The Philippines strengthens collaboration on anticipatory action at its 6th National Dialogue Platform

At the 6th National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action in the Philippines, around 150 actors from international humanitarian agencies, government organizations, NGOs, donors and civil society organizations signed a ‘commitment wall’ and vowed to strengthen collaboration toward institutionalizing this approach in the country.

To conclude this hybrid event, members of the Philippines community of practice agreed on priorities for consolidating efforts to reduce the devastating impacts of natural hazards ahead of a disaster. These included the need to:

• expand the network of stakeholders to involve more local government units, the private sector, academia and other sectors
• establish guidelines to standardize and integrate the application of anticipatory action into disaster risk reduction and management, for example by using social protection systems and scientific data
• create a conducive policy environment, including a law to unlock fiscal bottlenecks and make contingency funds available to help save lives and livelihoods before a disaster.

In her closing remarks, Arlynn Aquino, programme officer for the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), said that globally, an average of eight to ten million euros are spent annually on emergency response. She underscored that, given growing evidence of the benefits of interventions such as multipurpose cash transfers, the EU is committed to providing more resources o support anticipatory action initiatives, including social protection, to help reduce casualties and protect the livelihoods of affected communities.

The 6th National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action in the Philippines was co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.