Standard Project Report 2016
In addition, WFP focused on disaster mitigation projects identified through the Seasonal Livelihood Programming( SLP) tool. Local governments prioritised mitigation activities including the installation of early warning devices and promotion of technologies such as vetiver grass and sloping agricultural land.
Guided by the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management( DRRM) Act of 2010, also known as Republic Act 10121, the National Disaster Response Plan, and the LISTO Minimum Preparedness Actions, WFP ensured that the local DRRM offices at the provincial and municipal levels were functional with institutionalised policies and plans. A comparison of the LISTO checklist and the LISTO baseline showed that by the end of phase four, 90 percent of the municipalities supported by WFP improved, which indicates increased preparedness and response. At the end of 2016, three provinces and two municipalities received the Seal of Good Local Governance( SGLG). The SGLG was awarded based on three criteria— financial administration, social protection and disaster preparedness.
During Typhoons Haima and Nock-ten, municipalities assisted by WFP conducted pre-assessment and rapid damage and needs assessment, implemented pre-emptive evacuation, and prepared their 72-hour assessment, which helped the government mitigate the risk and minimise casualties.
Progress Towards Gender Equality
WFP continued to make strides in improving gender equality across its operations in the Philippines— from integrating gender into programme activities to developing capacities of staff members and partners in addressing gender issues. The gender analysis that was carried out in 2015 remains the mainspring that drives the operation in terms of promoting gender equality and women’ s empowerment. Most recently, it set the basis for the enhancement of the country office’ s gender action plan. The plan, which will cover 2017-2021 and will be aligned with the Corporate Strategic Plan, will reinforce the role of the gender results network and will be implemented with an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation, reporting and accountability.
Building on the insights gained from several gender orientations and refresher trainings that facilitated deeper understanding of the gender dynamics unique to the areas of intervention, the country office revised its target for the decision-making, leadership, and training indicators consistent with the baseline values and consequently capturing the context in the ground.
In general, the decision-making for most households in Central Mindanao was shared by both the husband and the wife. This was made apparent in the first and second follow-ups conducted, which showed that both men and women shared decision-making authority over the use of food assistance despite the fact that most of these communities were predominantly patriarchal.
Role stereotyping remains a challenge, even though the data showed that decision-making was shared. The power to decide remains a man’ s prerogative, and household maintenance is still relegated as a woman’ s responsibility. Gender awareness and advocacy at all levels was undertaken to address this gap. Regardless of gender, beneficiaries preferred to receive cash based transfers over food assistance as it gave them more flexibility with their expenses. The results showed that the target of 80 percent on both genders making decisions on the use of the assistance received from WFP was most likely to be reached by the end of the project.
Women actively participated in leadership positions and trainings on the use of food. On average, women ' s participation in leadership positions was three percent higher than men, and women ' s participation in trainings on food usage was four percent higher than men. Projects that were less labour intensive, such as vegetable gardening and coffee nurseries, showed a much higher participation of women than men. The project review committee ensured that projects incorporated a gender lens to ensure that needs of men, women, boys and girls were taken into consideration.
Results for school meals were positive, indicating that the project was close to meeting this target. The numbers showed that women ' s participation in parent-teacher association leadership and trainings was higher than that of men. This higher rate of participation is attributed to the cultural notion that women are the children’ s primary caregivers since men are usually away and tending to the farms. Nevertheless, WFP is advocating for more men’ s participation by encouraging and involving them in all phases from the orientation to implementation and monitoring, and by including them in the school management structure.
Under the disaster preparedness and response programme, capacity development activities in target areas throughout the Philippines continued to consider gender balance, inclusiveness and full community participation. Trainings in areas such as contingency planning, incident command system, search and rescue, risk communication, camp management and GIS included women participants. For the roll out of information and education campaigns on disaster preparedness, women have often taken the lead in explaining details on family preparedness to their communities.
Philippines, Republic of the( PH) 25 Single Country PRRO- 200743