In response to the Tsunami that struck the Somali coastline on 26 December 2004, a Humanitarian Response Group meeting, chaired by the acting Humanitarian Coordinator, was convened in Nairobi on 28th December 2004. As a result, the HRG decided to develop a Tsunami Task Force to facilitate on daily basis, coordination of humanitarian response with interagency initiatives in Garowe and Bossaso (Puntland) in addition to sharing information with OCHA HQ for inclusion in the daily regional Tsunami situation reports issued by Geneva. Following the drafting of the Somalia section of the Regional Tsunami Flash Appeal, the activities of the Task Force came to an end. (...)

Full Report

More information: Relief web coverage // UNDP Somalia Country Office // DRU and Somalia

As the country woke up from an early warning after a massive quake struck the Tsunami zone, an urgent plan for rehabilitation was signed this morning by the Government of the Maldives in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The aim is to start rebuilding critical sea-transport and other public infrastructure to revitalize the economy. For Patrice Coeur-Bizot, UNDP Resident Representative in the Maldives, “The challenge is now to regain the momentum and progress in the development of the Maldives that was taking place prior to the tsunami. It is essential that we engage in a ‘recovery plus’ where local communities receive adequate equipment and training to build safer homes and public infrastructure and are fully engaged in the planning and reconstruction process”. (...)

Full Press Release // Related UNDP Press Release: Maldives and UNDP in effort to rebuild critical infrastructure // ADB-UNDP-WB joint needs assessment // Maldives: National Recovery and Reconstruction Plan [ PDF: 1,7MB | 177 pages ]

More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Maldives Country Office // UNDP Maldives "Adopt an Island" Initiative // DRU and Maldives // More Situation Reports on Maldives // Relief web coverage // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // OCHA Situation Reports

UNDP Malaysia - 29.03.2005
UNDP's Response to the Tsunami in Malaysia

From the day the tsunami struck on 26 December 2004, UNDP as a key member of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Malaysia, has remained proactively engaged at all levels of government, as well as with other key stakeholders, and has worked speedily and sensitively to support national relief efforts. Now, nearly three months after Malaysia’s worst ever natural disaster, which claimed 69 lives, with a further 6 persons unaccounted for, life is returning to some semblance of normality for thousands of Malaysians affected by the tsunami. During this period, there was a seamless shift of focus from the initial emergency humanitarian relief efforts to reconstruction of lives and livelihoods. All the 8,000 persons, mainly from the coastal fishing inlets of Kuala Muda and Kuala Triang in Kedah, and Balik Pulau in Penang, whose houses were destroyed and whose livelihoods were ruined by the tsunami, have left the relief centers. They are now living in temporary shelters provided by government, pending construction of new permanent homes, and relying on District Offices for their basic welfare needs. (...)

Full Story

More information: UNDP Malaysia photo-essay video: "Rebuilding the Shattered Lives and Livelihoods of Malaysian Tsunami Victims: UNDP Making a Difference" - Flash Video Format - 5 minutes - 5.6MB // UNDP Malaysia Country Office // DRU & Malaysia

UNDP has begun a project to rescue vital documents badly damaged by the tsunami which record land ownership in Meulaboh. Until recently, it was assumed that all land ownership documentation in the area had been destroyed. But two weeks ago the papers of the Land Registry were discovered by local government officials, intact but soaked by floodwater. The discovery is important for the reconstruction process. “People can’t reclaim land without land documents, and most of them lost their personal documentation in the tsunami,” said John Long, UNDP Project Advisor. “In that sense, these papers are critical.”
(...)
Full Story // UNDP Indonesia Website on the Aceh-Sumut Tsunami Disaster

UNDP Mexico - 18.03.2005
Mexicans donate nearly US$4 million to rebuild tsunami-destroyed homes in Indonesia

In an unprecedented national response to an international disaster, Mexicans have contributed nearly US$4 million in private donations to the victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia, in an initiative coordinated by UNDP in Mexico and Indonesia. The Mexican aid appeal for tsunami relief came to an official close Thursday. The "Alliance for Asia: Rebuilding Homes" was a joint initiative that brought together 37 Mexican civil associations, foundations, companies, financial institutions and communications groups. The Alliance raised the sum of 42,713,174 pesos (almost US$4 million) which will be handed over to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to be used in the construction of homes in Indonesia. (...)

Full Press Release

More information: UNDP Mexico Country Office // DRU and Mexico

A special high-level international meeting on post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction for the Maldives concluded here tonight with a firm commitment of support for a short and medium-term post-tsunami recovery plan for the Maldives. This select meeting was held to give an extra boost to Maldives’ post-tsunami recovery efforts that were largely overshadowed by the plight of the other tsunami-hit countries. Participants at the Maldives development partners’ meeting expressed assurances of support for specific areas of recovery and reconstruction for the country, including providing shelter, reviving livelihoods, rebuilding infrastructure, and mitigating future disasters. The joint needs assessment by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN estimates that total losses from the tsunami in the Maldives were $470 million, or 62 percent of GDP. One-third of the population of the Maldives, or roughly 100,000 people, were severely affected by the tsunami. The islands hardest hit were where the poorest of the poor lived. Fifteen thousand people were left homeless and four thousand families lost their livelihoods and homes. Housing, schools and health facilities were reduced to rubble. Plantations are fallow due to heavily salinated soil. (...)

