Tilly Alcayna is a Research Consultant for the DisasterNet project which focuses on supporting local and national capacity for disaster preparedness and response in the Philippines, as part of the Resilient Communities Program. Previously, Tilly has worked in the Philippines, Nepal, Colombia, and South Sudan, conducting disaster risk and health assessments. She is the Director of Futureproof-Ideas an international research consultancy that brings together expertise from different disciplines to generate sustainable solutions to cross-cutting problems related to health, the environment, and society. Previously she has worked for the European Commission, the British Red Cross in the UK Operations Division, and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in the Expedition Advisory Centre in London. Tilly holds a Masters in Public Health in Disasters (MPH) jointly from the Universidad de Oviedo, Spain and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. She also holds a Bachelor in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in socio-ecological systems, disaster risk reduction, environmental health and humanitarian assistance.
Dr. Bollettino is the Director of Resilient Communities Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative .Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Bollettino served for five years as Executive Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Dr. Bollettino has twenty years of professional and academic experience in international politics, humanitarian action, civil-military engagement in emergencies, and the security of humanitarian aid workers. He has spent that past fourteen years of his career at Harvard University in administration, teaching, and research. Current research focuses on civil military engagement during humanitarian emergencies, the security of humanitarian aid workers, and on the professionalization of the humanitarian aid field. Dr. Bollettino has managed several large training and policy development initiatives related to international humanitarian law, responsibility to protect, and peace building operations and has designed security reporting systems and program evaluations for field security measures in complex emergencies. He has authored several publications related to disaster management and humanitarian assistance, and has consulted with numerous international nongovernmental organization and UN agencies. He has taught courses on research design, peace building, and international politics at the Harvard Extension School. Dr. Bollettino came to Harvard University on a post-doctoral fellowship with the Program on Non-violent Sanctions and Cultural Survival at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He completed his Ph.D. at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Dr. Bollettino currently serves on the boards of ELRHA (Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance), ACF (Action Against Hunger), and the International Solutions Group.
Patrick Vinck, Ph.D. Director of research, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Assistant professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Introduction: The Philippines is one of the top countries in the world at risk of climate-related disasters. For populations subsisting at the poverty line in particular, but also the nation as a whole, daily lives and wellbeing are routinely challenged. The Philippines government takes disaster risk seriously and has devoted significant resources to build disaster capacity and reduce population exposure and vulnerability, nationally and locally. This paper explores the policy and institutional mechanisms for disaster risk reduction management and research which have been conducted in the Philippines related to disaster preparedness, management and resilience.
Methods: This study draws on direct observations of and conversations with disaster management professionals, in addition to a review of the extant literature on resilience and disaster preparedness, in the Philippines. This is a descriptive study based on a search of mainly peer-reviewed studies but also articles, reports, and disaster risk reduction and response projects in the Philippines. Search words used in various combinations included: Resilience, Philippines, Disaster Preparedness, Community-based, Disaster Risk Reduction, Capacity-building.
Results: Numerous activities in community based resilience and DRR have been identified across the whole disaster continuum. Yet, important gaps in research and practice remain.
Discussion: The Philippines, is a leading regional actor in disaster risk management. However, a full picture of who is doing what, how, where and when on resilience and disaster preparedness does not exist. Consequently there is no single study that compares the impacts and results that different preparedness measures are having in the Philippines. We recommend further research focussed on mapping the network of actors, understanding community perceptions of disaster risk preparedness and resilience, and investigation into the socio-ecological systems of different communities.
An archipelago of over 7,100 islands, the Philippines is the fourth most at-risk country in the world in terms of climate-related natural disasters, such as typhoons, sea level rise, flooding and extreme temperature.
This paper explores the policy and institutional mechanisms for disaster risk reduction management and research which have been conducted in the Philippines related to disaster preparedness, management and resilience. Here, the term ‘preparedness’ follows the UNISDR definition of “the knowledge and capacities developed by governments, professional response and recovery organizations, communities and individuals to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from, the impacts of likely, imminent or current hazard events or conditions”. The definition of resilience is also taken from UNISDR terminology to mean “the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions”. It provides an assessment of extant research on the theory and practice of community-based resilience, highlights the gaps in activities being conducted, and finishes by providing recommendations of key priorities for the future of resilience and DRR work in the Philippines, a leading regional actor in disaster risk management.
In addition to a scoping study undertaken in the Philippines in September, 2015
This is a descriptive study based on a search of mainly peer-reviewed studies but also articles, reports, and disaster risk reduction and response projects in the Philippines. Data was collected on disaster-related projects to-date. The review was done using search engines such as Google Scholar and Harvard Library HOLLIS+. Search words used in various combinations included: Resilience, Philippines, Disaster Preparedness, Community-based, Disaster Risk Reduction, Capacity-building.
Project specific reports by NGOs, mostly found in the grey literature, have limited inclusion as it was beyond the scope of this paper to assess all previous and on-going projects. Rather, this paper seeks to explore current research in resilience and disaster risk management in the Philippines to understand how research is informing disaster risk management policy and practice in the Philippines.
Like resilience, ‘community’ is a popular term that is still loosely defined in the literature.
The Philippines has a strong set of policies, frameworks and plans for disaster risk reduction (DRR), through which work on resilience can be grounded. The key law is the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (DRRM Law). The DRRM Act establishes local councils at the regional, provincial, municipal, and community levels that replicate the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council's (NDDRMC) responsibilities; however, these local councils are often understaffed or lacking professionalisation and a significant gap exists as the NDRRMC cannot supervise all the local councils.
