The Moving Urban Poor Communities in Mindanao towards Resilience Project (MOVE UP-Mindanao) is an urban resilience project aimed at contributing to the resilience building of urban poor populations to withstand and manage the impact of disasters. It seeks to strengthen the urban disaster preparedness, response, and management capacity of the national, sub-national, and local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders through the adaption and replication of tested urban resilience strategies.

In partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Local Government Academy (DILG-LGA), the project intends to share its lessons learned, good practices, and innovations gathered and tested from its experience working with urban poor communities, municipalities, and provinces to contribute to the large-scale resilience-building effort. 

MOVE UP Mindanao is implemented by a consortium of international non-government organizations which includes Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, and CARE Philippines with its local partner ACCORD Inc. Funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the project is currently being implemented in nine (9) local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao.

The Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) Session covering this topic was held on May 27, 2021 which aimed to :

1. Share the experience of CARE and ACCORD regarding their IRM mainstreaming work;
2. Provide guidance on how to implement mainstreaming using the recently-published Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management: An Accompanying Guide to Planning; and
3. Serve as an introductory session and a preparation for more detailed, comprehensive IRM mainstreaming sessions in the future. 

This presentation on Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management in the Local Government Units’ Planning System was created and presented by Ms. Ma. Stella Dulce, IRM Specialist.

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

Looking for a presentation from the same event and can’t find it?

Kindly note that if there are unavailable presentations at the moment, they are still being finalized and will be uploaded as soon as available to the RILHUB team. 

The Moving Urban Poor Communities in Mindanao towards Resilience Project (MOVE UP-Mindanao) is an urban resilience project aimed at contributing to the resilience building of urban poor populations to withstand and manage the impact of disasters. It seeks to strengthen the urban disaster preparedness, response, and management capacity of the national, sub-national, and local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders through the adaption and replication of tested urban resilience strategies.

In partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Local Government Academy (DILG-LGA), the project intends to share its lessons learned, good practices, and innovations gathered and tested from its experience working with urban poor communities, municipalities, and provinces to contribute to the large-scale resilience-building effort. 

MOVE UP Mindanao is implemented by a consortium of international non-government organizations which includes Plan International Philippines, Action Against Hunger, and CARE Philippines with its local partner ACCORD Inc. Funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the project is currently being implemented in nine (9) local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao.

The Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) Session covering this topic was held on May 27, 2021 which aimed to :

1. Share the experience of CARE and ACCORD regarding their IRM mainstreaming work;
2. Provide guidance on how to implement mainstreaming using the recently-published Mainstreaming Integrated Risk Management: An Accompanying Guide to Planning; and
3. Serve as an introductory session and a preparation for more detailed, comprehensive IRM mainstreaming sessions in the future. 

This presentation on introducing the MOVE UP Project was created and presented by Mr. Roger Cabiles, MOVE UP Consortium Coordinator, Action Against Hunger.

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

Looking for a presentation from the same event and can’t find it?

Kindly note that if there are unavailable presentations at the moment, they are still being finalized and will be uploaded as soon as available to the RILHUB team. 

Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development, Incorporated or ACCORD is one of four founding members of the Resilience and Innovation Learning Hub. As a non-profit civil society organization, ACCORD works in partnership with the least-served, most vulnerable communities in the Philippines on resilience-building activities. Working hand-and-hand with poor communities, people’s organizations, local governments, and other civil society organizations, ACCORD works to harmonize approaches to climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and environmental protection. ACCORD has a long history of jointly developing and implementing projects together with CARE.

Last March 9 marked ACCORD’s 11th year of implementing development and humanitarian projects and programs across the country. Through conducting and implementing over 50 different projects, over 4 million Filipinos were reached in the past decade, a feat that contributed to strengthening communities across the nation, most especially those who belong to the most vulnerable sectors of society.

RILHUB’s reactivation in 2020 was greatly contributed to by partners and colleagues from ACCORD through the coordination and implementation of projects such as Partners for Resilience (PfR) and Moving Urban Poor Communities toward Resilience (MOVE UP). ACCORD has also contributed largely to the production of various knowledge and learning materials produced by RILHUB or available on the different RILHUB platforms.

On their official Facebook page, ACCORD shared a heartfelt, albeit short message of gratitude to who has been and is a part of their journey — be it from far-flung areas and communities, local agencies and government units, non-government organizations, and donors.

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.

To extend the RILHUB’s reach, we launched the Resilience and Knowledge Exchange Series (RKES) last June 2020 – monthly webinars where stakeholders and key decision-makers can share experiences, best practices, lessons learned, ideas, and innovations. 

In this session entitled “Planning for Typhoons During a Pandemic: A Practical Guide”, we held discussions on gaps and challenges of existing Contingency Plans for Typhoons in light of the current pandemic as well as replicable typhoon response practices. We also formulated a practical guide that aims to help communities update their current contingency plans.

A contingency planning checklist was developed from the inputs of more than 600 registrants. The document below was the one used during a special session of the RILHUB Resilience Knowledge Exchange Series for National Disaster Resilience Month. A more detailed and comprehensive checklist will also be uploaded after completion to include additional inputs from attendees and partners.

