Coordination and information management mechanisms of the tsunami emergency and rehabilitation operations in agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The widespread destruction caused by tsunami on December 26,2004 brought a heavy toll on livelihoodsand natural resources in the three sectors. Numerous international and national organizations assistthe affected areas with main aim of restoring shattered Iivel ihoods and for rehabi Iitation of naturalresources for sustainable use by mitigating such disasters in the future.

Several projects were initiated to assess the damages and to restoring to build those back better.However, due to increasing number of emergency and rehabi Iitation projects in affected areas, thereis a problem of coordination and sharing resources. Therefore, this study was focused to assesspresent status of coordination activities, to share experiences and knowledge for development ofsustainable future plans and strategies for coordination and information management in the long run.

The study examined and reviewed the current situation with multi stakeholder participation fromgovernment, non government, private sector and community with regard to objectives of the study.Outputs were categorized under; overall status of mechanisms, opportunities for further developmentand improvement mechanisms best suited for Sri Lanka in line with the "build back better" strategy,and the way forward in terms of information management, exchange and coordination mechanismsfor future work.

The study revealed that the need of cross sectoral coordination and information sharing is essentialdue various reasons such as large volume of information, as to achieve better accuracy and targetingetc., The study proposes to setup divisional/district level mechanism and focal point for coordinationand information sharing among Government, donor, private agencies and lINGOs. There will besimilar setup at provincial and national level. The study further proposes certain guidelines such as, tohave a focal point in each agency for dissemination of information, making coordination mandatorythan voluntary, ethics in data use, giving due regard for Information management process by way ofcollection of specific data, sharing of data etc., Finally, two models are proposed for coordination andfor information sharing among three main sectors.