Disasters and climate change disproportionately affect women more than men due to less access and control over resources and opportunities that can lead to more resilient lives and livelihoods. Social and cultural gender norms and expectations may also affect their level of participation in formal spaces where decisions are made on community disaster preparedness and management. (Robles et al., 2019)

Disaster risk management programs and interventions may also not address the gender-specific needs and capacities of the community, which may reinforce gender inequalities and increase the vulnerabilities of women. Increasing women’s participation and leadership in disaster risk planning and management ensures that their capacities are considered, and their needs are addressed.

One of the goals of the Philippines: Increasing the Resilience to Natural Hazards (INCREASE) project, is to strengthen the disaster preparedness and risk reduction capacities of communities through creating resilient livelihoods for poor female-headed households. It aims to help women gain social recognition and increase their involvement in decision-making processes in the community. The project is guided by CARE’s Gender Equality Framework (Figure 1) which posits that in order to improve gender equality, interventions should aim to build the agency of women, change the power relations through which they live their lives, and transform social, political, and economic structures that affect their lives. (CARE, 2020)

The INCREASE Project, led by CARE Philippines, was implemented with local partners Agri-Aqua Development Coalition Mindanao (AADC Mindanao), Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development, Inc. (ACCORD), Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CorDis RDS), and Leyte Center for Development, Inc. (LCDE). INCREASE is also guided by the Integrated Risk Management (IRM) Framework which combines strategies from Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), and Ecosystem Management and Restoration (EMR) to increase community resilience.

This research brief presents the INCREASE Project’s key strategies, challenges and lessons learned in promoting women’s meaningful participation and leadership in managing livelihoods and community resilience-building.]

View and download the full document here.

Floods, typhoons, and other extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change and the deterioration of natural environments. These hazards can turn into disasters which have devastating impacts on at-risk communities especially those whose livelihoods are dependent on natural resources like those in the agriculture and fisheries sector (FAO, 2011).

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR, 2017) defines disaster as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts.”

Correspondingly, CARE determined that disaster risk depends on the likelihood and severity of the hazard, vulnerability of people and assets, and the capacity of individuals and communities (Figure 1) (Dulce et al., 2020). Disasters can reduce a community’s capabilities and assets to maintain their livelihoods by destroying their physical, human, financial, natural, and social capital. They often cause destruction of infrastructure, such as roads, irrigation facilities, and docks, that negatively affect economic activities. This is often exacerbated in poor communities where cheap and less durable construction materials, like recycled wood or corrugated galvanized iron sheets (yero), are used. Disasters also lead to decreased human capital through death, injury, and disease. (Jacobsen et al., 2011)

However, it is important to understand that not all hazards result in disaster. Hazards turn into disasters when:

1. It affects the majority of a community’s population.
2. It affects a vulnerable community and disrupts their daily activities and livelihoods.
3. A community does not have enough capacity to recover on its own and requires external aid. (Dulce et al., 2020)

Research brief 2 Incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Sustainable Livelihoods

This Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) material was used during the COVID-19 Emergency WASH Assistance to Conflict and Earthquake Affected Communities in Mindanao funded by USAID.

To view and download the full document in TAGALOG, please click here. 

To view and download the full document in MARANAO, please click here. 

INTRODUCTION

Gender equality matters for both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). All citizens have a right to participate in the public life of their society, but different groups of citizens face different barriers to doing so. Women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors historically faced systematic exclusion from public decision-making processes and continue to be widely under-represented across the world. Further, women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors often have different needs and experiences of government and public services, and therefore may prioritize different things from their governments and service providers. Intersectionalities across gender, sexual identity, age, race, ethnicity, ability, location, and access can further discrimination and limit voice and access to vital services.

However, the important priorities and needs of these communities are often poorly understood and under-supported. Diverse, substantive participation in governance processes like OGP and its action plan co-creation processes strengthens both the legitimacy and effectiveness of these mechanisms, truly broadening the base of participation.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) that work across gender equality and equity issues are an important democratic mechanism for aggregating, representing, and applying pressure to secure the interests of women, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors. OGP coordination bodies need to actively facilitate a range of these CSOs and social movement actors to participate in the co-creation of OGP action plans, if it is to harness the ideas and expertise of diverse citizens, and be relevant to their needs and priorities.

The Feminist Open Government (FOGO) Initiative was created to generate research, data, and practical tools to support OGP members in better using OGP as a mechanism to advance gender equality. This Gender Toolkit was produced based on several pieces of research that started under the FOGO Initiative and has continued within OGP’s broader gender and inclusion efforts.

The use of the tools can be facilitated by an OGP government or civil society stakeholder, a third-party facilitator, or a resource person with gender expertise. A third-party facilitator may be best able to explain concepts to participants, ask probing questions to prompt deeper thinking, moderate the discussion to surface different points of view, and facilitate consensus around actions to be taken after the tools are used.

