El Niño early impacts — Timor-Leste and Pacific
Above: In Bobonaro, Timor-Leste, Australian Humanitarian Partnership NGO World Vision has supported 10 communities across four villages to protect their water springs from contamination, and to improve access, through the Disaster READY program. The AHP El Niño response will build on this preparedness work. Photo: Domingos de Araujo / World Vision
The Australian Government is investing $5 million to help Timor-Leste and the Pacific prepare for and respond to the early impacts of El Niño, including $3 million for an Australian Humanitarian Partnership activation that leverages the existing footprint of the Disaster READY program.
The region is experiencing the effects of climate change and, in 2024, climate-related hazards and disasters are expected to intensify. The El Niño system is predicted to bring extremely dry conditions to some areas of the region and wild weather to others.
In Timor-Leste, drought is impacting agriculture, freshwater availability and food security. Countries in the Pacific are facing similar challenges due to increased cyclone activity and flooding.
Australia is supporting the pre-positioning of non-food items, water conservation and storage, establishment of water systems and support for food security.
The AHP Response
The AHP response includes an AUD $2.4 million investment in immediate preparedness activities and $600,000 in pre-positioned response funding for the region.
Activities will be led by AHP partners engaged in the Disaster READY program across Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and Timor-Leste.
Planned activities include:
Timor-Leste: repair and improvements to water infrastructure; food security and livelihoods initiatives such as the provision of drought-resilient vegetable and crop seeds and training on resilient agricultural practices such as terracing and composting; scaling up support to Village Savings and Loans Associations to enhance economic resilience; and increasing community knowledge and understanding on how to conserve water and deal with the drought.
Fiji: communities will be supported to develop drought response plans, learn about resilient agricultural techniques, and to rehabilitate forests in catchment areas. Psychosocial support training will also help communities cope with the impacts of El Niño weather events.
PNG: cash and voucher distribution to support community drought preparedness, community drought response plans with a focus on the needs of women, youth and people with disabilities, climate smart agriculture training, community nutrition education and awareness-raising, improvements to WASH and support for organisations of people with disabilities to be better connected to provincial government disaster authorities.
Solomon Islands: community drought response plans, and forest rehabilitation in catchments.
Vanuatu: installation of water wells in dry areas, support to establish and continue community kitchens that commenced during the Tropical Cyclone Lola response.
All six AHP lead ANGOs are participating in the response.
The $600,000 response fund will support the AHP to activate quickly if any of the five countries above face a crisis or disaster due to the El Niño system. This flexible draw-down fund can also be used for targeted El Niño response activities in non-Disaster READY countries.