment andWWW data.3.13 Disaster Risk ReductionWhile Cyclone Nargis was the worst disaster to have struck Myanmar in living memory, theAyeyarwady division in the Delta is not actually the area at greatest risk. As can be observed fromrisk maps attached as an annex to this report, the area of Myanmar most vulnerable to cyclones isRakhine State. There is also a significant seismic risk in different parts of the country and Myanmarhas high levels of disaster vulnerability.Experience elsewhere in the region has repeatedly demonstrated that preparedness and disaster riskreduction can significantly reduce vulnerabilities. As noted in a recent ISDR press release “Manycyclone-prone countries, such as … Bangladesh, have implemented efficient early warning systemsthat have reduced the death toll caused by cyclones. When there are comprehensive early warningsystems in place, starting from meteorological technology all the way through to preparedness andcontingency plans, people can be effectively warned and have time to evacuate to safer places.Bangladesh has a 48-hour early warning system in place that allows people to evacuate to safecyclone shelters hours before any cyclone makes landfall. This has drastically reduced their deathtolls from cyclones - from 300,000 deaths from Cyclone Bhola in 1970, to 3,000 last Novemberduring Cyclone Sidr.” 1313 UN/ISDR 2008/05 Press Release 6 May 200827
Page 1: Inter-Agency RealTime Evaluation of
Page 4 and 5: AcknowledgmentsThe IA RTE team woul
Page 7 and 8: While the cluster system was seen a
Page 9 and 10: R.13. Local Resource Centers, based
Page 11 and 12: individuals responding without any
Page 13 and 14: According to a recent ICG report,
Page 15 and 16: 3 Findings and Recommendations3.1 C
Page 17 and 18: 3.2 AssessmentThe Post-Nargis Joint
Page 19 and 20: virtually all communities in the wo
Page 21 and 22: season, which impacts a number of c
Page 23 and 24: OCHA on how to support MIMU caused
Page 25: 3.10 CommunicationsLargely due to r
Page 29 and 30: Many local organizations, particula
Page 31 and 32: Annex 1: MethodologyIA RTE Approach
Page 33 and 34: a. Length and nature of experience
Page 35: team to test these hypotheses throu
Page 38 and 39: 8-Oct Julie Belanger F RC/HC Respon
Page 40 and 41: 21-Oct LNGO Validation Workshop Yan
Page 42 and 43: for $481.8 million.projects. 19Whil
Page 44 and 45: and whether it is something that ca
Page 46 and 47: Duration of Evaluation and Tentativ
Page 48 and 49: Annex 4: Inception Report1. Objecti
Page 50 and 51: • A review of relevant documents,
Page 52 and 53: Key Issue forevaluationLead Questio
Page 54 and 55: Annex 5:Current Clusters and Techni
Page 56: Maurice Herson: Real-Time Evaluatio

Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation of the Response to Cyclone Nargis

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