FAO and representatives of partner organizations signing a commitment wall at the conclusion of the National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action, 12 May.

Around 150 key actors from international humanitarian, government and non-government organizations, donor agencies and civil society vowed to strengthen collaboration toward institutionalizing Anticipatory Action (AA) in the Philippines by signing a commitment wall at the conclusion of the National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action last 12 May.

At the hybrid event co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), members of the community of practice agreed on a set of priorities to consolidate efforts to help reduce the devastating impacts of natural hazards on vulnerable communities ahead of a disaster that include:

• Expanding the network of stakeholders to involve more local government units, the private sector, the academe and basic sectors.
• Establishing guidelines to standardize and integrate the application of AA in disaster risk reduction and management using social protection systems and scientific data to better forecast and predict the impacts of shocks.
• Creating a conducive policy environment that include the passage of a law to unlock the fiscal bottlenecks and make available contingency funds to help save lives and livelihoods before a disaster strikes.

In her closing remarks, Programme Officer for the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) Arlynn Aquino said that in the Philippines, an average of eight to ten million Euros are spent annually on emergency response.

She underscored that, given the growing evidence of the benefits of various interventions such as multipurpose cash transfers, the EU is committed to provide more resources to support anticipatory action initiatives including linking to social protection to help reduce casualties and protect livelihoods of affected communities.