The tropical cyclone (Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) ‘Vardah’ pounded Chennai, the capital city of South Indian State of Tamil Nadu at an unprecedented 130 km/h for about 90 minutes during the afternoon of 12^th December 2016, until it crossed the city and travelled inland, bringing at least 10 cm rainfall. The Government of India stated that 16 people had died in rain related incidents linked to the cyclone, and more than 15,000 people in low lying areas were evacuated to 104 relief camps and provided food, water and medical services. Moreover, more than 2,000 houses have been completely damaged and 3,500 houses have been partially damaged. A total 250,000 persons have been affected due to cyclone Vardah in Tamil Nadu.

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A 6.5 Richter scale earthquake with the depth of 10 km struck Aceh Province in Pidie Jaya District at 05:03 am on 7 December 2016. The earthquake did not generate a tsunami; however many buildings in several areas collapsed. In addition to Pidie Jaya, both Pidie and Bireun districts were affected; butPidie Jaya District was the hardest hit,requiring temporary shelters in 6 sub-districts: Bandar Baru (272 persons), Trienggadeng (1,099 persons), Meureudu (4,000 persons), MeurahDua (4,270 persons), Ulim (200 persons), and LuengPutu (460 persons)^[1]. In total, at least 10,301 displaced people were relocated to temporary shelters, with some estimates putting the total number of displaced people at 43,000.

Based on the release from news local media, BNPB (National Disaster Management Agency) and the Crisis Centre of Ministry of Health about the severity of the situation as of 11 December 2016, there were 102 deaths, 136 severely injuries (mostly broken bones) and 600 persons minor injuries reported.

On December 9, the infrastructure damage report in Pidie Jaya District alone, revealed 2,874 severely damaged houses, one heavily damaged hospital, 234 collapsed shops, 29 damaged mosques, 3 damaged pesantren (Koranic schools) and one damaged college building.

For transportation access, although many roads were cracked, they are still accessible for the delivery of relief supplies. Assessments are ongoing, and there have been many challenges in compiling accurate, disaggregated data.

The government of Aceh province announced a state of emergency until 20 December 2016 with the possibility for a prolonged crisis response. While there is already a command post in place, and primary responsibility for the response has been taken by the provincial government, there are significant challenges to info-data collection, coordination and decision-making. The national government has taken on a support role.

^[1]Pusdatin BPBA (Data and Information Centre of Aceh Disaster Management Agency) at 08:30 a.m., 9 December 2016.

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Hurricane Otto, category 2 (in the Saffir-Simpson Scale), hit Costa Rica on November 24th 2016. Otto killed at least nine people and forced thousands to evacuate when it battered Nicaragua and Costa Rica with hurricane-force winds and torrential rains, before moving out into the Pacific Ocean. To date, in Costa Rica 214 communities have been affected, 1183 houses are damaged, as well as roads, bridges and public and private infrastructure. 11,853 people remain evacuated and the alerts have dropped to yellow but in the meantime the official institutions are receiving more damage reports on rural flooding, overflowing of rivers, streams and creeks, as well as landslides, with a negative impact in livelihoods and basic services facilities such as electricity, communication and water for human consumption.

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Appeal for ACT Alliance Rapid Response Fund Contributions

ACT Alliance has the privileged position of being a network of local, national and international actors committed to partnerships amongst each other. This commitment enables international and global members of ACT to enhance the capacity of local and national actors, through resources, training and/or other support, allowing for first response in the beginning of a crisis or disaster to come directly from the community itself.

ACT Alliance prioritizes approaches that attempt to ensure a commitment of responsibility towards communities in emergency response. Dignity, community empowerment and capacity-building are cornerstones of our local and national responses. Our members at the local and national levels are embedded within communities, familiar with the needs of communities and able to respond before any other actor in times of crisis. It is the role of the ACT Alliance, in the context of its emergency response mechanism, to ensure that the tools and resources available lend towards reinforcing this ambition.

The Rapid Response Fund (RRF) is a global fund of the ACT Alliance administered by the ACT secretariat. Funds for the RRF are provided by ACT Alliance members and non-members on the basis of an annual appeal.

In exceptional cases the RRF can also be requested by implementing members, through the Forum, as an advance on a forthcoming appeal for immediate life-saving or humanitarian needs assessment activities. This would act as an immediate “start-up” fund, allowing for a maximum of 150,000 USD to be used in the first 6-8 weeks of a large-scale/global emergency. This amount will be reimbursed in the appeal. This is being introduced in 2017 for the first time, based on the recommendations from the Emergency Response Review and the Humanitarian Policy (2015).

As of 30 November 2016, 9 RRF projects were approved in 2016, ranging from immediate response to populations affected by conflict (Armenia), as well as natural disasters (Uruguay, Liberia, India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Egypt and Costa Rica). In total, more than 575,000USD was disbursed within 24 hours of the request for funding, providing life-saving assistance by ACT members to thousands of people around the world, within 72 hours of the onset of the emergency.

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The Syrian crisis is an ongoing multifaceted armed conflict since the unrest began in March 2011. The severity of the humanitarian disaster has been outlined by the UN and many international organizations. More than 7.6 million Syrians have been internally displaced, over 5 million have fled to nearby countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, turkey, Egypt, and Kuwait.  The ratio of migration has been increasing with a few hundred thousand having fled to the European Union becoming refugees.

