WFP: Strengthening disaster preparedness in the Philippines - Opinion

By Lucy Styles

It must have seemed like history was repeating itself when just over a year after Typhoon Yolanda caused catastrophic damage in the Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) first alerted the population to another oncoming Typhoon. Predicted to take the same path as Yolanda, Typhoon Ruby was gaining strength as it slowly twisted its way west across the Pacific ocean towards the east coast of the Philippines.

Since Typhoon Yolanda, WFP has been working in close coordination with a number of actors in order to strengthen emergency response capabilities and improve preparedness for upcoming typhoons. As lead agency of the Logistics Cluster, WFP engages private sector partners such as those who form the Logistics Emergency Team (LET). The LET consists of representatives from private sector logistics companies such as UPS, Agility and Maersk with the purpose of providing logistical expertise and in-kind services and equipment during an emergency.

Since its initiation of the LET, the Logistics Cluster has been providing emergency response training to LET members to broaden the capacity of support that can be called upon during emergencies. In 2013, the LET deployed staff members to the Yolanda response, provided warehousing for storage of inter-agency relief items, supplied equipment to support airport and port operations and allocated a team of experts to assist in the government-led operations in Tacloban.

On 1 December 2014, a year after Typhoon Yolanda and hours prior to the announcement of oncoming Typhoon Ruby, 22 LET member national and regional logistics managers based in the Asia region were taking part in a training event in Manila. After Typhoon Ruby made landfall in Eastern Samar province on 6 December, eight LET staff members, four of which had only just completed the training, were quickly involved from their local branches within the Philippines to help pro-vide logistics information, support and transportation services.

In partnership with the Government of the Philippines, WFP has also been helping to address operational bottlenecks and capacity limitations identified during the Yolanda response and share lessons learned. Through generous support from a variety of donors, WFP has implemented a range of projects and initiatives and is currently working to establish a network of Government Disaster Response Centres located throughout the country, where prepositioned relief items and operational support equipment will be based. In addition, WFP is working in close cooperation with the government to develop a training package for government staff focusing on emergency response logistics and supply chains.

This inter-agency approach has proven again the effectiveness of a coordinated and cooperated response of various actors and support provided, including to the Government of the Philippines, who was commended for its response to Typhoon Ruby. Now that Ruby has passed and the recovery process to repair the damage has been long underway, preparedness for the next typhoon will continue.

Lucy Styles is an Information Management Officer, based at WFP's Headquarters in Rome where she works with the Logistics Cluster.