It has now been just over a week since a major earthquake hit Nepal, and the scale of the disaster still isn’t fully understood. OCHA, the UN organization responsible for the coordination of the UN and the international response reported on 2 May that over 6,200 people have been killed and as many as 500,000 buildings have been destroyed.
What are the MSB doing in Nepal?
The MSB are helping the affected population in Nepal by supporting the UN organization OCHA to:
jointly with the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP) ensure that OCHA has access to office space, accommodation, logistics and IT infrastructure, at its OSOCC (On-Site Operations and Coordination Centre) in Kathmandu, from where the entire emergency response is being coordinated.
establish a Sub-OSOCC in the hard-hit Gorkha district, so that OCHA there also has access to office space, accommodation, logistics and IT infrastructure. MSB field staff are also directly helping with humanitarian assessments and coordination, thus strengthening OCHA's capacity.
In addition to strengthening OCHA, the MSB is also working with the Nepalese authorities and other international organizations to:
support the Nepalese Ministry of Health with a structured approach to identifying the medical and health care resources available in the country, both national and international.
conduct building-collapse assessments on vital societal buildings such as hospitals, government buildings and also, for example on buildings for mobile phone networks, so that they can all be put back in use.
support the International Organization for Migration by running their tent camps for the affected population in Kathmandu.
Besides the operations of the two teams supporting OCHA, the MSB also has two officers seconded as coordination experts to OCHA's UNDAC team and the corresponding EU coordination team.
The challenge now is to coordinate all the help available in the country and aim it in the right direction so that the worst hit will benefit from it. The affected population urgently needs tarpaulins, simple tools to repair the temporary accommodation, food and medicines, as many are still living out in the open. It is clear that the situation has moved into a different phase, said MSB's Emma Trobeck who is working with planning and collaboration of the major support operation to OCHA.
The support operation adapts as needed
In the near future the MSB will adapt its field staff by gradually taking home the staff who worked with the emergency humanitarian phase, and will focus more on seconding a number of experts in the fields of information, coordination, cooperation and ICT to the various UN organizations.