The Vanuatu government has opened two new Provincial Emergency Operations Centres as part of ongoing efforts to improve national disaster coordination.
The two new centres, in Malampa and Sanma provinces, have capacity for at least three National Disaster Management Officers and are equipped to send and receive real-time disaster information.
The National Disaster Management Office said a need to improve communication between the country's response coordination agencies became apparent following Cyclone Pam in March 2015.
Poor communication was identified as having led to misdirection of vital relief supplies.
Decentralising disaster management capacity is part of the government's five-year plan to improve national disaster coordination.
The new centres were funded by the European Union through the Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific Project, with a total cost of around $US800,000.