There are now more than 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance within Syria including 5.6 million children, the UN says. It is one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history. Neighboring countries have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis, with Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey struggling to accommodate new arrivals.

The ACT Secretariat members in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, have reviewed the ongoing SYR161 Appeal and requested to revise and extend the Appeal until end of March 2017, as a need to continue their planned support to the vulnerable and negatively affected people in these three countries.

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Matthew, a devastating hurricane of category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, hit Punta Caleta Cuban
land, south of the province of Guantánamo, on October 4, 2016, at 18:00 local time. It remained there
for eight hours, with winds of 200-250 km/hr, leaving severely affecting territories in Guantánamo and
Holguin provinces. Waves 6 to 8 meters high, coastal flooding, heavy rains and winds of over 100 km/h
gusts remained around 48 hours, battering the eastern and central coast of Cuba, especially the
municipalities of Yateras, San Antonio del Sur, Baracoa, Maisí and Imías in the province of Guantanamo,
and Moa in the province of Holguín. These areas had been experiencing a prolonged period of drought
prior to the hurricane.

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The impacts of the ongoing insurgency attacks by Boko Haram on both lives and properties in the North East states of Nigeria have left many in fear, displaced millions of people, while hundreds of thousands have lost their livelihoods and are facing serious starvation. Total number of food insecure people in Nigeria is 14.6 million; 7.3M of these are in Adamawa, Borno & Yobe where Christian Aid (CA) has operations – out of which 3M are in urgent need of food assistance. Over 2.5 million children are malnourished, 2.5 million internally displaced and only 30% of the total needs are currently met. The situation is escalating with the renewed government offensive against Boko Haram in the North East. This will lead to further displacements compounding an already dire humanitarian situation.

ACT Alliance through Christian Aid plans to scale up efforts in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Gombe around Livelihoods support through provision of agricultural inputs to support IDP returnees in host communities whilst still providing emergency relief in host communities in Borno where there is high need for support in food and livelihood, water, shelter and protection aiming to reach about 50,000 households. In addition, Christian Aid plans to continue food and NFI distribution using cash based programming, while providing water and other WASH facilities to communities/IDPs in need.

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On Tuesday October 4th 2016, Hurricane Matthew, the strongest hurricane in almost a decade swept
through Haiti with winds of up to 230 km/h. Hurricane Matthew made landfall near Les Anglais before
continuing northwards along the Windward Passage. The slow movement of the hurricane increased the
rainfall associated, with up to 600mm registered causing widespread damage, flooding, and displacement
across the island.

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Now more than a year since Burundi’s current crisis began, more than 160,000 men, women and children remain in refugee camps in Tanzania and are unable to return home. The situation inside Burundi continues to worsen.  A low intensity urban conflict is spreading progressively from Bujumbura to other provinces, resulting in targeted assassinations, torture, harassments and abuses. Coupled with an economic collapse brought on by the conflict, this makes it virtually impossible for displaced Burundians to return home safely.

Hundreds of refugees from Burundi are still entering in Tanzania every day while 140,448 Burundian refugees are currently living in Nyarugusu, Nduta and Mtendeli camps in Kigoma region. As many informants from UNHCR, INGOs and refugee leaders suggest, a quick solution to the current political crisis in Burundi and the short-term repatriation of refugees are unlikely. The current refugee situation is developing into a protracted crisis that will plausibly last for several years.

The likely scenario of an extended presence in Tanzania is changing and increasing the needs of the refugees. Basic requirements need to be provided ensuring a comprehensive long term self-reliance strategy.  Given the likelihood that the refugee crisis is becoming protracted, this must be done in ways that also promote social cohesion among refugees and their Tanzanian neighbours, as well as recently arrived Burundians and long-staying refugees who had fled other regional conflicts. Furthermore, due to the constantly worsening situation in Burundi, a prompt life-saving response for the new arrivals needs to be included in the emergency response.

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The latest conflict in Iraq started after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took over Mosul, the second largest city in June 2014. ISIL chased away the religiously minorities (Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims, etc.) from Mosul and other various districts of Ninewa. Furthermore, ISIL expanded territorial control in early 2015 in central part of Iraq. Since mid-2015, Iraqi government with support from international community has been able to retake some cities in central part of Iraq including Fallujah of Anbar province. However, Mosul, the second largest city of Iraq is still under the control of ISIL. On the 17^th of October 2016, Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga with support from international community have started a military operation to retake the city of Mosul. The United Nations (UN) has qualified the situation in Iraq as becoming “the single most complex humanitarian operation in the world”.

Currently there are 3.3 million IDPs in Iraq who are in need of some form of humanitarian support in addition to approximately 225,000 Syrian refugees.  Also, to further exacerbate the dire situation, it is estimated that there will be additional up to 1.5 million people displaced by the military action in Mosul to retake from ISIS control.

As part of the revision process of the ACT Alliances Humanitarian Response Mechanism, the ACT Secretariat is piloting new tools with selected Forums to identify how to improve the overall mechanism.  In the near future, the “Preliminary Appeal” will be replaced by the “Concept Note”, a shorter more concise document which summarizes the proposed ACT response and emphasizes collaboration amongst the ACT members.  The Iraq Forum has graciously accepted to pilot the draft version of the Concept Note so that we can draw lessons learned from its utilization and modify the template and process related to it accordingly.

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