Summary
This update provides an overview of the progress made since the launch of an Emergency Appeal operation on 18 May 2016 to support CVTL in meeting immediate and recovery needs of 20,000 people affected by drought attributed to El Niño in the districts of Baucau, Viqueque and Lautem. During the period under review, the focus by CVTL – with IFRC support – has been on assessments and planning for provision of safe drinking water, procurement of food items, procurement of household water storage containers, and setting the groundwork for cash transfer programming (CTP) and livelihoods assistance. In this regard, 97,695 litres of safe water per day have been distributed to 1,333 households. Furthermore, detailed assessments have to date enabled CVTL to select 674 households to be reached with cash transfers for addressing a range of immediate needs.
The situation
The ability of communities across five districts of Timor-Leste – Baucau, Covalima, Lautem, Oecusse and Viqueque – to cope with mother nature have been pushed to the limit by dry spells and droughts caused by El Niño. In addition to effects on food security, the situation has resulted in water shortages and directly affected the livelihoods of thousands of people, especially rural and agriculture-dependent populations. Communities that are more reliant on livestock and single-season farming have felt the most impact since loss of livestock and significantly reduced yield bring food security and household income concerns. A rapid assessment conducted by Timor-Leste's MAF indicated that as of April, some 120,000 people across the 5 districts were feeling severe effects of El Niño-induced drought conditions.
According to the latest seasonal forecast issued by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the 2015-2016 El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific region has effectively ended with models suggesting that La Niña is likely to form sometime during the third quarter of the year. While the El Niño phenomenon has officially ended, its social, economic and humanitarian impacts continue to be felt across Timor-Leste.
Coordination and partnerships
Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in country
In addition to its cooperation with the IFRC, CVTL has a longstanding working collaboration with the ICRC, having implemented various programmes including during the conflict. CVTL also works with a number of Partner National Societies (PNSs) in longer-term integrated community-based risk reduction (ICBRR) and nutrition programmes. As well as IFRC, other longer-term programming partners of CVTL are Australian Red Cross, British Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross Society, Republic of Korea National Red Cross and New Zealand Red Cross.
Movement Coordination
Scheduled Movement coordination meetings are organized by CVTL, in which IFRC, ICRC and PNSs with presence in Timor-Leste, participate. The IFRC organizational development (OD) delegate, based in Dili, is supporting CVTL with in-country coordination with Movement partners specifically on this response.
The IFRC Country Cluster Support Team (CCST) in Jakarta and the Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) in Kuala Lumpur are also supporting coordination with Movement partners including through sharing regular updates on the National Society’s response, plans and gaps. British Red Cross has seconded human resources to support provision of quality technical and operational management. In this regard, a British Red Cross livelihoods specialist – deployed from Bangladesh for ongoing support to the ICBRR programme – has provided technical support to the livelihood and CTP components of the operation while a surge operations manager arrived in Dili on 30 June to lead the operation pending recruitment of an operations manager for the entire duration of the operation. Furthermore, the Philippine Red Cross has deployed one staff member to provide peer-to-peer support to CVTL in livelihoods and CTP.
Coordination with public authorities and local actors
As an auxiliary to the public authorities, CVTL maintains a strong relationship with Government bodies through participation or collaboration with relevant ministries – including MAF, MCIE, MOI and MSS – as well as the NDMD. CVTL is working closely and engaging with public authorities to ensure an informed analysis of needs, to track the assistance provided in order to avoid duplication of efforts but instead fill gaps and complement the assistance to affected households. On 16 June, representatives of CVTL and IFRC met with MOI and took the opportunity to update the Government about the progress of the Red Cross response.
Inter-agency coordination
CVTL and IFRC are permanent observers in the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and continue to coordinate with UN agencies and international NGOs within this context. Using the HCT platform, as well as the humanitarian clusters, CVTL and IFRC are sharing information with other humanitarian actors to avoid duplication of efforts. Outside the El Niño, CVTL and IFRC participated in a civil-military simulation exercise organized in Dili on 13 to 18 June. During the event, IFRC made a presentation about how the IFRC system relates with the military in humanitarian action and disaster response. Meantime, CVTL and IFRC are coordinating with the UN system on the upcoming visit by the Special Envoy of UN Secretary General for El Niño and Climate.