UN food agencies flag response to drought-ravaged PNG

With the release of a dire impact assessment from CARE of the drought on the Pacific and especially PNG, The UN has been prominent in calling for a coordinated emergency response.

The UN Resident Coordinator in PNG, Roy Trivedy, told Pacdev that: "UNDP has been supporting the public information campaign for the past 4 weeks also assessments. UNICEF, IOM, WHO are also supporting health, water and sanitation and nutrition work."

We wondered however at the response from the UN's global lead agencies on food security, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). We asked each the following questions:

• What actions have you taken in response to this disaster? 
• What resources if any have been applied to that response? 
• Have you received any official requests for assistance?

FAO 

An FAO mission team has been in PNG since 25 October to support a preparedness and response strategy for El Nino related drought in PNG.
The FAO country office in PNG is working with the PNG Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) to provide technical support on drought relief, mitigation and recovery.
On the policy side, FAO is also supporting DAL to formulate a new National Food Security Policy for the period 2016-25. The Policy is addressing the need to increase resilience of relevant public, private and social sectors to food security risks caused by climatic events such as El Niño, through establishment of effective early warning and risk management systems including maintaining strategic food reserves.

Kevin Hadfield, FAO Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific Islands, Apia, Samoa

WFP:

WFP is ready to respond with food assistance if the government requests this.
At present, there is no WFP country programme in PNG – hence no country director/representative. However, WFP staff are currently there (on a temporary basis) assessing the existing logistical and programme capacity of the government and other local actors. This will give us an improved understanding of how to respond if called upon to do so.
WFP is prepared to conduct an emergency needs assessment mission in PNG if the government requests such assistance.
At present, WFP engagement with the government has been at a technical level.

Damian Kean, WFP Regional Bureau for Asia, Bangkok, Thailand