Disaster
Relief & Recovery is the process of providing a critical
life-saving relief and assistance to affected area after the passage of a
disaster with the eventual aim to ultimately return the environment to
safe and normal activity through rehabilitation. The aim is to assist
the community by relief from immediate suffering and providing basic
personal and community needs. It also consists in restoring emergency
services and supplies to normal operations for the community to operate
independently.
It
also includes long term recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation
measures. There are mechanisms in place that support arrangements for
Relief and Recovery assistance and to alleviate the financial burden
associated with the provision of natural disaster relief payments and
infrastructure restoration through the Prime Ministers Relief Fund.
The
NDRRMC plans for and works with all partners in preparing for response,
relief and recovery operations, while maintaining its strategic
coordination role throughout these phases.
Relief
In
the aftermath of a disaster there is a need to provide services to meet
the basic and critical needs of the affected populations. This
immediate action is known as relief and can include
water
provision, food distributions, emergency shelter, sanitation, non-food
items and health interventions. The relief phase can last a few days or
many months depending upon the scale of the disaster. It can be
extremely complex, involving multiple stakeholders, and requiring
significant resources on an on-going basis.
Recovery
Once
critical needs have been met then the focus shifts to restoring
communities both in terms of physical infrastructure as well as the
social, economic, emotional and physical needs. This is known as the
recovery phase, and interventions can include:
• Permanent restoration of essential services;
• Livelihood restoration;
• Transitional and ultimately permanent housing;
• Long-term medical care;
• Psycho-social support.
The
NDRRMC’s role is to coordinate relief and recovery efforts to ensure
that individual and community needs are being met consistently and to a
high standard without duplication or gaps in delivery. Relief and
response is extremely challenging and can often involve multiple actors.
The NDRRMC provides a platform and a forum to determine the overall
strategy and to encourage best practices in the support of populations
affected by disasters. Ahead of an emergency the NDRRMC is continuously
working closely with emergency service providers as well as key relief
and recovery actors to ensure coordinated planning, consistent approach
and establishment of best practice standards.
Funding Mechanisms
There are two main funding mechanisms to support those affected by the impacts of a disaster in the Republic of Mauritius:
• Prime Minister's Relief Fund
• Income Support from Ministry of Social Security
