Philippines among nations to get $500-M disaster readiness boost

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will be among the first of 50 countries to benefit from a new multilateral initiative that aims to boost preparedness to natural disasters of vulnerable nations.

 

The Global Partnership for Preparedness (GPP), a group of six entities, aims to disburse up to $500 million in financing over five years to ensure nations have "minimum level of readiness" against calamities.

 

"We know investment in preparedness saves lives and dollars and thus makes financial and economic sense," National Treasurer Roberto Tan said in a joint statement last Tuesday.

 

"Crises such as those from natural disasters and effects of climate change should no longer spin out of control," he added. 

 

Tan represented Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima as chair of the Vulnerable 20 (V20) nations, a group of calamity-susceptible countries that have since expanded to 43 members.

 

The V20 signed the partnership with the World Bank, World Food Programme, Food and Agricultural Organization, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

 

Under the partnership, between $100 and $130 million will be disbursed within two years to V20 founding members. The rest will be spent three years after to cover 30 others.

 

Aside from the Philippines, other 19 original V20 members countries to get funding first are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

 

The fund aims to ensure nations have "minimum" disaster readiness. This will be achieved through a six-tier program, GPP said.

 

This covers evaluating existing laws and institutions that tackle disasters, looking into early warning systems, ensuring fund availability and agency coordination, formulating a disaster database and developing skills and training for calamity response.

 

"The aim is to save lives, safeguard development gains and reduce the economic impacts of crises," UNDP administrator Helen Clark was quoted as saying in the statement.

 

"This new partnership puts at-risk countries in the driver's seat and brings together the work of development and humanitarian actors in a coherent way," she added.

 

After suffering from intense drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, the Philippines is now bracing for La Nina expected to bring in more than the average rains this year.

 

Weather forecasters have said at least 17 tropical cyclones are bound to enter the country this year, higher than 15 that actually came in 2015.