Building disaster resilience at grassroots amid climate change, natural disasters

After a series of dazzling New Year fireworks displays amazed millions of cable television viewers worldwide, news of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake on the western seaboard of Japan, some 190 miles from Tokyo, brought people back to the reality that natural disasters are integral to human existence. An initial tsunami warning was scaled down to an advisory. According to initial casualty reports, at least a dozen dead had been recovered. Major damage to roads and buildings hampered the work of rescue crews that had been dispatched to badly damaged areas.

Last Dec. 2, 2023, an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.4 struck off Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental. Barely two weeks earlier, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake was felt in Mindanao; its epicenter was traced near Sarangani island in Davao Occidental.

These recent events underscore the importance of disaster preparedness and disaster resilience.

On April 30, 2023, President Marcos signed Executive Order No. 24 forming the Disaster Response and Crisis Management Task Force that would “oversee and coordinate the planning, and monitoring and evaluation of disaster preparedness and response plans.” Climate change, as exemplified by the onset of El Niño in the first quarter of 2024, presents continuing risks of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms, with severe impact on agriculture and infrastructure.

According to a January 2021 paper published by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies, the structure for formulating and implementing disaster policies is predominantly top-down. Under Republic Act 10121, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is supported by similar bodies at the regional, provincial, city, municipal and barangay levels. It is imperative to mobilize community action with the least delay to minimize risk and damage to life and property.

Assuring a high level of risk preparedness is government’s responsibility. This is best achieved if there is community resilience, as manifested by  well-trained, well-prepared, and well-funded barangay-based organizations that are capable of responding to emergency situations. A Harvard Humanitarian Initiative report published in October 2020 proposed several key action steps.

First, there is need to strengthen cohesion among many local groups or organizations. Second, there must be less dependence on international non-governmental organizations. When these big global groups are removed from the scene, the local network would lose nearly 40 percent of its relationships, which indicates low resilience. Third, the disaster preparedness network in the country consists primarily of one-way relationships with less than one percent being reciprocal or bidirectional relationships between two organizations. Hence there is predominantly more information-seeking and support solicitation, instead of cross-collaboration or joint initiatives. Finally, almost half of reported relationships among cooperating international and local organizations have been active for three years or less. Clearly, such relationships would need to thrive much longer to be deemed sustainable.

Disaster resilience needs to be strengthened at the grassroots level. Community-based organizations must build quick-response capability and long-term sustainability.