UPU member countries have agreed to set up an Emergency and Solidarity Fund designed to respond more rapidly to natural disasters.
The detailed funding and management mechanisms have still to be finalized, and are due to be formally adopted by the UPU Council of Administration in November 2011.
"Natural disasters are on the increase, and each time disaster strikes the UPU has to draw up an urgent action plan and pull together resources, to help affected Posts," says Abdel Ilah Bousseta, the UPU's director of development cooperation.
In the past 10 years, the UPU has intervened to help the countries hit by every major natural disaster, as well as those emerging from war. From the South Asian tsunami to the Pakistan earthquake, via Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and post-war recovery in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Union has funded and delivered emergency assistance and sent experts and equipment to restore postal services, which in many cases had suffered severe damage.
Christian Blondin, senior external relations officer with the World Meteorological Organization, last Friday presented his organization's latest analysis on the consequences of climate change to the UPU committee responsible for development and cooperation. He warmly welcomed the creation of this emergency fund: "Weather forecasts are growing ever more accurate, so as soon as news of an impending disaster breaks, any organization that has this kind of fund in place can plan preventative measures and implement them rapidly, and organize effective recovery action in the field, without having to worry about funding."
The agreement in principle to launch the fund came on the day that Tropical Storm Tomas struck Haiti, which is still recovering from January's devastating earthquake.
The postal operators of Saint Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica have suspended their mail operations as a result of the heavy rain and flooding caused by Hurricane Tomas. The UPU is monitoring the situation closely. Last July, member countries inaugurated a new mail processing centre in Port au Prince to help restore postal services severely crippled by the January earthquake.