Skip to Content

Leading the Government’s response to international crises and humanitarian emergencies

Performance Criterion Result

Our leadership and coordination of government’s response to international crises.

Criterion Source
Corporate Plan 2016–20, p. 17
Program 2.1, Portfolio Budget Statements 2016–17, p. 45
Case Study: Global Watch Office and development of the Crisis Hub

 Met

Our humanitarian leadership within the Indo–Pacific region and the international humanitarian system.

Criterion Source
Corporate Plan 2016–20, p. 17
Case Study: Improving our humanitarian deployment capability

 Met

The effectiveness of our disaster risk-reduction and recovery programs.

Criterion Source
Corporate Plan 2016–20, p. 17
Case Study: Strengthening local disaster preparedness and resilience in the Pacific

 Met

Effectiveness of our crisis management mechanisms in delivering a coordinated whole-of-government response to international crises.

Criterion Source
Corporate Plan 2016–20, p. 17
Program 2.1, Portfolio Budget Statements 2016–17, p. 45
Review

 Met

Effectiveness of our life-saving assistance to vulnerable people in crisis situations.

Criterion Source
Corporate Plan 2016–20, p. 17
Review

 Met

Overview and analysis

The global environment presents many challenges and in recent times terrorist attacks, civil unrest and instability have affected Australians overseas. The department led whole-of-government responses to the kidnappings of Australians in West Africa, Afghanistan and Yemen and coordinated efforts to assist Australians affected by terrorist events in Nice, Berlin and London.

We provided an estimated $372.9 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance. Our support helped communities hit by natural disasters, such as Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, the series of earthquakes in Solomon Islands and El Niño-linked drought in Southern Africa. We also assisted people suffering due to the ongoing crises and conflict in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Myanmar, Afghanistan, South Sudan and other parts of Africa.

The scale of humanitarian need grew throughout the year with the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, violence and human rights violations reaching a record high of 65.6 million. Australia responded strongly, providing over 90 per cent of our emergency response funding to the protracted crises driving this displacement. We provided substantial levels of core support to high performing UN agencies—including the UN’s refugee agency, World Food Programme, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)—allowing them to assist the most vulnerable. We also worked closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross to help those affected by armed conflict and promote international humanitarian law.

We launched major new humanitarian funding packages, including a three-year $220 million assistance initiative to Syria and a three-year $100 million package for Iraq. The shift to multi-year funding helps deliver on Australia’s commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 and provides predictable funding for our humanitarian partners.

In June 2016 the Minister for Foreign Affairs announced a successor program to the Humanitarian Partnership Agreement—the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP). The AHP includes a new $50 million program building the disaster and preparedness response capacity of countries and local communities in the Pacific.

Improving resilience and disaster preparedness remained a major focus of our activities in the Pacific. The region escaped a major disaster during the year, which allowed us to focus on hazard mapping and early warning systems and improvements in pre-positioned relief supplies. We also deployed civilian specialists to strengthen local disaster management authorities in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. These specialists focused on emergency logistics, information management and disaster risk management in order to support better local planning, coordination, response and recovery efforts.

Through the Humanitarian Supplies Challenge, announced in June 2017, we sought new and effective ways for the private sector to contribute to humanitarian responses and identified new products to solve energy, shelter and water problems following a humanitarian crisis. The department will continue to build on these efforts, as part of our commitment to localising humanitarian efforts in our immediate region and beyond.

Evaluation of Australia’s response to Cyclone Pam

When Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in March 2015, it was the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the southern Pacific region. It affected over half of Vanuatu’s population—an estimated 188,000 people who lost homes, livelihoods and access to essential services. Australia provided over $15 million for a relief and recovery operation.

In 2017 the department’s Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) evaluated Australia’s response to help improve the effectiveness of future humanitarian responses in the Pacific.

The evaluation focused on the most severely affected islands of Vanuatu and found that Australia’s response was effective in supporting the Vanuatu Government deliver much needed assistance. The rapid, large response was justified, and the Australian whole-of-government response was coordinated and coherent. Australia used established partnerships to facilitate fast and efficient delivery of required assistance. Australia’s technical assistance proved crucial in the response phase, and direct funding to the health and education ministries enabled them to lead recovery processes. The evaluation found that Australia could have better incorporated local private sector and civil society expertise. It also found that the uniform distribution of relief items, as requested by the Vanuatu Government, meant communities and individuals with greater needs did not receive additional assistance.

