Types Archives - Page 13 of 18

Excerpt: Introduction

Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme events and disasters.1 While disaster risk reduction (DRR) offers an important opportunity to adapt to current climate variability, in order to be successful, DRR efforts must also take into account changing climate‐related risks in the medium to long term. Many national climate change adaptation plans consider the need to plan over various timescales and acknowledge the essential role of local communities2 in addressing these changing risks. The Minimum Standards for climate‐smart disaster risk reduction were created to serve as an essential bridge between national climate policy and local capacities for DRR. The standards are not idealized solutions, but rather practical approaches to implementing climate‐smart DRR activities in a way that is achievable by many communities with relatively limited external support.

The Minimum Standards are presented in two tables: The first table outlines standards meant to guide local leaders, oftentimes selected by their community (e.g. Red Cross local disaster preparedness volunteers), to inform and facilitate resilience building across the wider community. The second table focuses on the role of national and provincial civil society organizations (CSOs) in providing supplemental guidance for improving the flow of information between various types of scientific ‘knowledge centres’ and vulnerable communities, to enable implementation of climate‐smart DRR. For local actors and their counterparts in CSOs, the Minimum Standards are intended as a practical tool, allowing them to integrate changing climate risks into their efforts to support communities reduce risk to extreme events and disasters. When the Minimum Standards are met, local DRR actions can be considered to be climate-smart and contribute to climate change adaptation. This lends importance to the Minimum Standards for national actors as well, who may use the standards to guide integration of community‐level action on DRR into national adaptation and climate risk management strategies. National strategies that consider these standards will be able to go to scale, knowing that they are realistic and achievable. Overall, these standards provide assurance that DRR goes beyond business as usual and truly addresses changing climate‐related risks.

The minimum standards are based on ample local experience and consultation, including lessons learned during the first years of the Partners for Resilience program, the largest program of its kind focusing on local‐level climate‐smart DRR. The Minimum Standards are a living document that should continue to be
discussed, tested, revised and validated through local‐level activities around the world.

View and download the full document here.

Rationale of the Resilience Knowledge Exchnage Series Session 6 Webinar:

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought pervasive fears and new policies that change our way of life. As local efforts and hopes center on contact tracing and finding a vaccine, little attempts have been undertaken to view the environment in direct relation with COVID-19.

The environment is ultimately interconnected with mankind. Its degradation affects the quality of life of all individuals and living beings on earth. Locally, there has been no significant inquiry into how the environment, especially its degradation, might have influenced the pandemic. Neither is there any grand investigation on how the pandemic has affected the environment in turn. Could certain signs detected from environmental patterns and elements point us to the trends, causes, and cures of the pandemic? This question remains unasked, and therefore, unanswered.

The COVID-19 and the Environment webinar attempts to address this question, as two researchers discuss the impact of environmental degradation on the pandemic, including the current research and proposed projects in monitoring COVID-19. One such research focuses on waterways as early warning systems or a monitoring system for disease detection, especially for COVID-19. The other research centers on hazardous waste for the same purpose.

Though similar proposals have already been implemented internationally, no such research inquiry has been localized yet. Through this research, monitoring will be much more efficient, as specific areas and focus will be detected earlier.

Discussing innovative perspectives and tools offers us an alternative way of assuaging anxieties during this time of crisis. At the same time, it helps widen our understanding to include elements previously thought to be lateral but are actually quite essential: the environment.

The presentation on wastewater-based monitoring for predicting pandemics and outbreaks aims to explain the concept, importance, and potential of the said topic. This presentation was created and presented by Dr. Marilen Parungao Balolong, DRPH, DPAM, Professor and University Scientist at the University of the Philippines Manila.

To access a soft copy of this material, click here.

Requested by INCREASE local partner, CorDis-RDS, an informational material in Filipino language was created to outline specific steps that families can do when a member is infected with the virus.

Click the image below to enlarge and download this material.

INCREASE or “Philippines – Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards” aims to aims to increase the resilience of 45,00 women and men small scale farmers and fishers, including 720 extremely poor female-headed households, to natural hazards and the effect of climate change. The project will run from 2019-2021 in different parts of the Philippines, namely 36 barangays across 8 municipalities in the provinces of Cagayan, Mt. Province, Northern Samar, and Surigao del Sur. Its project components and activities include early warning systems, alternative livelihood, and climate and disaster governance.

The ACCORD Model for disaster risk reduction was borne out of the experience of implementing the community-based disaster risk reduction called ACCORD (or Strengthening Assets and Capacities of Communities and Local Government Units for Resilience to Disasters) and two follow-up projects: ACCORD-2 and ACCORD-3. Subsequently, ACCORD-3 was incorporated into ASCEND (or Advancing Safer Communities and Environments against Disasters) which is a consortium project between CARE Nederland and Christian Aid. The ACCORD model, however, also the good practices and lessons from the humanitarian response, and other projects of CARE Nederlands and partners in the Philippines. The ACCORD model also draws inspiration from the experiences in DRR of other practitioners in the Philippines and abroad.

The ACCORD Model is constantly evolving, as the organizations behind the model, ACCORD Incorporated, CNDR, CorDis RDS, AADC, and CARE Nederland, strive for quality DRR programming. The ACCORd model makes use of community-based DRR and rights-based approach as the complementary frameworks for disaster risk reduction. Climate change adaptation is being combined with DRR. Sustainable natural resource management is also strongly promoted as a complementary approach, and more recently, the more comprehensive ecosystem management and restoration.

The ACCORd model is being documented and shared on the hopes that, based on specific contexts, it can provide useful knowledge about DRR practices of communities, people’s organizations, local authorities, schools, and other practitioners.

