Just before the end of 2016, some few communities along the Santo East Coast were priveledged to participate in a cyclone awareness.  And with regards to the country's cyclone season that runs from November 2016 - March 2017, this cyclone awareness aims to build communities to have the ability to resist, accomodate and recover from the effects of a cyclone in a timely and effective manner, including through preservation and restoration of its essential basic structure and functions.

The Sanma NDMO office in collaboration with the Sanma VMGD office conducted this awareness along the Santo east coast in the following communities: Show Ground, Turtle Bay, Lorevulko and Lorum. Participants were also given an updated cyclone tracking map along with a good explaination of its content. At the same time, the participants were informed of the Cyclone Outlook in both Vanuatu and within the region and some short term weather forcast to be aware for any upcoming La Nina events.

The Sanma NDMO office welcomes communities / the public or individuals that are interested in such disaster awareness program to drop by their office to get more information. The Sanma NDMO office is located at the Sanma Provincial Headquarter, Luganville santo - Kensley Micah.

The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) has released a briefing pack that outlines the organisational and coordination structures for disaster risk management in Vanuatu. Included is: national coordination structures; provincial coordination structures; organisational chart; strategic documents; office locations; the cluster system; Government Ministries & Departments; post-disaster funding arrangements; and the post-disaster needs assessment framework. Download a PDF of the briefing pack below. If you have any questions or comments email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A new National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) building for the people of Torba Province was officially opened last Friday. Minister of Climate Change, Ham Lini, led a delegation to Torba on Friday to open the building. The new building accommodates three offices, one server room, one conference room, one storage room, reception space, toilet and bathroom. The total cost of this new facility is Vt25 million and was funded by the European Union through the assistance of the World Bank. The main aim of this project is to increase the resilience of communities in the country.

The creation of the Tsunami Response Plans for Port Vila and Shefa Province will benefit communities to response effectively to any future tsunami warnings. 

The creation of these response plans was put together by the members of the Community Disaster and Climate Change Committees (CDCCC) formed as part of the Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (MDRR) Project in Vanuatu, which is currently implemented by the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-hazards Department (VMGD) in partnership with the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) on behalf of the Vanuatu Government.

There are 21 CDCCCs for Port Vila Municipality Ward Councils and 28 Committees created within the South Efate Area Councils, which covers Eratap, Erakor, Pango, Ifira, Blacksands and Mele Area Councils under Shefa Province. Over one hundred CDCCC members attended a training workshop last week in Port Vila aimed at building their capacity by knowing their roles and responsibility as CDCCC members within their own communities.