Note that this toolkit will reference women, girls, non-binary individuals, and LGBTQIA+ actors as specific stakeholders to engage and consult throughout co-creation and implementation. This will also appear as “gender equality actors” for shorthand. These categories are not comprehensive, and there are overlapping identities and intersectionalities within and across these groups that greatly impact voice, agency, and access. None of these groups are a monolith, and diverse consultation is needed across identities and experience to better ensure open government approaches serve a diversity of citizens.

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Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, and CARE Philippines, and its local partners ACCORD and Nisa Ul Haqq Fi Bangsamoro continue to build resilience among the urban poor communities and local government units in Mindanao through the adoption, consolidation, dissemination, and handover of urban resilience strategies developed under the past four (4) phases of the European Union Humanitarian Aid-funded MOVE UP projects. The project builds on its constantly evolving urban resilience model through AlternativeTemporary Shelter System, Resilient Livelihood, and shock-responsive social protection by integrating Anticipatory Action and Rapid Response Mechanisms.A strong advocacy component at all levels of administration will support the replication and scaling up of these strategies.

Read and download the full project briefer here.

ABOUT THIS PROCESS MANUAL

BACKGROUND
The MOVE UP 4 Mindanao Project with the help of various stakeholders, carried out two closely linked studies as stated hereunder:

1. Review of Vulnerability Criteria and Indicators in Targeting the Most Vulnerable and At-Risk Urban Poor in LGUs’ Social Protection Programs in Mindanao.
2. Assessment of Shock-Responsive, Resilient, and Sustainable Livelihood Options and Modalities for Urban Poor Households in Mindanao.

These studies were able to uncover various
international standards, national and local policies, plans, principles and practices on livelihoods and livelihood interventions. The two studies reaffirmed claims of various studies the intersections of vulnerabilities from various risks faced by the livelihood ecosystem in Mindanao. The landscape in all the areas covered are characterized by being volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Also, it was pointed out that in all areas, there is still a low level of capacity across the livelihood stakeholders in promoting and strengthening shock-responsive, resilient, and sustainable livelihood options despite the existence of international and national, and local players investing huge resources and implementing various interventions. The persistence of “disabling” livelihood coping mechanisms and strategies of the primary stakeholders are manifestations of such low capacity.

PURPOSES OF THE PROCESS MANUAL
This Manual is consisting of four (4) interrelated chapters: I. Introduction to Livelihoods and MSMEs; II. Profiling and Calculating Livelihood Risks and Hazards; III. Livelihood Assets and Market Assessment; and IV. Livelihood Resilience Development and Management. Chapter I provides the most straightforward and important concepts and frameworks for understanding livelihoods and MSMEs, and the necessity to blend the two technical concepts as instruments for addressing or reducing vulnerabilities of urban communities. Chapters II to IV provide frameworks, principles, and steps in promoting and strengthening livelihoods as enterprises and livelihood interventions going beyond integration into local governance processes.

Specifically, the purposes of this manual are the following:

1. To ensure that livelihoods and livelihood interventions are risk-informed, culturally appropriate, conflict-sensitive, and are adequately targeting the most vulnerable and at-risk urban population.
2. To adopt modern and innovative approaches that are usually applied in complex and chaotic contexts.
3. To guide all the livelihood stakeholders in a detailed manner emphasizing the mutuality of their roles in every stage of livelihood development and management.

INTENDED USERS
The simple ‘how-to” guidelines described in this manual are the results of careful selection and amalgamation of various international, national, subnational, and local frameworks and standards. Amalgamating these frameworks and standards was geared towards considering a wide range of intended users, especially the primary stakeholders and LGUs in Mindanao. The Manual is a multidisciplinary tool. Therefore, the tool could be more useful if a team with multidisciplinary background is co-owning the complex vulnerability issues towards cocreating innovative solutions pointing to shock-responsive, resilient, and sustainable livelihoods.

View and download the full document here.

MOVE UP- Mindanao is funded by the EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid and is implemented by a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which include CARE Philippines, ACCORD Incorporated, Plan International Philippines, and Action Against Hunger Philippines.

Introduction (Excerpted from the book)

The Moving Urban Poor Communities toward Resilience (MOVE UP 4), in its 4th iteration, continuously aims to build on the important work of resilience building. In the middle of its implementation, the world changed as we know it as the pandemic ravaged the country and affected the lives and livelihoods of our people. This pushed us to ask, what is the relevance of MOVE UP in this time of pandemic? What is the importance of resilience-building in this new normal?

