Post Disaster Needs Assessment – Cyclone Winston
TC Winston devastated Fiji in February 2016. It was one of the most severe cyclones to ever hit the South Pacific and caused widespread destruction to property, agriculture, infrastructure and livelihoods in Fiji.
To assist with the mobilization of resources required for recovery and reconstruction the Government of Fiji requested support from the World Bank to work with other development partners on a Post Disaster Damage and Needs Assessment (PDNA) of key impacted sectors to fully comprehend the scale of the socio-economic impact of the disaster on the country. The PDNA was conducted over six weeks to enable the Government to start recovery and reconstruction as soon possible. As per the agreements between the UN, World Bank and European Commission on post-crisis cooperation, the assessments were supported by EC, UN World Bank, as well as other regional organizations and bilateral partners, including Secretariat of Pacific Community (SPC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australia and New Zealand.
To assist Australia with its post-crisis commitment DFAT requested that A&L provided Rhys Gwilliam to support the World Bank team to assess damages and needs in the education infrastructure sector.
Rhys Gwilliam assisted the Fiji Government and World Bank team to develop a Recovery Framework for damages, losses and needs in the Fiji education infrastructure sector.
The assignment resulted in a report that (i) assessed the damage and loss in the education infrastructure sector (ii) identified key early, medium and long-term recovery and reconstruction needs (iii) assessed the scale of costs; (iv) reviewed the capability of the current Australian Aid commitment through the Access to Quality Education Program (AQEP) to provide Education infrastructure support for the TC Winston reconstruction, and (v) prepared a short paper on a “Build Back Better” approach to cyclone reconstruction.