OCHA Support Strengthens Jamaica’s Response and Recovery After Hurricane Melissa

Support from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has significantly strengthened Jamaica’s response and recovery efforts, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa on October 28.

Regional Deputy Director, OCHA, Rogerio Mobilia, said that a team was deployed to Jamaica after the storm to support coordination, data collection and alignment among humanitarian partners.

He was speaking to JIS News after Thursday’s (December 4) briefing at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), located at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

Mr. Mobilia indicated that the team worked with both international agencies and Jamaica’s national authorities, particularly ODPEM, to strengthen clarity around needs, sector roles and operational priorities.

“We tried first to bring the international community to a common ground and to capture their data to understand where they are working, where they have intentions to work and what they are going to do here in terms of sector approach,” said Mr. Mobilia.

He further informed that OCHA’s support was focused on two main pillars, coordination and information management, which include civil-military coordination and assessment coordination.

Mr. Mobilia noted, also, that the intention is to, over time, refine information products, so they evolve from broad, general data to more detailed and sector-specific insights.

“In the beginning, all our information were overall numbers, generic numbers and areas. Now, five weeks since we are here working, you can see that even the meetings are more structured. We have the sectoral national authorities plus the international community working together, reporting together, addressing the main needs of the population now,” he explained.

Mr. Mobilia, who along with other members of his team departed the island on December 5, said he is pleased with what they were able to accomplish during their time on the island.

“In terms of satisfaction, I leave the country very, very happy with what we did… bringing everybody together,” he said.

Meanwhile, Information Management Officer with OCHA, Randy Warner, reflected on his time at the NEOC and the high level of collaboration he observed.

“Coordination is not easy and coordinating in the midst of a Category Five is even more extremely challenging, but what stood out for me was the deep responsibility that ODPEM had to the response, especially the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF). I don’t say that lightly, because I know those are also persons who have been personally affected but they were coming in every day and showing up. Being integrated into the NEOC; honestly, I’ve never seen this level of coordination where it is so deeply integrated,” he said.

For his part, NEOC Coordinator, JDF, Major Raymond Warren, thanked the team from OCHA for their role in strengthening coordination during the response.

“We would like to thank OCHA and the team for coming, as they have certainly helped with the amalgamation process,” he said.

“From the start, we wanted to ensure that our local partners were in tune with what international partners were doing and collaborate enough to be able to see the results that we want coming out of these operations,” he continued.

Major Warren also expressed gratitude to OCHA for its role in streamlining the operations of the NEOC.

“In terms of this forum, especially the ones that we achieved on Mondays and Thursdays, we see a collaborative effort to ensure that it is certainly more instructive, and we get results and outcomes from these. So, thank you very much for your input and please continue to collaborate with us as we seek to further the recovery of our nation,” said Major Warren.

OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort.

While the OCHA personnel who were stationed in Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa have completed their in-country mission, OCHA will continue to provide support to the recovery process remotely.