ReliefWeb

Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action:

The operation is extended by one month from 30 September to 31 October 2021 for the final cash and voucher assistance (CVA) distribution activities to approximately 600 households in two states, Koror and Airai. Community rapid damage assessment teams (RDAT) and state government actors could not distribute CVA as planned in July and August due to beneficiary validation delays with governments. These delays were a result of state governments’ diverted priorities to finish off their fiscal year activities, which were ending in August. Related expectations by governments forced the majority of the state RDATs to put activities that were not in the annual plans and budget for July and August on hold. State preliminary elections campaigns also took place in Koror, which has started in July and will close in September, where 50% of the targeted population resides. PRCS, therefore, had to rethink its approach for cash voucher assistance in Koror state, given the ethical challenges of going through the state government.

As the Typhoon Surigae response is the first operation led by Palau Red Cross (PRCS) in many years, and considering their limited capacity in knowledge and experience, the PRCS needs more time to thoroughly achieve its CVA targets, complete its post-distribution monitoring (PDM) and conduct a lesson learned workshop exercise across all the levels of the operation. The overall budget and overall targeted population remain the same from Operations Update 1 (OU1), Details are provided in the financial section at the end of the report.