Red Cross meets in Savaii

By Cherelle S Jackson

[Saturday Observer] A better communication network system across Red Cross Societies in the Pacific has been one of the main focuses of the Red Cross Regional Partnership meeting held in Manase, Savaii this week.
Attended by more 41 regional representatives from 13 Pacific countries and international delegates from Geneva, China and Sweden the meeting discussed many aspects of Red Cross commitment in the region.
This included active measures to ensure reliable communication between societies.
According to Mr. Leon Prop, Head of Regional Delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the Pacific, an effective communication network would mean a quick and efficient disaster response system.
However there are barriers according to Mr. Prop: “Some of the challenges are quite well-known in terms of enormous distances and the problems in telecommunication and logistics and therefore at times very hard to do a quick assessment of what has happened after a disaster, what the impact has been and what the immediate needs are.”
The Pacific is especially prone to this as the islands are far apart and telecommunications and transport systems are unreliable during natural disasters.
“That is a key challenge if a cyclone strikes a remote island and there are no telecommunications links and it’s quite hard to decide what to do,” said Mr. Prop.
One of the discussions during the meeting has looked at how Red Cross can strengthen the network system which included the use of Radio links and satellite communication.
The main objective of the Regional Meeting according to Mr. Prop is to strengthen the regional Red Cross network in the international arena.
He said: “There have been talks with all Red Cross societies that are present here about a more global picture of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, there are important discussions going on as to where we want to go world-wide.”
Mr. Prop said he hopes the meeting can assist the regional movement in different ways.
“It very much about dialogue and learning from each other, the best practices, one of the things we have been doing is to ask the national societies to tell us a success story that can be inspiring for others and that they can take home and perhaps attach and do something similar in their own countries, so we hope there is a lot of learning and sharing in that regard.”
Perhaps more important is the regions hopes for a more common approach to problems which Mr. Prop said will ensure sustainability and effectiveness of Red Cross in the region.
“I also hope that by having a dialogue on some of the key trends that we can agree on a collective approach, I think that particularly for the Pacific Region and also for the wider world it’s important that we agree on common approaches where those make sense.”
According to him one society can help another Red Cross society in terms of disaster or in developing a particular programme, if there is an agreement on a number of key priorities.
The meeting will also decide on ways Red Cross and the Red Crescent movement can assist global efforts.
“We are discussing how the Red Cross link itself to global issues such as the Millennium Development Goals, what’s our role in meeting those, how can we assist Governments in meeting some of the objectives that have been agreed under the MDGs.”
Regionally Mr. Prop said: “The same for the Pacific Plan, the leaders are going to agree on the Pacific Plan and part of that is on Disaster Management, the question is what role we want to play as Red Cross in helping Governments meet the objectives of the Pacific Plan.”
According to him Red Cross has certain strengths which can be used by Governments in fulfilling some the objectives of the Pacific Plan.
“We can say as Red Cross you can count on us to do these and these things if everybody is in agreement with that, we will work very hard in making that happen.”Their hope is to make Red Cross part of the framework for these regional and international agreements so that their efforts are not only useful at the community level but contribute to relief and development on a much wider scale.