ODE recommended that the department progress work to support nationally-led responses, improve targeting of assistance to those most in need, and strengthen communication and accountability. Departmental management accepted all recommendations. Lessons learned were used to improve the response to Cyclone Winston in Fiji in 2016. For example, in the Winston response the department ensured implementing partners worked more closely with local organisations to deliver assistance.

Our leadership and coordination of government’s response to international crises.

Global Watch Office and development of the Crisis Hub

Case Study
DFAT staff working in the department’s new Global Watch Office. [DFAT/Loren Hyde]
The department’s new 24-hour Global Watch Office will strengthen Australia’s capacity to monitor and respond to events overseas. [DFAT/Loren Hyde]

Global Watch Office and development of the Crisis Hub

There are increasingly diffuse threats to Australians overseas and a growing expectation of quick and authoritative government responses to crisis events.

Located in the department, the Global Watch Office commenced operations in June 2017. It provides a single point of contact for whole-of-government responses to international events and crises affecting Australians or Australian interests. It operates in a purpose-built facility with 11 professional analysts, working alongside 13 consular and passport officers in the Consular Emergency Centre.

In the event of a crisis incident overseas, the Global Watch Office provides the first advice to government and affected Australians. The department can then quickly activate whole-of-government crisis responses, update travel advice and provide around-the-clock advice.

The Global Watch Office produces talking points and background material, and delivers a morning daily product to over 900 recipients with a snapshot of key international events that affected Australian interests.

The department’s newly created Crisis Hub combines consular and humanitarian crisis response details on a consolidated digital information portal. The Crisis Hub enables an integrated approach to consular and humanitarian crisis management and provides key crisis-related information to the Australian public. Members of the public will no longer have to call the department’s Emergency Call Unit to access this crisis-related information.

Our humanitarian leadership within the Indo–Pacific region and the international humanitarian system.

Improving our humanitarian deployment capability

Case Study
Australian Civilian Corps Specialist Ben Millington with Jimmy Naura (Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office) and Trish Thornhill (RedR) in front of Vanuatu’s patrol boat RVS Tukoro. [DFAT/Patrick Haines]
Australian Civilian Corps Specialist Ben Millington with Jimmy Naura (Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office) and Trish Thornhill (RedR) with Vanuatu’s patrol boat RVS Tukoro, delivering Australian-funded lifesaving and emergency supplies to those affected by Tropical Cyclone Donna, Port Vila, Vanuatu, 16 May 2017. [DFAT/Patrick Haines]

Improving our humanitarian deployment capability

We re-oriented our approach to deploying civilian expertise overseas to better respond to a global humanitarian system facing unprecedented demand. The new approach preserves and builds on the distinctive benefits of the Australian Civilian Corps and our partnership with RedR Australia. It strengthens our ability to deploy civilian experts to support partners to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises and manage risks of instability and conflict.

The program sends the right person, to the right place, at the right time. For example, we deliver specialists into the Pacific ahead of the cyclone season, electoral expertise across the region and surge support to address global humanitarian challenges such as refugee crises. The program aims to help save lives, livelihoods and assets, and alleviate the suffering of affected people. It means we can better deploy civilians into UN organisations, NGOs and host governments across the Indo–Pacific and beyond.

Civilian specialists help build the capacity of Australia’s partners, including in the Pacific National Disaster Management Offices (NDMO). With the onset of Cyclone Donna in May 2017, two specialists provided on-the-ground assistance to the Vanuatu NDMO to enhance its ability to prepare for and respond to the disaster.

Civilians also provide critical surge capacity in times of crisis. For example, we supported a water, sanitation and hygiene expert to work with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Bekaa region of Lebanon, a country where one in four people is a refugee. The specialist worked with a team dedicated to supplying safe drinking water, managing sewage and rubbish, and promoting good hygiene practices.

The effectiveness of our disaster risk-reduction and recovery programs.

Strengthening local disaster preparedness and resilience in the Pacific

Case Study

Strengthening local disaster preparedness and resilience in the Pacific

Evidence suggests that $1 invested in risk reduction can save up to $15 in the aftermath of a disaster. Australia is committed to reducing the human and material cost of disasters in the Pacific by strengthening resilience through adaptation to climate change and improving local disaster preparedness. In line with our World Humanitarian Summit commitments, we are focused on enabling national and local-level responses in the Pacific. We are also emphasising disaster prevention through risk reduction and resilience.

