Building safer urban communities in the south pacific

ABSTRACT

In November 2001, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Suth Pacific Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) organised a 2 day regional workshops on 'Building Safer Urban Communities in the South Pacific' in Suva, Fiji. A working group of the chief fire officers and other officials from Pacific Islad Countries (PLCs) assessed the current capacity of their countries to conduct Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations. They noted that this capacity is extremely limited, primarily becacuse of a lack of awareness of the function and generally weak coordination in emergency response. The working group concluded that PICs do need their own USAR capacity because of the high level of risk to their urban areas, and they outlined the next steps needed to develop such a capacity. (AU)