View, read, and download the full document here.

This book has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) under the 7th DIPECHO Action Plan for Southeast Asia. The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of the European Commission.

ECHO us one of the world’s largest providers of financing for humanitarian aid operations. Through its Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO), it assists vulnerable people living in the main disaster-prone regions of the world in reducing the impact of natural disasters on their lives and livelihoods.

This document is a compilation of various inputs to the Sunset Review of Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010.

The Partners for Resilience (PfR) Alliance has been working since 2011 to reduce the impact of natural hazards on vulnerable people in nine countries globally by the Netherlands Red Cross, CARE Nederland, Cordaid, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and Wetlands International, and our many local partners.

In the Philippines, PfR is being implemented by the Philippine Red Cross, Assistance Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD), Afri-Aqua DEvelopment Coalition (AADC), Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CorDisRDS), and Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CNDR) in at least 44 barangays across 8 municipalities and 2 cities; in 4 provinces; in 3 regions. Technical support is also being provided by the IIRR, Wetlands International, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

The PfR approach, methodology, and tools are being applied by implementing partners in other programming initiatives including relief and recovery projects in Yolanda-affected areas and disaster risk reduction initiatives in other high-risk areas in the country.

We are one with the national government and with all our partner communities and LGUs in advancing the national and local DRRM strategy. We are prepared to assist the governing agencies in developing the most appropriate strategy for the country. Together with all those who work for national and community-level resilience, including the community members themselves, we aim that this review will establish the long-term strategy for an integrated DRR in the Philippines.

Successes of RA 10121

It helped strengthen the country’s DRRM system and provide a national DRRM framework and institutionalize the national DRRM plan

It has guided the country’s paradigm shift from being reactive towards proactive approaches and strategies in addressing disaster and climate risks

It had spurred local government units to better prepare for emergencies and steered them towards a course that equitably gives importance to response, rehabilitation and recovery, preparedness, and mitigation and prevention.

Read more about key propositions, specific recommendations, and suggested texts in the complete document.

View and download the full document here.

This community-level minimum health standards design was created to be printed in strategic locations to help disseminate preventive measures for COVID-19.

View and download a copy of this material here.

Excerpt: Foreword

The core of our mission is to save and preserve lives. One of the ways to do so effectively is to empower people and communities as well as governments, when feasible, to be better prepared on how to respond and protect themselves in the face of crises. Preparedness for response is a critical element for resilience. And the earlier and the more local a response is, the more effectively it can save lives.

DG ECHO has supported capacity building in preparedness for response for over two decades through dedicated actions and funding. As the sample of so many different experiences in this compendium demonstrates, the variety of our work has been significant – from strengthening mechanisms to alert the population if a cyclone is approaching, to promoting people’s awareness on hygiene measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases or strengthening the capacity of local authorities to assist people in displacement due to a disaster or conflict.

Through the years, our work has continuously adjusted to the evolving nature of the crises and the needs they generate, preparing to respond to natural hazards but also to violence stemming out of conflict or social tensions. Moreover, as climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather events, DG ECHO is increasingly promoting ways of working that help anticipate these events – thus allowing to act earlier, before a disaster happens save more lives and increase resilience.

We have learned and achieved a lot in our long engagement in preparedness, since the start of the Disaster Preparedness (DIPECHO) programme in 1996 until now. We want to build on this experience to increase the coherence, effectiveness and timeliness of our work in preparedness. We want to better address emerging risks from climate, fragility and conflict and fully embed preparedness in our humanitarian mandate. It is in this spirit that DG ECHO is currently renewing its approach to preparedness that will consolidate in a new guidance as of 2021.

Let me conclude by saying that we could not save lives without our partners. Our gratitude goes to them for tirelessly working to put all this in practice and propose innovative solutions. We look forward to continuing our cooperation for a world that is better prepared and hence, more resilient.

Ms Paraskevi Michou
Director General
DG ECHO

The compendium features a relevant collection of stories of or relating to disaster preparedness programs and innovations. The Moving Urban Poor Communities Toward Resilience (MOVE UP) Philippines Project, a constant Resilience and Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) collaborator and partner, was also highlighted in the compendium. Moreover, the document includes stories and cases from but not limited to Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Yemen, and Bhutan.

Read and download the full document here.

From PUIs to PUMs, the Philippines has shifted to a new classification of COVID-19 patients. To make sure that communities are informed of these changes and to help them to better understand COVID-19-related news and information, this infographic was created.

Click to the image below to enlarge and save a soft copy of this material.

“Philippines – Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards” or “INCREASE” aims to aims to increase the resilience of 45,00 women and men small scale farmers and fishers, including 720 extremely poor female-headed households, to natural hazards and the effect of climate change. INCREASE will run from 2019-2021 in different parts of the Philippines.

INCREASE will be working with 36 barangays across 8 municipalities in the provinces of Mt. Province, Cagayan, Northern Samar, and Surigao del Sur. These barangays are among the most vulnerable communities that are the first to be impacted by strong rain and typhoons along the east coast of the Philippines. These communities share the same landscape – upland, riverline, coastal – building on the landscape approach of the project.

View and download the full briefer here.

Humanitarian actors around the world are becoming overwhelmed with increasingly destructive, complex, and chronic disasters. Globally, more than 200 million people are affected by natural disasters every year, with those living in low-income countries being three times as much affected as those in high-income nations. Just as people are recovering from one disaster, another one comes along, setting back humanitarian response and development gain. This setback can be avoided by humanitarian assistance and strengthening resilience.

Watch the full video below:

You may also learn more about CARE Netherlands by accessing their website here.