Strengthening the policy and institutional framework for Disaster Risk Management in Papua New Guinea

Context and objectives

Papua New Guinea is extremely vulnerable to natural hazards and exposed to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, cyclones, floods, droughts, and tsunamis. Given the increasing risk from disasters and variability of impacts of climate-related hazards, the Government of Papua New Guinea is also pursuing more explicit Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and prevention policies, strategies and institutional capacities.

Following a request from the Government of Papua New Guinea, the ACP-EU NDRR Program provided technical assistance to the relevant ministries and agencies at various administrative levels to review existing DRM policies, potential gaps, and to identify priority policies and institutional reform actions for the Government, which were supported through this technical assistance.

Main activities and results

• Component 1: Mainstreaming DRM Policies and Strategies in Sectoral Development Planning. This component assisted the Government with analysis of current policies and institutional arrangements and identify areas where strengthening and harmonization is needed for effective DRM, particularly risk reduction.
• Component 2: Resilient Disaster Recovery. This component supported policy dialogue and targeted technical inputs on increasing community resilience and community-based disaster recovery.

A jurisdictional analysis of DRM policy settings in Papua New Guinea and other relevant countries was completed to help guide preliminary discussions and future policy actions. 

Discussions on the subsequent inputs were held with the National Disaster Centre to approve draft terms of reference to deliver a lessons learned exercise and Ready2Respond Emergency Preparedness & Response Diagnostic at the national and provincial levels. 

Partnerships and coordination

The World Bank implemented this project in close collaboration with the Treasury of Papua New Guinea, the National Disaster Center, and relevant sectoral agencies.