The Philippines is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. One third of its population of 94.9 million people live below the poverty line and are vulnerable to the typhoons, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that plague the country.

Read the full story on OCHA's website

(Geneva/New York/Bonn, 14 December 2010): The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Deutsche Post DHL, the world's leading post and logistics service provider, today renewed their successful partnership, started in 2005, for another three years. The extension was signed in Geneva by Rashid Khalikov, Director of UN OCHA Geneva and Rainer Wend, Executive Vice President Corporate Public Policy and Sustainability at Deutsche Post DHL.

"Over the past five years, we have worked very successfully together in disaster management. The partnership

General Assembly Hall

Thank you for attending this meeting, which is an update for member states on the latest on the Central Emergency Response Fund, as at the end of the first quarter of 2010. I would also like to provide a brief overview of country based pooled funds, which work in tandem with the CERF in many cases.

I would like to provide a general overview of what the Fund has achieved since I last provided a briefing to Member States in New York in December, funding levels; the impact of the fund on emergencies in the first quarter of 2010, and what we are doing to ensure

(Geneva/New York, 18 December 2009): The United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) system, a stand-by disaster response mechanism that sends crisis-management experts to disaster zones, reached its 1,000th deployment, since inception, in October when it sent teams to help respond to the recent series of tropical storms that hit the Philippines.

In 2009, a relatively mild year in terms of natural disasters, UNDAC, which is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), deployed 11 teams in response

This report was issued by OCHA New York based on inputs from the OCHA Regional Office for Asia Pacific (ROAP) and OCHA Philippines. It covers the period from 20 to 25 November 2009 and addresses Typhoon Parma/Pepeng, Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy as well as Typhoon Mirinae/Santi. The next report will be issued on or around 1 December.

I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES

- The total official number of damaged houses has risen to 307,000 units. Shelter support is seriously under-funded (less than 10 percent).

- The IASC inputs to the PDNA report

(Manila/New York, 17 November 2009): International humanitarian organisations yesterday requested more than US$ 143.7 million in a revised Flash Appeal to support the Government of the Philippines in responding to the effects of a series of typhoons that ravaged the country since September. This revised Appeal is planned to run from November 2009 to March 2010.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Financial Tracking Service

This report was issued by OCHA New York based on inputs from the OCHA Regional Office for Asia Pacific (ROAP) and OCHA Philippines. It covers the period from 5 to 10 November 2009 and addresses Typhoon Parma/Pepeng, Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy as well as Typhoon Mirinae/Santi. The next report will be issued on or around 17 November.

I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES

- The humanitarian response effort in the Philippines is hampered by lack of funding, with the current Flash Appeal funded at 36.2 percent as of 10 November.

- The Revised 2009 Philippines Flash