Gender Dimensions and Women’s Vulnerability in Disaster Situations: A Case Study of Flood Prone Areas Impacting Women in Malabon City, Metro Manila

Disasters are common in the Philippines, the effects of which are more adverse in the metropolis, characterized by population crowding and presence of geophysical hazards. Malabon City in Metro Manila is characterized by such risk factors to disasters. The target population of this study were women as they frequently remain at home while their husbands are out for work. The methodologies were both qualitative and quantitative through the use of key expert and subject interviews, and a survey questionnaire respectively. The objectives of the study were to look into the structure of Philippine disaster management, to investigate the role of institutions in the vulnerability of women to local disasters, and to identify the various experiences of disasters among women. The data showed that gender sensitivity was not included in reaching out to victims of disasters and that resilience is associated with reverting back to pre-disaster conditions without any mechanisms for preventing disasters. From the data, it can be surmised too that institutional intervention was not sufficient to mitigate the adverse effects of disasters due to its weak contribution to gendered social protection, the existence of politically induced discrimination, and the inadequacy of the services of the government. The vulnerability of households and communities to disaster occurrence is dependent on the interplay between natural and socio-economic conditions. In this interplay, the institutional role is vital in responding to mitigating natural disasters and to improve socio-economic conditions both before and after disasters

Poverty Alleviation in the Wake of Typhoon Yolanda Workshop Findings: Working Paper I

The following observations are drawn from the opening workshop of the ESRC/DFID funded project (Ref: ES/M008932/1), ‘Poverty Alleviation in the Wake of Typhoon Yolanda’. The workshop was held on 30 September 2015 at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. Delegates at the workshop were drawn from academia, civil society, the business community and the military2. Around 50 delegates attended the workshop. All of the delegates involved in the workshop were experts or had experience in disaster relief either in the field or as a topic of academic and policy research. Experts were drawn from the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. In some cases workshop delegates were on the ground during Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) or the immediate aftermath. The workshop was composed of three panels entitled: ‘Poverty Alleviation in the Wake of Natural Disasters’, ‘Livelihood and Community’ and ‘Governance and Resilience’, and a closing round table discussion.ESRC-DFI

Collective engagement:From disaster-prone to disaster-resilient city

The dissertation is about building urban resilience through collective engagement, with a particular interest in flood-prone cities and their efforts to become disaster-resilient. It looks into the interrelationship, the vertical, horizontal, and transversal, between collective engagement and urban resilience, how collective engagement takes place in cities, and what role it plays in transforming disaster-prone cities to disaster-resilient cities

Implementation of the Public Schools’ Disaster Risk Reduction Management Program and Level of Capabilities to Respond

This study assessed the status of implementation of the public schools’ disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) program as to the four (4) DRRM thematic areas and the level of capability of the respondents to respond during hazards to prevent disaster in all public schools of Bayawan City Division, Negros Oriental for S.Y. 2018-2019. A total of ninety-six (96) public elementary and secondary school heads were selected as research respondents representing the different 10 districts of Bayawan City Division. The study used the adopted survey questionnaires from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRM) Plan and the Hyogo Framework of Action. It utilized descriptive-quantitative method and weighted mean and spearman rank correlation coefficient were used as statistical tools. The results of the study revealed that the disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) program in public schools of Bayawan City Division is well implemented. Public schools are also very capable to respond to hazards in the occurrence of disasters. It concluded that there is a significant relationship between the status of DRRM implementation and the level of capabilities among the public school administrators

A Social Cognitive Approach to Disaster Preparedness

Using the social cognitive perspective, the study sought to determine the individual and environmental factors that predict disaster preparedness. Specifically, the research determined the relationships between risk perception, disaster experience, community disaster preparedness, and disaster preparedness behaviors. Data were collected from 401 participants from areas affected by recent typhoons and heavy monsoon rains: Tacloban and Metro Manila. Risk perception, severity of disaster experience, and community disaster preparedness were found to significantly predict the participants’ disaster preparedness behaviors. Severity of previous disaster experience seems to be the strongest determinant of individual disaster preparedness. Implications to future research and development and improvement of disaster preparations programs are discussed

Evicting Slums, ‘Building Back Better’: Resiliency Revanchism and Disaster Risk Management in Manila

This article examines how the politics of managing global catastrophic risks plays out in a stereotypically ‘vulnerable’ megacity in the global South. It analyses the disproportionate impact of the 2009 Ondoy floods on Manila's underclasses as a consequence of the failures and partial successes of twentieth-century developmentalism, in the course of which the Philippine state facilitated a highly uneven distribution of disaster risk. It argues that the selective interpretation and omission of facts underpinned a disaster risk management (DRM) strategy premised on the eviction of slum dwellers. Through the lens of aesthetic governmentality we analyse how elite and expert knowledge produced a narrative of the slum as the source of urban flood risk via the territorial stigmatization of slums as blockages. We also show how the redescription of flood risk based on aesthetics produced uneven landscapes of risk, materializing in the ‘danger’/‘high-risk’-zone binary. This article characterizes the politics of the Metro Manila DRM strategy by introducing the concept of resiliency revanchism: a ‘politics of revenge’ predicated on the currency of DRM and ‘resiliency’, animated by historically entrenched prejudicial attitudes toward urban underclasses, and enabled by the selective interpretation, circulation and use of expertise

Tools, platforms and mechanisms to support accountability to disaster-affected populations in the Philippines

When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013, a number of national and local government tools, platforms and mechanisms were put in place to support the coordination of national government efforts to respond to the disaster. Many of these tools, platforms and mechanisms are web-based and accessible to the public. Some are specific to disaster risk reduction, while others are more general in nature. This research assesses all of these devices in terms of how well they supported, and continue to support, the accountability and transparency of government interventions during disaster responses in the Philippines. It also looks at how these accountability can be further enhanced and replicated both vertically – at all levels of government – and horizontally – with different agencies, sectors and institutions – to help ensure that accountability and transparency are observed principles during all disaster responses. The authors recommend that the Philippines creates an 'accountability during disasters' framework that will allow government and non-government agencies to apply the necessary revisions in current policies that will improve the delivery of their services during and after future disaster events. It is important for the national Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) agencies to involve local government units, community leaders and community-based DRRM organisations in the development of this framework, to ensure that communities’ voices are heard and integrated into this.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Disaster Risk Reduction, Health and Sustainable Development: The Case of The Philippines

Màster en Diplomàcia i Organitzacions Internacionals, Centre d'Estudis Internacionals. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2019-2020. Tutora: Ana García JuanateyClimate change is increasingly causing changes in the intensity of extreme weather events, rising sea levels and infectious disease distribution. It is affecting the economic, environmental and social determinants of health, and it will continue to increase migration and internal displacements of people, conflicts over natural resources and fragmented policy-making processes. While it is known to be one of the most serious threats to development, its impact is dependent on people's level of exposure (age, education, income and health status and access to public services). As climate-related disasters in developing countries pose a challenge for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we should analyze development plans from a Disaster Risk Reduction perspective. The Philippines is among the most vulnerable countries to the health impacts of climate change and is considered to have a strong experience in DRR. Understanding how disaster management in this country can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs, focused on health, is highly relevant. So, what can we learn from this model? The aim of this paper is to conduct a qualitative analysis with the Philippines model as an example of development policy adaptation and a DRR-centered system in the context of climate change