Australia’s approach aligns with the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific, endorsed by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in September 2016. We intend to provide $300 million over four years to build climate change and disaster resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Pacific Island countries, including $75 million for disaster preparedness.

Through these aid investments we also aim to ‘build back better’ and reduce the susceptibility of important social infrastructure, such as classrooms and health facilities, to damage during natural disasters. Our support for local meteorological services helps to strengthen their forecasting capabilities, as well as community disaster planning and enhanced early-warning capacity in the Pacific.

Our partnerships with local and international humanitarian organisations such as the Australian Red Cross and UNOCHA, as well as the new Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP), are strengthening the capacity of governments and organisations to build resilience and respond to disasters.

The AHP is a five-year agreement (2017–2022) with six Australian NGOs through which the department will fund responses to humanitarian crises, with a particular focus on our region. The AHP also includes $50 million to build the disaster management capacity of Pacific partners including governments, local NGOs and women’s groups.

Our partnership with the Australian Red Cross helps communities take practical steps to reduce risks and impacts of both rapid disasters, such as cyclones, flooding and earthquakes, and slow-onset crises, such as droughts. We are also building the capacity of national Red Cross Societies to maintain their critical first responder roles.

The department is a rapid responder to crises, with prepositioned humanitarian emergency relief supplies strategically located in the Indo–Pacific region enabling us to respond within 48 hours of a request for assistance. We are working with the World Food Programme to ensure local pre-positioned supplies complement our stocks.

Reviews

Effectiveness of our crisis management mechanisms in delivering a coordinated whole-of-government response to international crises.

The department drew on effective crisis planning and preparedness work to lead whole-of-government responses to a series of terrorist attacks and natural disasters overseas, which directly affected Australia’s interests. We strengthened partnerships with federal and state organisations to enhance response capacity and identify appropriate resources and expertise that could be deployed in a crisis.

Ahead of the 2016–17 Pacific cyclone season, we conducted our annual crisis training scenario involving participants from the Departments of Defence and Immigration and Border Protection, Emergency Management Australia, Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales Disaster Assistance Response Teams and Australian Medical Assistance Teams.

This exercise is an important training tool for staff recruited to the department’s Crisis Response Team (CRT) and enables new team members to test procedures, clarify roles and refine inter-agency operability.

We enhanced our CRT training program to ensure all team members are highly trained and can operate effectively in challenging environments. The department worked with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to develop multi-agency training exercises, further strengthening our response capabilities. Our CRT joined the Australian, United States and Japanese military in Exercise Cope North Guam in February–March and our Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations Coordination Group partners in Exercise Argonaut Cyprus in May. These exercises helped test and refine our coordinated response procedures for non-combatant evacuation operations with international partners. Both the United States and Japanese Governments acknowledged Australia’s effective whole-of-government collaboration and interoperability.

We implemented a comprehensive contingency planning agenda to continuously improve our capabilities. Contingency Planning Assistance Teams, including staff from the department and the ADF, visited five posts to test, validate and enhance crisis response plans. The department’s crisis management and contingency planning team worked with posts to review and test location-specific crisis action plans, including through development of a practical assistance guide. We continued our domestic and regional crisis planning and preparedness programs to ensure that overseas staff have the technical training to respond effectively to crises.

The department responded well to 86 overseas crisis events, including significant incidents in France, Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom, with our overseas missions effectively delivering consular services to Australians caught up in these crises.

Effectiveness of our life-saving assistance to vulnerable people in crisis situations.

Under the Corporate Plan 2016–20 the department committed to reviewing the effectiveness of our life-saving humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people in crisis situations after each major crisis. During the reporting period we conducted an evaluation of our education sector response to Cyclone Winston in Fiji in February 2016. We also supported finalisation of an Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) evaluation of Australia’s response to Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu in March 2015 (see p. 116, 142).

The evaluation of our education sector response following Cyclone Winston found that Australia’s aid was highly relevant, timely, effective and appropriate in the first six months. Australia’s rapid response reinforced national leadership allowing Fijian schools to reopen quickly. The evaluation findings will be discussed with the Government of Fiji during the design phase of the new bilateral education program.

The department commissioned an independently-led evaluation of Australia’s humanitarian assistance to people affected by conflict and displacement in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine States in Myanmar between July 2014 and June 2017. The evaluation will inform a new multi-year humanitarian strategy for Myanmar, highlight key results of activities implemented, suggest ways to improve existing investments, and identify relevant lessons for other programs.

Back to top