Vanuatu was struck by an extremely destructive cyclone, cyclone Pam, on the evening of March 13th in 2015. The category 5 cyclone affected an estimate of 166,000 people living on 22 islands, creating immediate needs for clean drinking water, emergency shelters and food. To provide information on the needs ensuing from the disaster, IMPACT deployed a REACH team to support the response led by the Global Shelter Cluster.

The data collected by REACH was used to develop the Shelter Cluster’s response strategy, as well as feeding into the shelter section of the World Bank post-disaster needs assessment, and the multi-sector needs assessment led by the Government of Vanuatu. Following the completion of shelter activities outlined in the Humanitarian Action Plan in July, REACH was redeployed to Vanuatu in August the same year to conduct a detailed evaluation of the shelter response.