International

International system for emergencies. The Agency is part of an international system that responds to emergencies and includes

• the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
• the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC),
• a system for Consolidated Appeals, and
• accepted co-ordination structures and approaches to the provision of assistance during emergencies.

The Agency maintains, and provides financial support for, the co-ordination and development of these mechanisms, which helped the Government of Canada and the Agency respond to the tsunami. For example, the Agency provided funds to the operations of the UNJLC that responded to the tsunami.

Recipient government, international groups, and other donors. The Agency also maintains contact with recipient governments, international consultative groups, and other donors—notably those in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that help to determine and co-ordinate development assistance. These groups helped to identify

• the parameters for the response to the tsunami,
• the collaboration needed between recipient governments and international donors, and
• the roles of civil society and the private sector.

The Agency's deployment of relief supplies was only approved after a field agency that could receive and distribute them made a request. The Agency mainly funded UN agencies through the consolidated UN Flash Appeal. The Agency carefully reviewed Canadian non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) proposals, even those not funded by the matching-funds program, according to international standards of disaster response, operating approaches, and co-ordination.

Domestic

Matching-funds program. The matching-funds program has been a key element of the Agency's co-ordination of Canadian tsunami efforts. The Agency has met many times with Canadian NGOs to discuss

• operating procedures;
• the link between the help offered and the help needed (or required); and
• other essential elements for successful programming in the affected areas—for example, a special meeting was held with Canadian NGOs to discuss issues such as code of conduct and government expectations in Indonesia.

Reconstruction strategies, created for Indonesia and Sri Lanka, also helped to co-ordinate Canadian efforts. These were published on the Agency's tsunami Web site immediately following approval and were distributed to the 27 NGOs eligible for matching funds. The Agency will use the strategies to direct bilateral reconstruction funding in these two countries and help co-ordinate the use of matching funds for reconstruction purposes.

Canadian provinces and territories willingly contributed their public sector expertise and had regular contact every two weeks with the Agency, through conference calls and visits. The Agency developed guidelines and principles with the provinces and territories to facilitate their contributions.