Full Press Release // ADB-UNDP-WB joint needs assessment // Maldives: National Recovery and Reconstruction Plan [ PDF: 1,7MB | 177 pages ]

More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Maldives Country Office // UNDP Maldives "Adopt an Island" Initiative // DRU and Maldives // More Situation Reports on Maldives // Relief web coverage // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // OCHA Situation Reports

Mobile documentation clinics for tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka will offer free legal advice and assistance in obtaining personal legal papers that were lost in the December disaster. These mobile service camps to address the legal needs of families affected by the tsunami will be held 18-20 March in the District of Ampara, one of the hardest hit coastal areas of the country. These roving facilities are organized by the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration in Sri Lanka in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (...)
Full Press Release

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Sri Lanka Country Office // DRU and Sri Lanka // More Situation Reports on Sri Lanka // Relief web coverage // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // OCHA Situation Reports

Currently one of UNDP's main projects in Aceh is Cash-for-Work, a programme under which victims of the tsunami are paid to help do essential clearing work. The scheme offers people who have lost their houses and livelihood a wage to help them support their families and even save a little for the future. At the same time it allows survivors to participate in getting their province back on its feet. This is a diary of just one such project: the story of Kampung Kramat, an average neighbourhood in Banda Aceh, and one remarkable resident: Sofian Maholi. (...)

Full Story // UNDP Indonesia Website on the Aceh-Sumut Tsunami Disaster

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Indonesia Country Office // DRU and Indonesia // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // GLIDE No: TS-2004-000147-IDN // Update Report Aceh Emergency Response and Transitional Recovery Programme (24.02.2005)

Assistant UN Secretary General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Dr Hafiz Pasha arrived in Aceh on February 25th - 26th as part of his tour of countries affected by the tsunami. He came to see for himself the extent of the devastation and the problems it caused, and to discuss how UNDP's contribution to the emergency response can be developed in to long-term reconstruction. (...)

Full Story // UNDP Indonesia Website on the Aceh-Sumut Tsunami Disaster

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Indonesia Country Office // DRU and Indonesia // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // GLIDE No: TS-2004-000147-IDN // Update Report Aceh Emergency Response and Transitional Recovery Programme (24.02.2005)

For many weeks 400 of the workers employed by UNDP worked eight hours a day, digging out the mud and waste of public buildings. But for one day on Sunday they finally sat back and enjoyed themselves. Seated around the dusty courtyard of a newly cleaned primary school, they tucked into a lunch of vegetables, rice, curry and bananas and clapped and cheered as a troupe of Acehnese dancers performed on a hastily rolled out blue carpet. The men and women, who were all made homeless by the tsunami and are now living with relatives or in temporary settlements, have been working to clear Aceh's main hospital. The buildings were left waist-deep in mud, filled with broken furniture and other debris, at a time when medical facilities were desperately needed. Working with the local NGO Panglima Laot, a fisherman's collective, UNDP recruited 400 workers from camps to work under the cash-for-work programme. (...)
Full Story // UNDP Indonesia Website on the Aceh-Sumut Tsunami Disaster

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Indonesia Country Office // DRU and Indonesia // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // GLIDE No: TS-2004-000147-IDN // Update Report Aceh Emergency Response and Transitional Recovery Programme (24.02.2005)

Restoring livelihoods and rehabilitating the coastal environment top the list of new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) post-tsunami initiatives in Thailand. These areas of long-term recovery support were announced today by Hafiz Pasha, Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific, during his last stop on a two-week trip through Asian countries hardest hit by the tsunami. His trip included Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia ending today in Thailand, where he visited devastated Kao Lak communities in Phang Nga Province. UNDP estimates that over 120,000 people have been adversely affected in Thailand’s fisheries sector alone. Nearly 500 fishing villages along the Andaman coast are seriously affected, nearly 30,000 households dependant on fisheries have lost their means of livelihood, and over 4,500 fishing boats have been destroyed or damaged. UNDP will support community-managed small grants projects to help restore basic sources of income. This support will include micro-grants for repairing of productive assets such as fishing gear and boats. Returned money will be reinvested into a community revolving fund to finance training and planning for alternative livelihoods .(...)

Full Press Release

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Thailand Country Office // DRU and Thailand // UNAIDS Website // UNAIDS Thailand // More Situation Reports on Thailand // Relief web coverage // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // OCHA Situation Reports

Hundreds of people converged on Aceh's Syida Kuala University on Tuesday for the first of a series of public consultations on the government's plans for the future of Aceh, the so-called "blueprint", supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Governor of Aceh, Azwar Abubakar opened the proceedings, which had been widely advertised in local media as open to any who wanted to make their views known. In his opening address, Governor Abubakar thanked UNDP for working in partnership with the local government. UNDP is providing the consultation process with $250,000 of funding under its governance programme. The money is intended to pay for hosting the consultations, including trips for regular officials to and from the districts in Aceh, and to and from Jakarta. It will also pay for a fully equipped secretariat for the provincial planning board. (...)

Full Story // UNDP interview with Azwar Abubakar, acting Governor of Aceh, at the launch of the "Blueprint" Consultation // UNDP Indonesia Website on the Aceh-Sumut Tsunami Disaster

More information: UNDP Update No 6 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Indonesia Country Office // DRU and Indonesia // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // GLIDE No: TS-2004-000147-IDN // Update Report Aceh Emergency Response and Transitional Recovery Programme (24.02.2005)