Myanmar - ACJR 2023 SUMMARY
Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Myanmar on 14 May as a category 4 tropical cyclone, bringing winds of up to 250 km/h, heavy rains, storm surges, flash floods, and landslides. It is the strongest cyclone in the Bay of Bengal in the last 10 years, and caused significant damage to people's homes, infrastructure, and power and water services. As part of The Dutch Relief Alliance ACJR Plan and PFP partner together for a comprehensive, multisectoral response in a smaller areas to maximise the impact in the targeted communities, They will be working in 3 complementary sectors: shelter/NFIs, WASH, and FSL, with gender and protection mainstreamed throughout. Through those activities, the project aims to achieve its principal objective, namely, to ensure that approximately 9043 girls, women, boys and men receive immediate humanitarian assistance to ensure they are safe and protected from the risks associated with the post-emergency context. Cyclone Mocha was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone in the North Indian Ocean which affected Myanmar and parts of Bangladesh in May 2023. It was the 1st cyclonic storm of the 2023 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Mocha originated from a low-pressure area that was first noted on the 8 May. Mocha rapidly strengthened, peaking at Category 5-equivalent intensity on 14 May with winds of 280 km/h (175 mph), tying with Cyclone Fani as the strongest storm on ever record in the north Indian Ocean. Mocha slightly weakened before making landfall, and its conditions quickly became unfavourable. Mocha rapidly weakened once inland and dissipated shortly thereafter. 

After the cyclone made landfall, some villages in Rakhine reported record rainfall totals of 218 millimeters well above their previous record totals. A satellite estimate on 16 May determined at least 895 km2 of land was inundated, exposing over 141,000 people. Following Cyclone Mocha's arrival, up to 16 million people (5.6 million children) were potentially exposed to the storm's effects, including 1.2 million IDP's. Plan & PFP aim for a comprehensive, multisectoral response to maximise the impact in the targeted communities, working in 3 complementary sectors: shelter/NFIs, WASH, & FSL, gender and protection mainstreamed. Through those activities, the project aims to achieve its principal objective: ensure that 9043 girls, women, boys and men receive immediate humanitarian assistance to ensure they are safe and protected from the risks associated with the post-emergency context.  
Plan & PFP will provide family and shelter kits to the most vulnerable affected families, complemented by hygiene kits targeting the most vulnerable women and girls, incl. heads of households. This is complemented by WASH activities incl. the rehabilitation of latrines and water sources to ensure a level of recovery in the weeks afterwards, while aiming to save lives by preventing further escalation of waterborne diseases. Finally, these activities are in part made possible by cash for work activities, which itself will support vulnerable individuals and their families. Cash for work will be done fully in line with the FSL cluster's standards and particular attention will be paid to the wellbeing of participants. Plan and PFP both have extensive experience in the selected sectors, with large portfolios in FSL and WASH and also a large number of shelter/NFI projects. Both have a long-time presence in Rakhine, and have been active in the humanitarian response from their Sittwe offices. Preparation for natural disasters such as this one has been a key feature of Plan Myanmar's strategy, ensuring that all systems are ready to scale up in a very short amount of time. 

Plan has an office in Sittwe township and is thus able to access the affected area without any problems other than the local infrastructure difficulties. A small-scale response is already ongoing in the same areas, and as part of the Cyclone Mocha response more broadly, Plan is distributing food to affected populations estimated at around 144,000 beneficiaries of whom 66,000 people in camps have already been reached. PFP has also been actively responding and has multiple offices in Sittwe, including in Sittwe township. 

Plan has also been actively engaging in the relevant clusters, both before and now during the acute crisis, most relevantly in the Sittwe clusters for Protection, GBV, WASH, FSL, CWG, AAP/CE WG and Shelter/NFI, in addition to the clusters at Yangon level. Particularly vulnerable groups were identified as women, children, (adolescent) girls, ethnic and religious minorities, people with disabilities, pregnant and lactating women and women-headed households, each of them likely to be missed by non-inclusive humanitarian action. Plan and PFP will provide family and shelter kits to the most vulnerable affected families, complemented by hygiene kits targeting the most vulnerable women and girls, including those that are heads of households. This immediate acute support is complemented by WASH activities including the rehabilitation of latrines and water sources to also ensure a level of recovery in the weeks afterwards, while aiming to save lives by preventing further escalation of waterborne diseases. Finally, these activities are in part made possible by cash for work activities, which itself will support vulnerable individuals and their families while aligning with the UN Flash Appeal. Cash for work will be done fully in line with the FSL cluster's standards and particular attention will be paid to the wellbeing of participants, including through the provision of adequate materials to perform their jobs. It was selected as the best response by local Plan and PFP colleagues in Sittwe and Yangon. Gender and Protection mainstreaming will also be prioritised, and the project will align with an existing project of 40k EUR in the same communities that is focussed exclusively on protection. 

Particular importance is placed on coordination with ZOA, who will in part be working with the same local partner (PFP) and in nearby areas in Sittwe township. The two projects will be complementary, targeting different but adjacent populations.

Timescale & Planning: The proposed project is fully focussed on delivering an immediate response to the acute needs, but still at three different levels to ensure complementarity between the activities both on the very short term and on the medium-short term. The first step will be the distribution of NFIs, which adds to ongoing immediate relief distributions, and which will be implemented in the first days and weeks of the action. Second in immediacy is the WASH element, which aims to address the increasing risk of disease but also to allow a certain level of liveability in the coming weeks and even months. Finally, the cash for work, in addition to being an immediate source of income comparable to cash support, will contribute both to immediate relief and to the rehabilitation efforts that will be required in the coming months. 

Delivery Model: Plan will combine direct operations with a collaboration with our local partner PFP, who will have a leading role in the implementation of the action to enhance the localisation outcomes of the DRA. Plan will be responsible and accountable for the project's implementation and will provide technical support to PFP, while PFP is fully involved in both the design and the implementation of the project, leading in particular on the cash for work element and the renovation of water sources and latrines. Plan will in turn lead the procurement processes and the AAP, as well as protection mainstreaming more generally. Particular priority will be given to capacity building on gender and protection mainstreaming. 

As mentioned above, coordination and complementarity with ZOA's project will be key, and PFP will play a major role in this due to them collaborating with both ZOA and Plan in geographically adjacent areas as well as in similar sectors. Complementarity will be sought in particular on the cash for work and MPC aspects, as vulnerable households not able to participate in cash for work for safety/protection reasons could be referred to the MPC element, with both elements implemented by PFP.  This guarantees simple coordination, as PFP itself will be able to coordinate, supported by the Plan and ZOA teams. The project is also aligned to and coordinated with Tearfund's Shelter/MPC intervention, and approaches were coordinated at Myanmar level with SV and WV.