It is uncertain how well disaster risk is communicated to the public, how many projects focus on improving community knowledge on hazards and disaster risk, and challenges remain in measuring and assessing the complex nature of all the factors which can influence disaster risk locally. There are limited studies to measure the combined socio-ecological resilience of the Philippines, at local and national scales,
Early warning systems and evacuation plans necessarily rely on a public who understands their risks and understand the consequence of the information being disseminated, so that they can prepare appropriately in sufficient time.
It appears that community networks and reciprocity are the predominant mechanisms through which Filipinos cope with risk. Strong community or familial links have been shown to be just as effective as formal insurance schemes, post-disaster.
Capacity building is occurring across levels from local to national in the Philippines, but focus is predominantly at the local level where numerous actors and networks are collaborating with communities to identify existing capacities, as well as provide the opportunity to build infrastructure, which could minimise the impacts of a hazard.
The government is also contributing significantly to capacitating local government units (LGUs) by developing a checklist of actions to be taken, supplies to be procured, and important resources together with providing communications and contingency templates for disaster preparedness. These are aimed at the Mayors
"LGUs usually do not demand or procure research and analysis to inform their policy decision-making process on DRR" LGU municipalities and barangays lack up to date and sufficient contingency plans Political leaders lack adequate DRR training Schools have insufficient contingency plans on camp management and preparedness to act as the evacuation centres.
This assessment highlights the continued challenges of transforming policy beyond plans on paper.
The economic and geographic scale of destruction and damage to infrastructure, housing, communication lines,
There are cases of different actors working in parallel and duplicating efforts alongside cases of exemplary programming and collaboration. Successful programming included: collaborations between the government and communities for beneficiary selection; organisation of debris from coconut plantations to provide lumber for housing reconstruction; and the restoration of communication lines through emergency radio stations and private networks.
National NGOs were unaware of the cluster system and the cluster system did not actively engage with non-cluster actors, leading to a failure to engage with local actors. One study found that religious organisations, the private sector and local individuals distrusted the local and national government and so avoided collaboration and coordination. Coordination lacked between agencies due to the scale of the disaster. Cash transfers - unconditional and conditional - were used by at least 45 international humanitarians agencies reaching 1.4 million affected people, but were difficult to monitor and coordinate, resulting in many families receiving multiple cash transfers, which distorted the market.
Many lessons have been learnt from the response to Typhoon Haiyan, which will hopefully strengthen the national response mechanisms for equivalent future disasters as policies increasingly focus on preventative and proactive approaches to disaster management.
Rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction programmes in the Philippines are hindered by recurrent disasters, a lack of financial resources, and the politicisation of the process. Linking immediate relief with longer-term recovery and disaster risk reduction remains one of the most persistent challenges of the aid sector globally, largely because of continued under-funding of recovery programmes,
Numerous activities in community-based resilience and DRR have been identified across the whole disaster continuum. Yet important gaps in research and practice remain. Most noticeably, the extant studies fail to provide a full picture of who is doing what, how, where and when on resilience and disaster preparedness. Lacking this, there is consequently no single study that compares the impacts and results that different preparedness measures are having in the Philippines.
In addition, specific gaps were identified in programming focusing on public knowledge about risks; data collection and socio-ecological research; and understanding communities. Firstly, a changing climate and more extreme weather events mean that communities can no longer rely on past experience to help prepare for future disasters. Communities need to be able to access current continually updated information on what changing global environmental systems and the impacts of previous disasters mean for their future disaster risk. Secondly, important data and research which could help inform policy and disaster management decisions are lacking, including: published data on local, disaggregated environmental and ecological changes and how these changes feed into disaster risk; population-based surveys on disaster risk perceptions and preparations; research on how smaller scale disasters may erode resilience; and long-term recovery and relocation initiatives to ensure transformative adaptation towards greater resilience.
Many important questions remain to be addressed such as what training and support do local political leaders need so that they are more effective in DRR?
To further build on the ongoing disaster preparedness and resilience initiatives occurring in the Philippines, three top priorities for future work were identified:
Map the network and activities of national and international agencies and actors working on resilience and disaster preparedness. This mapping should capture who is doing what activities and where. It would help identify programmatic and geographic gaps and overlaps and contribute towards increasing coordination and mutual learning among the different actors. Research into community perceptions of disaster risk preparedness and resilience. Risk perception, cognitive barriers and cultural values shape how people will respond to disaster warnings and preparedness initiatives. Interventions and knowledge campaigns must be tailored to ensure maximum acceptance and adoption by people and their communities. This research is vital to help inform policy, initiatives, and operational programming. Increased research into the socio-ecological systems and what metrics can capture this system. This research must look at how climate change will impact environmental systems which in turn affect social systems; how certain demographics (e.g. informal settlers) may live in different socio-ecological systems compared to their wider communities. This research would help inform mitigation and prevention strategies alongside preparedness.
This paper assessed the extant research and practice of resilience and disaster preparedness in the Philippines, which serves as a good model on how to strengthen resilience and promote disaster risk reduction at the local level. Research and interventions are already identifying examples of best practice in disaster preparedness, response and recovery; however, important underlying drivers of disaster risk, such as a degrading environment and inequality, still remain over looked. With the frequency and intensity of disasters set to increase, communities are going to have to prepare more for worse events. This poses the question of how much longer we can react to disasters rather than mitigating them in the first place. The urgency with which we must address the research gaps across the disaster cycle, and in particular in preventing and mitigating disaster risk alongside preparedness, is mounting. Research findings must then be translated in policy decisions with committed implementation. A greater prioritisation of mitigation, prevention and preparedness is not only economically advantageous, but from a humanitarian point of view, reduces the human costs, and aligns with initiatives on sustainable development.
There is no raw data associated with this paper.
Tilly Alcayna: t.alcayna@gmail.com
Vincenzo Bollettino: vbollett@hsph.harvard.edu