Tropical Cyclone Winston, the second most powerful storm on record, after the 2013 Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, struck Fiji on 20 February 2016. The cyclone killed 44 people and left a trail of destruction across large parts of the rural areas. Total damage and loss was estimated at $1.4 billion—equivalent to 27.6% of the country’s 2016 gross domestic product (GDP). To help address post-disaster needs, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $50 million emergency assistance loan (EAL) for the Emergency Assistance for Recovery from Tropical Cyclone Winston project.   The EAL’s expected impact was disaster resilience enhanced, while its expected outcome was mitigation of the immediate impact of Tropical Cyclone Winston on poor and vulnerable households.

The EAL followed ADB grant support from the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Facility foremergency relief efforts. The EAL was not earmarked for specific end uses but was utilized by the government in accordance with its financing plan for recovery from the cyclone.  As soon as it made its request for the EAL to ADB and to the World Bank for a parallel $50 million development policy loan, the government increased transfers to all eligible households and individuals registered under Fiji’s core social protection programs to alleviate the impact of the cyclone on the most vulnerable.  The EAL thus substantially helped enable the government to meet the financing requirements of post-disaster recovery within fiscal constraints.

As a result, the government was able to provide additional payments to 26,292 households and 17,232 elderly individuals registered under its three preexisting targeted social protection programs. As of July 2018, 61.2% of the 219 damaged schools had been rehabilitated, several were in various stages of construction, and others were under procurement. Further government reporting in April 2019 indicated that 65% of the damaged schools had been rehabilitated or reconstructed and the remaining 35% should be completed by the end of 2019. Building back better, the school reconstruction program strengthened structures to withstand future climatic events. A total of 37,573 homeowners, most of whom rural households, received vouchers under the Help for Homes (HFH) scheme.  As with the school reconstruction program, the HFH initiative improved the resilience of Fijian households to disasters such as cyclones, by advising and aiding them to build back better to standards that will withstand at least a category 3 cyclone. 

Besides providing physical reconstruction and social protection assistance, the EAL also supported the preparation of the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA), which included detailed estimates of the damages and losses from the tropical cyclone and their impact on the economy and the livelihoods, employment, and quality of life of the people. It also assessed the performance of Fiji’s disaster risk management framework, estimated the costs of recovery programs, and provided recommendations for more effective disaster risk management. The PDNA, endorsed by the cabinet and published in May 2016, was widely used as an authoritative source for the cyclone response and recovery policy. 

The Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) was developed based on the PDNA, and approved by the cabinet and published in September 2016.  The DRF sets out government programs, funding needs over a three-year period, indicative funding allocations, broad implementation arrangements, and policy recommendations.  The government has continued to refer to the DRF, including for the preparation of the 2018 government budget that allocated further financing for reconstruction programs and the development of resilience policies and institutional measures such as those related to the revision of building standards and the social protection framework.

The EAL thus overall succeeded in achieving its expected outcome and impact.  By bridging the financing gap in the national government expenditure program supporting social priorities, the project contributed to mitigating the adverse impact of the cyclone on the poor and vulnerable.  While the school rehabilitation/reconstruction program faced delays as a result of capacity constraints in the domestic construction industry, this was relatively well-managed and enabled the government to establish a functioning system to immediately respond to the same needs that arose from tropical cyclones Gita, Keni, and Josie.

Recent estimates of 2.6% GDP growth against the 26.7% of GDP total damage and loss from Tropical Cycle Winston indicate that the government stimulus helped mitigate the worst effects of the disaster on household incomes. GDP grew further in 2017 and 2018, supported by increased construction activities due to post-disaster rehabilitation. Through the building back approach to reconstruction and by supporting DRF preparation and subsequent revisions in the relevant government policies, the EAL also helped strengthen the country’s resilience to disasters.  

Fiji’s Ministry of Economy was the EAL executing agency.