Community Chief Donates Land to Community Disaster and Climate Change Committee - Vanuatu

Above: The Palon Community Disaster and Climate Change Committee meets regularly and is receiving support to strengthen its capacities from Save the Children under Disaster READY. CDCCCs are pivotal to coordinating community-level disaster preparedness in Vanuatu. Image: Lisa Ritchie, AHP Support Unit

Located on the what is known as the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ and within a cyclone belt, Vanuatu is uniquely sensitive to a wide range of climate and disaster risks, particularly earthquakes, volcanoes and cyclones. Strengthening community-level disaster preparedness and resilience is therefore a strong focus of the Disaster READY program in Vanuatu.

As part of the Disaster READY Vanuatu activities, Save the Children is supporting 22 Community Disaster and Climate Change Committees (CDCCCs) in Vanuatu’s Samna Province to strengthen community-based disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities.

The CDCCCs are community-based structures mandated by Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) to facilitate community-based disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts. The committees can struggle to meet this mandate due to a lack of resources, capacity and sometimes a lack of broader community engagement and support. 

 Save the Children has been working with these CDCCCs since July 2018 to build disaster management capabilities. This is done through training and practical exercises, such as community mapping, identifying committee member roles and responsibilities and building awareness and understanding of the importance of involving and supporting everyone in the community, including women, children and people with disabilities. 

Chairman of the Palon CDCCC, Jackson Tining, reported that he is more aware of the diverse needs of people within the community and that this needs to be considered and addressed when planning for disasters. 

Learning about the different needs of men, women, pregnant women, children, elders as well as people with disabilities within all these groups, prompted the Palon CDCCC members to ensure better preparedness for all community members. The CDCCC members also realised that an accessible safe space that everyone could access during a disaster was required.

Above: Palon community Chief, Mr Jimmy Toa, donated land to the Palon Community Disaster and Climate Change Committee. Chief Toa recognises the importance of good disaster preparedness and he hopes that the land will contribute to making his community safer in times of disaster. Image: Lisa Ritchie, AHP Support Unit.

Palon Community Chief, Jimmy Toa, also recognised this need and subsequently offered up 200 square metres of his private land to the CDCCC. 

In September 2019, representatives from the Australian Government, the NDMO, the Australian Humanitarian Partnership Support Unit, Save the Children and other Disaster READY partners were invited to attend a kastom ceremony and official land agreement signing to mark the transfer of the land from Chief Toa to the CDCCC. It is believed that this was the first time land had been formally transferred to a CDCCC in Vanuatu.  

NDMO Senior Coordinator, Philip Meto, signed the land agreement with Chief Toa.  

‘’Communities are now taking ownership for disaster preparedness. This shows the positive impact and influence of CDCCC education. Now communities know what to do to be less vulnerable and will also have a safe space that can be prioritised for the most vulnerable groups in case of disaster,” Mr Meto said.

This land has since been cleared and plans are put to build a demonstration ‘safe house’ and an evacuation centre. The safe house will be built with support from another community which has successfully strengthened its local housing so it better withstands cyclones. Once built, the evacuation centre will store pre-positioned supplies, and will be built to ensure it is accessible to everyone.

Save the Children is also supporting the community to strengthen four existing houses and the community ‘nakamal’ (meeting place) to serve as safe houses. These safe houses will be in place before the evacuation centre is finished, strengthening community preparedness in the short-medium term.

With ongoing engagement and training, more and more people are becoming aware that the likelihood of more frequent and more intense natural disasters is increasing due to climate change. CDCCCs understand that effective preparedness is critical if communities are to both withstand and recover from disasters.  

Chief Toa highlighted that government, NGOs and communities need to work together such as how is happening with the support from Disaster READY.