OCHA to conclude quake mission

As relief turns to recovery in quake-ravaged northern Pakistan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will soon end its active engagement in the country more than eight months after the disaster.

“Although our operations will conclude on 30 June, we will maintain certain structures both in the field and in Islamabad to sustain our role for the foreseeable future,” Abu Diek, OCHA head of office for the operation, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, emphasising: “Those plans are fully in place.”

More than 75,000 people were killed and thousands more injured on 8 October after a powerful 7.6 magnitude quake devastated much of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), leaving more than 3.5 million people homeless.

In response, the international community launched one of the largest humanitarian operations of its kind, but one of the most complex in terms of logistics and coordination – areas in which OCHA’s expertise were widely sought.

“Our primary goal was the linking together of humanitarian assistance and life-saving efforts, as well as search and rescue operations,” Diek explained. “In doing so in a coordinated manner, we strove to ensure that the disaster was contained at the early stages.”

But making that happen wasn’t always easy, particularly given the sheer scale of the disaster - some 30,000 sq km - prompting OCHA to introduce a more focused coordination approach, commonly referred to as the cluster system.

Working in some 10 clusters, ranging from emergency shelter, health, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, logistics, and child protection, agencies, organisations and NGOs coordinated their expertise together.

“Premised on complex emergencies, this system is viewed as the most robust form of coordination, but in the context of what happened here, it worked very well,” Diek.

With winter fast approaching after the quake, as part of its immediate efforts on the ground, OCHA sought to establish a “quick fix strategy” to keep people warm, dry and healthy as soon as possible; something which proved instrumental in saving the lives of thousands.

“The terrain of the country is very tough. Accessibility is a problem, made worse by frequent landslides - particularly at higher altitudes of 5,000 ft [1,500 m] and above. Without such a strategy we would not have been able to contain the emergency, which would have resulted in a second wave of deaths,” the seasoned UN official maintained.

And while conceding that there had been shortfalls in their efforts at times, Diek described the operation as largely successful.

“Absolutely,” he said, citing health indicators conducted after the so-called Winter Race, or 90-day strategy, which suggested that infant mortality rates and the incidence of measles were actually better than before the quake.

With operation “Winter Race”, those living at higher altitudes were targeted first for assistance to avoid further deaths. The movement of people from higher altitudes to lower altitudes was also given priority.

But doing that proved a challenge, requiring unparallel logistics and coordination. As part of that effort, the UN established a major helicopter network to reach those most in need of shelter, food and medical care. The service provided until just recently a much needed humanitarian lifeline to thousands of remote villages and hamlets.

As part of its three-pronged exit strategy, OCHA has worked for strong coordination structures at the local level, including disaster preparedness; ensuring that the remaining emergency was consolidated; and thirdly, moving staff into the office of the UN Resident Coordinator to support the ongoing relief component.

“The message of the exit strategy is not that OCHA is leaving, but rather it is trying to ensure that institutions are in place that will sustain OCHA’s role for the near future,” Diek affirmed. “This will continue and will be fully funded by OCHA through to the end of this year,” he added.