Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes, 28 August 2020 COVID-19 Response
LOCATION Teleconference
DATE 28 August 2020
CHAIR Samuel Kealey
PARTICIPANTS AECID Alejandro Fuentes CLRAH Melissa Sanchez Kirsch IOM Naisa Snape OCHA Dario Alvarez Save the Children Ayack Montalvan UNHCR Carina Chung UNHCR Joyce El Murr UNHCR Roger Llevat UNHRD Francisco Quesada UNICEF Leon Cases Gonzalez UNICEF Pablo Llopis WFP Gabriela Candano WFP Lila Ricart WFP Mabel Dominguez WFP Nafimert Kazmirci WFP Nivia Quirós WFP Salvador Peña WFP Samuel Kealey
ACTION POINTS
• Working group to determine 3 group goals next week in preparation of the development of a work plan later in September. • WFP to post relevant working group updates and documents on a dedicated Humanitarian Response webpage. • WFP to share updates on passenger flights as they become available.
AGENDA 1. Global Logistics Activities and the Global Appeal for WFP Service Delivery 2. Regional Logistics Bottlenecks
Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes, 28 August 2020 COVID-19 Response
1. Global Logistics Activities and the Global Appeal for WFP Service Delivery
• The following flights took place this week. o 25 August: ▪ Mexico City (Toluca Airport) – Guatemala City – Panama City. ▪ Bogota – Panama City – Bogota – Lima. o 26 August: Panama City – Port-au-Prince. The flight to Venezuela was cancelled. o 27 August: Panama City – Mexico City (Toluca Airport). • As WFP currently has a delegation in Venezuela requiring a return flight, in the first week of the September, the regular schedule was adjusted and the following flights will take place: o 1 September: ▪ Mexico City (Toluca Airport) – Guatemala City – Tegucigalpa – San Salvador – Panama City. ▪ Bogota – Panama City – Bogota. o 2 September: Panama City – Port-au-Prince – Caracas – Panama City. o 4 September: Panama City – Caracas – Panama City o 5 September: Panama City – San Salvador – Tegucigalpa – Guatemala City – Mexico City (Toluca Airport) • Organizations wishing to book flights for passengers entering or exiting Venezuela must submit a “nota verbal” to the Venezuelan migration authorities 72 hours prior to the scheduled flight. For more information and the template for the nota verbal, please visit the Humanitarian Booking Hub (link below) for more information. Or contact Mabel Dominguez ([email protected]) for more information. • WFP must comply with several operational requirements imposed by the airlines and the national governments- such as submitting finalized paperwork at least 7 days before the flight and obtain final flight clearances prior to flight. • Partners are encouraged to communicate with their aviation focal point responsible for booking flights. • Please check the Humanitarian Booking Hub to see find the schedule and all relevant information related to scheduled flights: https://humanitarianbooking.wfp.org/. • All passengers are responsible for booking their own accommodations and connecting flights. • The WHO Supply Portal allows organisations and Governments to submit their needs and requests for purchase of critical items: https://covid-19-response.org/. • All requests for the transportation of supplies to WFP done outside the WHO Supply Portal, must be made on the Emergency Service Marketplace (ESM) platform https://emergency.servicemarketplace.wfp.org/. • Smaller consignments destined to various countries in the region continue to be dispatched by UNHRD dispatched by the UNHRD Regional Hub. A consignment of Jack Ma foundation cargo destined for Ecuador was dispatched today. • WHO oxygen concentrators arrived in the Panama Hub this week. More UNICEF and WHO cargo expected to arrive in the coming weeks. • The Global Logistics Cluster maintains a COVID19-dedicated page on their website with real-time logistics information related to the COVID-19 response: https://logcluster.org/COVID-19. The cluster is also consolidating information on humanitarian organisations’ needs for international cargo transport using the Cluster
Panama Logistics Working Group Meeting Minutes, 28 August 2020 COVID-19 Response
Humanitarian Operational Coordination of Logistics and Air Transport (CHOCOLAT) Platform to connect partners with existing offers from non-WFP contracted flights. This platform can be found here.
2. Regional Logistics Bottlenecks
• Tropical storms Marco and Laura passed through the Caribbean, fortunately without creating extensive damage in the region. • Two more storm systems forming in the East-Atlantic. • Several countries have postponed the re-opening of their airports for commercial passenger flights: o 31 August: Honduras, Argentina and Ecuador o 1 September: Cuba, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia o 4-6-12 September: El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela o 14-18-21-26 September: Chile, Suriname, Panama, Costa Rica o 1 October: Trinidad & Tobago o 14-18 October: Belize, Nicaragua • Although many countries are extending closures for commercial passenger flights, an increased activity of U.S. Carriers in Central America and the Caribbean is being observed. In addition to that, European Carriers are also adding frequencies and new destinations for their repatriation operations. • Belize: Authorities have decided to keep border with Mexico closed indefinitely.
Contacts
John Myraunet [email protected] Nivia Quiros [email protected] Samuel Kealey [email protected] Mabel Dominguez [email protected] Mert Kazmirci [email protected] Lila Ricart (Global Logistics [email protected] Cluster)