ABSTRACT
Linking humanitarian response and development is a key agenda driven by multiple factors and actors across both humanitarian and development landscapes, globally and in the Pacific. This chapter presents research drawing from Fiji’s experience integrating development planning and disaster response following Tropical Cyclone (TC) Winston in 2016. The research, undertaken in Western Division in 2017, explored the TC Winston humanitarian response in Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city.
This chapter offers insights into the governance and institutional arrangements for long-term development and humanitarian response by exploring the humanitarian-development nexus, and we offer opportunities to strengthen resilience to disasters and climate change. Two main findings and reflections from the research are: the policy lag in terms of urban development and disaster response in the Pacific; and, evidence of bridging the humanitarian-development divide from the TC Winston response in Fiji, through subnational governance and the emerging ‘cluster system’. The results provide examples of localisation of disaster response in action and we conclude by providing critical reflections and suggested avenues to further overcome the challenges associated with the humanitarian-development divide.
