On 2 June 2015, PHAP hosted a live online consultation event in support of the the World Humanitarian Summit regional process for the Pacific region. The event happened in anticipation of the regional meeting on 30 June to 2 July 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Pacific region is one of the most disaster-prone in the world. Five of its countries are among the top 15 most at risk of disasters globally and eight out of 20 countries in the world with the highest average annual disaster losses by GDP are Pacific island countries.

Panelists

Louise Searle Louise Searle is the Director of Humanitarian Advisory Group, a Melbourne-based social enterprise providing research and advisory services on humanitarian issues, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Louise has a Master of Human Rights Law, a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies, and 18 years experience working in the health and humanitarian sectors. As a technical advisor on humanitarian protection issues, Louise's field experience includes assessment and analysis of localized protection risks with communities and displaced populations affected by conflict and natural disaster, design of responses, training and capacity-building initiatives, and technical program reviews, particularly in East Africa (Kenya, Northern Uganda and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo), Asia (Nepal, Philippines) and in Haiti. Louise was part of the writing team that produced the Minimum Inter-agency Standards for Protection Mainstreaming (2012) and co-authored articles on the usefulness of standards for protection mainstreaming and community perceptions of protection in Kenya and Timor Leste. Louise is a registered comprehensive nurse and specialized in emergency medicine, public health, and the health of refugees and asylum-seekers.
Alan Ryan Alan Ryan is Executive Director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre. Prior to this appointment in 2011, he was the Principal of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at the Australian Defence College. He was previously the Senior Adviser to the Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon. Robert Hill. In that role, he was responsible for advising the Minister on intelligence, operations, strategic and international issues. He has also worked as a consultant, providing consultancy services on strategy, security and crisis management to clients that included Australian government departments, the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the United Nations. From 1999 to 2003, he was the Senior Research Fellow in the Army’s principal conceptual research institution, the Land Warfare Studies Centre. Prior to that he was a senior lecturer at the University of Notre Dame Australia, where he was also Assistant Dean in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law. He was director of the university’s Politics and Law programme. He previously worked as a contract manager in intellectual property commercialisation for The University of Melbourne and the University of New England. He has a Ph.D from the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University and a BA (Hons.)/LL.B from the University of Melbourne. He served with the Australian Army Reserve between 1981 and 1994 and on attachment with the British Territorial Army from 1987 to 1991. He has an extensive record of publication on history, defence and strategic issues and is an adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Management at Latrobe University.
Simon Lambert is a researcher at Lincoln University, New Zealand, where he has lectured on Maori environmental management since 2010. He has a PhD from Lincoln and a MA Honours from the University of Canterbury and is a tribal member of the Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana and Tuhoe tribes. Simon’s latest research has focused on the impacts of the 2010-11 earthquakes in Christchurch on Maori in the city, and included recording and analysing the experiences of a Maori mental health community in the post-disaster landscape. He is currently collaborating on a follow-up project of the World Social Science Fellows, Risk Interpretation and Action (RIA) group, investigating how Indigenous Knowledge can help Indigenous communities with disaster risk reduction, including climate change adaption.
Chris Piper Chris Piper has over 35 years of extensive experience in community development and overseas aid from Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Pacific Region. He was most recently on a six-month posting to Tonga as a DFAT Australian Civilian Corps (ACC) Disaster Risk Management Specialist. Since 1992 he has run his own consultancy TorqAid, which focuses on project management, humanitarian work, disaster risk management (DRM), community development, accredited training, and research and educational resources.
Finau Heuifanga Limuloa Finau Heuifanga Limuloa is the Humanitarian Diplomacy & Disaster Law Delegate at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Pacific Regional Office based in Suva, Fiji, since 2012. Her work is based in the Pacific region providing support to governments in strengthening their disaster related legal frameworks in order to regulate the flow of international assistance into a country during a disaster, and also with regard to disaster risk reduction legislation and policy. Most recently she was deployed to Vanuatu to support the government in the wake of TC Pam. Previously she has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tonga and also worked in the legal arena in both Tonga and New Zealand.

Event host

Angharad Laing Angharad Laing Executive Director, International Association of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP)

Recordings

Recording (YouTube - faster loading time)

Recording (Adobe Connect - higher quality)

Recording (downloadable audio podcast)

Event report