Civil society integral to Fiji’s COVID-19 response

The global COVID-19 pandemic reached the Pacific region at the tail-end of the 2020 cyclone season, resulting in some Pacific nations responding to two disasters at once - COVID-19 and Tropical Cyclone Harold.

With international borders closed and domestic travel restrictions in place, the delivery of these responses has largely fallen to local actors.

A primary objective of Disaster READY Fiji is to ensure Fiji’s peak civil society organisation, the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS) and its sub-national counterpart, the District Council of Social Services (DCOSS) are active players in the country’s disaster management system. The challenge of this objective is best understood within its historical context – where the Fijian government simply found working with civil society during disasters too hard.

FCOSS is mandated by Fiji’s National Disaster Management Act 1998 to coordinate civil society during a disaster response – a mandate that the agency has at times struggled to fulfil.

FCOSS Executive Director, Ms Vani Catanasiga, recalled that only two years ago Ministry of Disaster Management representatives told Ms Catanasiga that they simply could not work with civil society during a disaster response. CSOs were seen as being ‘all over the place’ and coordinating with them reportedly increased the workload of the government during emergencies, when swift and clear actions were needed. 

Fast forward to 2020 and the Fiji Ministry for Disaster Management approached FCOSS, via Ms Catanasiga, and explicitly requested the assistance of civil society in the country’s COVID-19 response.

“Before the Government simply didn’t have the confidence in the CSO sector, or the time to coordinate with us during a disaster. FCOSS was not fulfilling its mandated coordination role. Now, as part of the COVID response, the government has made a clear and specific request directly to FCOSS to support community outreach,” Ms Catanasiga explained.

“We are coordinating with our members and working and communicating daily with the Divisional Commissioners,” she said.

What changed in two years?

Since 2018, Disaster READY Fiji partners Plan International and Child Fund have supported FCOSS to improve its operational capacity as an organisation, before working to build external confidence in its capabilities. Disaster READY Fiji supported FCOSS to strengthen its disaster response coordination function, starting with mapping what CSOs were involved in emergency response. It then supported FCOSS to understand the capacity within these organisations, followed by developing and operationalising consistent emergency response protocols.

“The support we have received via Disaster READY has enhanced the capacity of FCOSS, and it has really driven a localised approach, right down to the community level. Our organisations are clear on who should be responding to what during an emergency. We know what the respective roles of different organisations are and the protocols for working with our government counterparts are in place and understood,” Ms Catanasiga explained. 

This internal clarity and the strong protocols for working with government allow FCOSS to position civil society as an asset, rather than a hindrance, to government-led disaster response efforts. 

A stronger FCOSS supports a strong COVID-19 response

The strengthened position of FCOSS has been integral to Fiji’s COVID-19 response, with the Fijian Government calling on FCOSS to support community outreach activities. 

In Suva the City Council undertook outreach activities within residential areas, Provincial Councils and administrators targeted iTaukei villages while FCOSS coordinated outreach within informal settlement areas in various parts of Fiji’s central division. The CSOs reported daily to the Divisional Commissioner, a process replicated across all locations. 

Partners in Community Development Fiji (PCDF), another CSO and Disaster READY partner, reported that they were also directly approach by government with a request to assist in the Tropical Cyclone Harold and COVID-10 response. They attributed this recognition to FCOSS’ successful re-positioning of CSOs within the disaster management system.

“As per the clear CSO protocols, our staff work with and report back to the government divisional office daily. The Government now looks to us for support, and that is a result of FCOSS convincing the Government to ensure CSOs have a ‘seat at the table’,” said Ben Seru, Disaster READY Coordinator with PCDF. 

At the time of writing, FCOSS had reached 4,000 Fijian households with COVID-19 messages, with activities still ongoing in the Western and Northern Divisions.