Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines - Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance - OCHA 2014

February 2014 - On November 8 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) made landfall in the Philippines a densely populated country of 92 million people. The category five typhoon killed over 6 000 Filipinos caused 4 million people to be displaced from their homes and caused severe damage to infrastructure including homes roads schools and health centres. Although many people have already received life-saving humanitarian assistance significant humanitarian needs remain including early recovery activities that contribute to building communities that are more resilient. With DFATD’s support the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is assisting more than 110 organizations responding to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines to better coordinate their efforts and improve the way in which they report to the humanitarian community. Project activities include: (1) providing strategic coordination of humanitarian actions at the national and local levels involving all relevant players; (2) providing reliable information and analysis on key humanitarian issues to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian efforts; (3) coordinating assessments strategic planning resource mobilisation and advocacy for humanitarian action that respects international humanitarian law; and (4) sharing relevant best practices and lessons learned to enable organizations to plan more effective and targeted humanitarian actions.

The expected immediate outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened humanitarian response through effective coordination and communication between the Government of the Philippines the humanitarian country team local actors and typhoon-affected people; and (2) enhanced analysis of the context in which humanitarian efforts are taking place. The expected intermediate outcome is reduced vulnerability of crisis-affected people especially women and children.