MOVE UP is a consortium of international humanitarian organizations Action Against Hunger Philippines, PLAN International, CARE Philippines and its local partner ACCORD, Inc. Funded by the European Union, the project aims to aims to contribute in building the resilience of urban poor populations to withstand and manage the impact of natural and man-made disasters by strengthening urban disaster preparedness, response and management capacity of the National, Sub-national and Local government units, and other stakeholders through the adaption and/or replication of tested Urban Resilience strategies. When we say our urban resilience strategies are tested, we mean it as, MOVEUP’s Urban Resilience Framework and its interventions come form tried and tested implementation experience since 2016. Every iteration, we try to improve and enhance what we have been doing to better serve our communities. In MOVE UP 1 we piloted these strategies in Malabon, Quezon City and Valenzuela. Coming from that experience, we expanded to include Navotas and Caloocan in 2017, to consolidate and refine these strategies. We proved the effectiveness of these and we realized that it can be scaled-up, so we did MOVE UP 3 to cover Metro Manila, Cebu, and Cotabato City in 2018. Now in MOVE UP 4, we focused on Mindanao
to further expand beyond disasters to consider the conflict setting and also adapt our strategies to make it flexible in different cultural contexts. Moreover, we strengthened our national advocacy and partnered with DSWD through the Sustainable Livelihood Program and DILG’s Local Government Academy.

The impetus for resilience-building is a no-brainer for a country like the Philippines. We are one of the countries most affected by the impacts of climate change. Located at the western side of the Pacific, we are at the Pacific Ring of Fire and is known to be an ‘exporter of typhoons’. Socio-economic and political risks abound which led to instability, armed conflict, and inequality. The National Government and local government units, albeit trying their best to respond to these issues, are overwhelmed with the enormous challenges. And then came the pandemic— years of economic growth and efforts in lifting people out of poverty are erased.

We are firm when we say that MOVEUP’s resilience strategies work and are applicable in different contexts. But adapting to the novelty of the pandemic? How do we do that? Through grounded risk assessments and working together with our partner communities and government agencies, we have identified strategies and approaches to respond to the different effects of the pandemic. Originally meant for safe and secured shelters for families in evacuation centers during disasters, our Alternative Temporary Shelter Systems have been used as Community Quarantine Facilities helping LGUs better manage COVID transmission in their localities. Our Resilient Livelihood strategies continuously help vulnerable and at-risk households access social and financial capital, through diversified livelihood activities, promotion of savings, and building linkages to government programs and services. This is more relevant now as MSMEs and the informal labor economy, sectors where a majority of vulnerable people are involved, are greatly affected by the pandemic. The Consortium is also active in pushing for a better way of identifying vulnerable and at-risk populations so that when there is a need to provide immediate support in response to disasters and pandemics, like the Social Amelioration Program, local government units will have a database of affected individuals and households based on an integrated and holistic vulnerability targeting system.

Integral to resilience-building is capacity development. Being at the forefront of responding to disasters, we help our partner local government units improve their systems, structures, and processes to make it more responsive and effective. We implement projects together and nourish our partnership to form new champions of resilience-building inside the government. We influence national policies and programs based on our experience working with the local government units. With this approach, we ensure that the gains of MOVE UP in resilience-building will be localized, replicated and sustained in the long term.

At the heart of our work is building resilience in our communities. We put value in working with them as they are the ones experiencing all the effects of natural and human-induced disasters. With that, they are also the primary agents in responding and adapting to these shocks and stresses. We try to create an enabling environment by working with local government units, national government agencies and other organizations, so that people can thrive to reach their potential and their aspirations for their communities. We build their capacities so that they can
improve their social positions and engage with individuals and organizations that can support them.

At this crucial juncture, we should put more effort in resilience-building. This is a collective endeavor, and so we work closely with national government agencies, local government units and various institutions and agencies. Lastly, the key to the effectiveness and relevance of MOVE UP’s resilience strategies is a belief in our communities’ collective struggle in building their resilience and thriving amidst all the challenges.

Beyond MOVE UP, we have our local government units and our communities in resilience building in the new normal.

View and download the full document here. 

MOVE UP- Mindanao is funded by the EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid and is implemented by a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which include CARE Philippines, ACCORD Incorporated, Plan International Philippines, and Action Against Hunger Philippines.

In partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment, the MOVE UP project explores different social protection strategies for the informal economy.

You may access the following presentations decks enumerated and linked below:

1. Department of Labor and Employment Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program
2. Social Protection Overview
3. DOLE Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (DILEEP)
   
4. National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) for the Workers in the Informal Sector
5. Good Practice on Social Protection Response: Livelihood Resilience (Work Productivity) and Social Protection in the Informal Economy Synthesis

MOVE UP- Mindanao is funded by the EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid and is implemented by a consortium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which include CARE Philippines, ACCORD Incorporated, Plan International Philippines, and Action Against Hunger Philippines.

The MOVE UP Resilient Livelihood Full Module is composed of 9 modules on various topics to help urban poor communities build more capacities. The modules were written based on the project’s wide experience in community-based enterprise development.

View and download the full document here.