The main objective of the Forum was to increase the understanding of participants on key international standards and best practices for regulating international disaster relief and initial recovery assistance, and to explore these in the context of the Solomon Islands. Invitees included high level government officers in key departments and those international agencies responding to disasters based in Solomon Islands.
Presentations were made by the IFRC IDRL programme on existing international legal frameworks for humanitarian assistance and the IDRL Guidelines. These were followed by a presentation by NDMO on the new disaster risk management arrangements for Solomon Islands, including with focus on the arrangements for international response. Through group work, participants explored the challenges around request, entry and distribution of international disaster response linked to recent disasters in Solomon Islands. This included identifying the wide range of government agencies and their roles in the facilitation and regulation of international disaster response.
Participants observed that whilst the government can be proud of its recently implemented arrangements for disaster risk management, the laws, rules and polices relevant to the various ministries and departments when it comes to domestic facilitation and regulation of foreign disaster response could benefit from more clarity and dissemination. The participants encouraged the NDMO to keep these issues on the agenda as the new arrangements are being rolled out, and looked forward to being engaged in developments on this front.