Partnering for climate and disaster risk resilience

The Philippines has the highest natural disaster risk in the world ranking first out of 193 countries in the 2022 and 2023 World Risk Index. In line with the objectives of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 the project aims to enhance the resilience of communities in 6 highly vulnerable provinces in the Philippines. It does so by building the capacity of national and local governments and institutions including women-led organizations (WLOs) to effectively prepare mitigate respond and recover from natural disasters. Project activities include: (1) providing technical support to develop and implement agreements and protocols on data interoperability and sharing among national and local governments; (2) training national and local government officials on mainstreaming gender equality disability and social inclusion considerations into climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) plans and programming; (3) establishing a Canadian expert deployment mechanism for the government to access demand-driven consultation services in areas such as risk assessments climate modelling and disaster planning; (4) training local officials on resource mobilization budgeting and procurement for CCA-DRRM initiatives; and (5) providing technical assistance to WLOs to meet accreditation requirements and become members of local DRRM bodies and councils. The project is expected to directly benefit 690 government officials at the national and local levels 200 WLO members and 1 000 community members and indirectly benefit 1.6 million people from strengthened DRRM governance in the 6 targeted provinces.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) improved equitable provision of gender equality disability and social inclusion (GEDSI)-responsive and climate resilient disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) by national government agencies and other relevant institutions in the Philippines; (2) strengthened GEDSI-responsive planning financing and implementation for climate resilient DRRM by local government units in target sites in the Philippines; and (3) improved women’s leadership and representation in local and national DRRM decision-making structures at target sites in the Philippines.