View and download the full contingency planning checklist here.

Story by ACCORD, Inc.

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting not just the health but also the livelihoods of people the world over. In Cotabato City, many from urban poor communities have been unable to work because of strict quarantine measures imposed across the Philippines midway through March 2020.

To help partner communities tap alternative sources of livelihood during the COVID-19 crisis, the Moving Urban Poor Communities Toward Resilience Project (MOVE UP) organized a mobile palengke (market) in five barangays of Cotabato City on June 13, 2020. This was also one way to make affordable, fresh, healthy food accessible to locals as they observe stay-at-home rules.

MOVE UP worked with the local government and two community savings groups (CSG), which are livelihood groups formed as part of the project’s strategies to enhance urban resilience by improving financial literacy and making livelihoods more resilient. Members of the participating CSGs – who, before the pandemic, made a living by selling food products, tailoring, or working as housekeepers – sold fish, chicken, fruits, vegetables, and spices at the mobile palengke.

Pre-activity consultations and planning

Throughout the whole process, the CSG members were actively involved in decision-making, and there was always proper coordination with the local government.

The first step was to conduct consultations with the relevant stakeholders. The team met with the barangay and city local government through the members of the project’s Technical Working Group on Resilient Livelihood, and members of the CSGs. The next phase involved figuring out which commodities to sell, making the necessary logistics arrangements, looking for cost-efficient suppliers, and computing for potential revenue, among other planning-related tasks.

To promote the activity, city and barangay local governments worked together to help spread the word.

Market day

The group went to all five barangays – Poblacion 3 and 9, and Rosary Heights 3, 4, and 5 – in one day. They had planned to spend two hours in each site, including the loading and unloading of items from the rented trucks. Staff members made announcements on-site in the local language using a megaphone. Physical distancing was observed, and the team used masks and disposable gloves.

Challenges and lessons

During the post-activity evaluations, several challenges were discussed. Planning and coordination was made more difficult by the quarantine because face-to-face meetings were discouraged, if not prohibited. Making sure the perishable goods stayed fresh – on the day itself and a few days after, in case there were leftovers – was also challenging. There were difficulties during procurement because stock availability was limited, another effect of the lockdown on supply chains. There was also a sharp price drop, particularly for fish, from the day of procurement to the day after the activity. Lastly, five barangays, with one to two market sites per barangay, may have been too many to cover in one day, as the loading and unloading process in each site was laborious and time-consuming.

Some CGS members also expressed hesitance to join future sessions. For one, sales projections made during this run of the mobile palengke may not be applicable to subsequent runs, as buyers begin to have more choices available due to the loosening up of movement restrictions. Some are also less inclined to do it again because they incurred some losses due to the price fluctuation.

But despite these concerns and the challenges they faced, the team has decided to try again and adjust based on the lessons they learned from the previous activity.

Focusing on people rather than just profit

The mobile palengke gave partner communities a chance to explore an alternative livelihood, and also brought food closer to communities whose access to markets has been difficult. It also allowed the MOVE UP team to see how else they could help improve the livelihoods of CSGs.

It was a good reminder that exploring alternative livelihoods entails taking risks – as all livelihood pursuits have associated risks – and learning from the challenges.

Most importantly, it was a reminder that making livelihoods more resilient is more than a quest for profitability. The systems that make livelihoods more likely to be profitable, sustainable, and humane must also be improved. This requires allowing communities to fully participate in the process (thereby improving their social positions) and working hand-in-hand with local governments (as a result, helping create a more enabling environment). The gains from these efforts may not be as tangible and immediate as turning a profit, but they pave the way for the longer-term, systemic changes needed to help empower urban poor communities.

To bolster urban resilience, then, we must place people, rather than just profit, at the center of livelihood efforts.

Through the EU Humanitarian Aid, the Move Up Project has been able to reach out to the most vulnerable families affected by the social and economic impacts of COVID-19.

Cebu City, which has been under stringent community quarantine measures due to its increasing COVID-19 cases, is home to more than 900,000 people as of 2015.

To date, the Community Savings Groups which are established through the project, have been continuously finding ways to diversify their livelihood options given the uncertain circumstances.

Hear more about their stories in this Champions’ Vlog .

The MOVE UP Project is an urban resilience effort funded by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid. It is implemented by Plan International Philippines, CARE Philippines, Action Against Hunger Philippines, and ACCORD Incorporated.

In the third installment of the Move Up Project vlog series, let’s get to know more about the journey of the Community Savings Groups (CSGs) in Cebu City. In one of the project training sessions, some key members of the groups were able to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which are crucial to their enterprises.

Through the said exercise, the groups were able to plan ahead the mitigating measures and how to maximize solutions available given the existing threats to their businesses’ success.

CSGs are the entry point of the project’s Resilient Livelihood intervention. Using this social group, capacity building activities are made to diversify their livelihood options and help the existing ones become more resilient and sustainable.

The MOVE UP Project is funded by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid and run by a consortium of Plan International Philippines, CARE Philippines, Action Against Hunger Philippines, and ACCORD Incorporated.