Philippines: Landslides and Floods Appeal No. 03/04 Operations Update no. 6

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In Brief

Period covered: 03 November 2004 to 09 February 2005; Appeal coverage : 99.5%

Appeal history:

Launched on 07 January 2004 for CHF 853,000 (USD 692,989 or EUR 544,144) for 06 months for 565 beneficiary families;

Budget revised to CHF 358,500 and 300 beneficiary families (including 140 houses for the shelter component);

This operations update notifies a programme extension until end March 2005, with a shelter component of 140 houses and the final report due on 30 April 2005.

Disaster Relief Emergency Funds (DREF) allocated: CHF 50,000 (reimbursed).

Outstanding needs: CHF 1,829

Related Emergency/Annual Appeals: Emergency Appeal 03/04; South East Asia Regional Appeal 01.66/04

Operational Summary:

Over a year after the landslides happened in December 2003, some of the objectives of the appeal have not yet been achieved.

Operational developments

Red Cross and Red Crescent action - objectives, progress, impact

Objective 1 (revised): Provide new housing for 140 families living in evacuation centres or other temporary accommodation.

A total of 67 houses are in the process of construction. The Philippine Army Corps of Engineers deployed 78 personnel to assist in the construction and site development to ensure the March 2005 deadline is met. Some 80 beneficiaries are involved in the construction and continue to receive the food-for-work allocation.

The board of governors of the Philippines Red Cross has signed an agreement to ensure the project is finished by the end of March 2005. The agreement stipulates that the national society will pay back in full the costs of the project if the timeframe is not achieved.

Objective 2: Re-establish and improve access to safe water and provide sanitation facilities for the affected population.

(This objective has been removed from the operation. Please refer to Operations Update no. 3 for details.)

Objective 3: Assist 300 of the most affected families to regain financial stability through the provision of livelihood facilities for income generation.

The distribution of agricultural tools will be a component of the package during the turn over of the houses. This is to ensure that the tools will be put to good use for gardening activities within the allocated lot space of each housing unit.

An important aspect of this component is the training of each head of family in vegetable gardening in order to provide an alternative source of income and food supply for the fishing community.

Objective 4: Train and organise 120 community volunteers in the 12 most affected barangays of the five municipalities in community-based disaster manage ment training (CBDMT).

The training component has been achieved. The community-based disaster management (CBDM) training session was conducted for the last group of community volunteers identified for the training course. There were a total of 50 partic ipants coming from different villages in the province. The training included a training-of-trainers course to provide basic skills for volunteers to disseminate knowledge on disaster preparedness among their peers in their respective communities.

However, there are still other important training courses that need to be provided to the community. Most of the beneficiaries are rely on fishing as a livelihood and therefore require extra training on managing a basic backyard vegetable garden in order to ensure that agriculture tools are put to use.

Federation Coordination

The Federation has established an office in the Philippines as part of the Appeal operation for the series of typhoons that hit the country in late 2004. A head of delegation has been in place since 11 December to oversee all Federation-funded projects in the country, including the Southern Leyte project.

Communications - Advocacy and Public Information

The trainers' training on CBDM will be the focal activity for advocacy and public information, not only of the project area but of the whole province. This will create a pool of trainers which will advocate the culture of safety and inform on ways to prepare for hazard events at community level.

At Federation level, the process of monitoring, particularly of the logistics and procurement system, has provided an opportunity to advocate more effectively Federation standards, disaster management policies, and the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response (SPHERE).

In country: PNRC Secretary-General, Mr. Victor Liozo; tel: +63.2527.8386; fax: +63.2527.0857; email: pnrc@redcross.org.ph

In country: Head of delegation, Mr. Floyd Barnaby; tel: +63.9155.704.694

Regional delegation, Bangkok: Dr. Ian Wilderspin, Head of regional disaster risk management unit, tel: +66.1.753.9598; fax: +66.2.640.8220; e-mail: ifrcth22@ifrc.org

Regional delegation, Bangkok: Bernd Schell, Programme Coordinator; tel: +66.264.0821; fax: +66.2640.8220; email: ifrcth28@ifrc.org

Geneva: Secretariat: Southeast Asia desk, Charles Evans; tel: +41.22.730.4320; fax: +41.22.733.0395; email: charles.evans@ifrc.org

All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response in delivering assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation's website at http://www.ifrc.org

Annex 1