The U.S. government, through the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA), has awarded Field Ready a project to reduce disaster risk in the Pacific Islands by increasing local response capabilities. The program will prepare Pacific Island communities for future shocks more effectively. The two-year program entitled Rapid Response Manufacturing in the Pacific, is set to assist at least 100,000 people across the Pacific, including 35,000 in Fiji.
The program operates from a regional hub in Fiji and is active in six additional Pacific countries: Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands.
USAID-BHA’s support will strengthen local supply chains, including building the capacity of local manufacturers and suppliers and supporting increased localization and self-reliance in humanitarian response. The long-term result will be that Fiji and other Pacific Island countries have more robust and sustainable disaster resilience and response capabilities while boosting local economies and reducing carbon emissions through reduced imported aid.
“The United States of America, through USAID, plays a crucial role in disaster response globally, including in the Pacific region. We work with local groups and U.S. organizations like Field Ready to help communities get the resources they need, especially during natural disasters and other moments of crisis,” said USAID Pacific Islands Supervisory Program Officer, Jason Gilpin
“In any emergency response, time saved saves lives. Today, we bring you this hands-on training through Field Ready to speed up response actions by manufacturing emergency equipment locally, thereby meeting urgent needs quickly, with supplies tailored for local needs. By moving manufacturing to affected communities, we can avoid the high costs and slow response times of similar supplies purchased from overseas providers,” he said.
Field Ready has established and built effective working relations with stakeholders in Fiji including government, NGO partners, academic institutions, local manufacturers, and multilateral organizations in earlier phases of this project. This includes a long relationship with the Ministry of Health to support their outreach in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and infectious disease control including making personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic; and increases capabilities of local businesses such as Rotomould and RC Manubhai to manufacture aid supplies locally.
Field Ready has also developed and manufactured a mobile field workshop in Fiji for rapid repair of small-scale infrastructure in disaster response and recovery called the Mobile Makerspace. The training will involve participants from various response frontliners from the government, NGOs and locally established organizations who will undergo hands-on sessions on how to repair basic identified damages that mostly occur during emergencies. Ranging from WASH related damages to house structures, and assistive technology for people with disabilities. Participants will learn application of tools and technology to find solutions. To name a few, this includes 3D Printing, Plastic Welding, producing rainwater guttering on the field and other tools that Mobile Makerspace has to offer to any local responders in the country. The goal is to teach basic repair skills and knowledge that can be used by any responders in the field where they can provide repair solutions on damages or hazards that highly affects a community. Under the current program, Field Ready is making more of these Mobile Makerspace assets for Pacific Island countries including Samoa, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands.
USAID/BHA and Government partners of this program believe that investing in strengthening, by localizing manufacturing of critical aid items, and improving technical innovation and skills, will increase resilience and response capabilities, particularly in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and food security sectors. This is supported by the advancement of governments’ and development partners’ plans and policies promoting local manufacturing for aid supply and local technical skills and resources. The result of this is that the Pacific islands region will experience sustainable growth in local resilience to natural disasters, increased selfreliance in disaster response and Early Recovery, Risk Reduction and Resilience (ER4), reduced supply chain costs, and time to deliver critical aid.
Field Ready, a non-governmental organization, has pioneered the approach to localizing manufacturing for humanitarian purposes. Our mission is to transform how aid is provided globally using technology, innovation, and engaging people in new ways. For the past decade, our approach has solved the most intractable problems by combining local skills and resources with innovations in technology and design. Since 2016, Field Ready has been working in the Pacific islands region to develop products that can directly impact disaster response and community development in the region. Field Ready has provided technical expertise and networking which has enabled local manufacturers to develop the capacity to produce a range of aid items. Items currently being brought to market include robust portable emergency latrines, humanitarian standard water storage buckets, group handwashing stations, emergency WASH Kits – all manufactured in the Pacific region.
