The ECHO delegation comprising Taheeni (Regional Head of Office, Bangkok), Maya (ECHO India) and Mallika (Regional communication and visibility Officer, Bangkok) undertook a monitoring mission to the target districts of Ernakulam, Idukki, Pathanamthittta and Alleppey from 16th to 19th December. Manfred Aichinger from Caritas Austria and Sebastian T V, the Consortium Manager accompanied the mission. Anjan Bag form CI, Ram Kishan form CAID  and Rajan Pydimalla from ADRA joined the mission during the visits to their respective area and at the debriefing.

A consortium of Caritas India, Christian Aid (CAID) and ADRA are implementing a programme called ‘Humanitarian assistance to excluded and vulnerable populations affected by floods and landslides in Kerala’ in Alleppey, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam and Idukki districts with ECHO support. The project period is from September 2018 to May 2019. Caritas India is the Consortium lead.

The programme targets excluded and highly vulnerable families and the key components of the programme are unconditional cash transfer to 3,780 families, NFI and WaSH kit to 3924 families, cleaning and chlorination of 140 wells, repair or 310 partially damaged toilets and provision of water storage tanks and water supply at 31 communities.

The mission visited 7 target villages and had interaction with project staff, beneficiaries, members of community-level committees that were involved in beneficiary selection, relief distribution and complaints and feedback handling.

The mission focussed on how the communities were affected by the disaster, life in relief camps, the kind of assistance they received from government, the support they received from the ECHO supported project, information to beneficiaries on the selection criteria and the support they got, their knowledge of or lack of it on the complaint sand feedback mechanism, and how do they cope with it now.

Overall, the ECHO team has expressed satisfaction with the good targeting and the progress made and has highlighted the need to streamline areas like communication to communities and complaints and feedback handling mechanism.

A top-level ECHO mission comprising of Androulla Kaminara – Director Africa, Asia, Latin America, Caribbean and Pacific, Flavio Bello – Head of Sector, Asia, Latin America and Caribean, Taheeni Thammannagoda – Head of Regional Office, Bangkok & Maya Nair – ECHO India PA, New Delhi will be visiting Kerala on 19th and 20th January 2019. India has not been a focus area for EU in the past few years. However, in the backdrop of the Kerala floods which is being seen as the impact of climate change, EU would like to better understand the need for and how EU could engage with India, especially as it emerge as a humanitarian donor.