Standard Project Report 2016
This partnership continues to evolve into a more dynamic and collaborative partnership in the hope to decentralize the emergency response network and to work towards national ownership and control of facilities and equipment.
WFP sees the DSWD as the main government agency to engage with in this project given the fact that it co-chairs the National Response Cluster during emergency operations in the country. DSWD has existing logistical systems and structures in place that continue to be enhanced through this partnership. During crises, the central office of DSWD mobilizes its regional offices and activates its quick response teams in the field offices who act as first responders on the ground. These first responders maintain constant communication with local authorities and it is through them that WFP connects to the appropriate local authorities, contributing to synchronize humanitarian assistance. This has made the flow of operation seamless and well-coordinated whenever a request for WFP assistance is made.
The other natural partner to this project, particularly for the logistics training curriculum activity, is the Office of Civil Defense’ s( OCD) Education and Training Division. OCD leads the National Logistics Cluster within the government disaster response framework, WFP being its counterpart at the IASC level. This proximity in mandate has fostered a close collaboration in designing, planning and executing the delivery of the logistics curriculum.
To ensure adequate diversity in the profiles involved in the logistics training courses, other UN agencies such as UNICEF, OCHA and UNHCR regularly participate to the logistics activities and are part of a key reference group that guides the development of new capacity strengthening products, such as the field logistics simulation exercise planned for the first quarter of 2017.
Similarly, other key actors of the Philippines Humanitarian Country Team have become key stakeholders to the project both as recipient and contributors to the training activities. Organizations actively involved include the International Committee of the Red Cross, Save the Children, World Vision, and Action Against Hunger( ACF) Philippines.
Finally, a very active partnership has been established with the Philippine Disaster Resiliency Foundation( PDRF) during the previous years and have been maintained to harness the expertise, know-how and resources of the private sector. PDRF is Philippines’ major private sector vehicle and coordinator for disaster management. This focus acknowledges the growing role of private sectors entities into disaster preparedness and response in line with the key findings and recommendation from the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.
Results / Outcomes
Despite the challenges encountered – funding limitations, change in administration in the Philippines, recognition of the ongoing vulnerability of the country to natural hazards and climactic shocks, the increasing desire of national government for self-sufficiency in humanitarian affairs, the imperative for WFP to achieve and fulfill a strategic role as technical service provider of choice – WFP strongly acknowledges the value in leveraging investment and achievements to date to deliver prioritized outputs and ensure sustainable handover to government counterparts.
A critical milestone was reached by the Special Operation when the second Disaster Response Centre in the Visayas region( VDRC) was inaugurated last April. The presence of the DRC in the central part of the country will enable a swift response and better coordination among local authorities and other responders within the Visayas region.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development( DSWD) has confirmed its intention to relocate the mechanized packaging system( MPS) in the VDRC to a government-managed facility by the end of 2017, the location of which is still under discussion. Several technical visits have been fielded to assess the feasibility of the project and the funding requirement to ensure sustainability of the MPS have been included in DSWD’ s 2017 budget.
The completed NROC and temporary Cebu DRC represent a valuable demonstration of concrete results in international investment in national emergency preparedness and response capacity, with both quantitative( increased throughput to 100,000 FFP per day maximum, 66 % of targeted and sufficient to feed up to 500,000 people for 3 days) and qualitative benefits( new predictability and benchmarking of response, upon which further improvements may be based).
Prior disasters have seen thousands of workers and or volunteers gather to pack these FFPs but through this automation, not only has the output gone up five-fold, but the number of human resources needed to achieve this has dropped down to hundreds instead of thousands.
In December 2016, the VDRC was in full gear to cater the government’ s emergency response to Typhoon Nock-Ten( local name Nina). The FFPs produced in the VDRC were then shipped to the most affected in the nearby Bicol region in conjunction to the stocks dispatched from NROC, demonstrating the complementarity of the network of
Philippines, Republic of the( PH) 16 Single Country Special Operation- 200706