OVERVIEW

An estimated 16.1 million people were affected by typhoon Haiyan, with 1.1 million damaged or destroyed homes and as many as 4.1 million people displaced – nearly four times as many as those left homeless by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. At least 6,300 people lost their lives and another 5.9 million workers lost the sources of income to support their families.

This report documents the operations of CARE’s Household Cash Transfer (HHCT) Program in Leyte,
Western Samar and the four provinces of Panay Island (Capiz, Iloilo, Aklan and Antique) during the period from March to December 2014. The HHCT Program was initiated by CARE to address the needs of the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.

CARE’s overall Haiyan recovery response is integrated and multi-sectorial. The food security, shelter reconstruction and livelihoods components of the response are expected to contribute to the overall Program Goal, which is: “Affected communities (men, women, boys and girls in Region 6 and 8) have recovered, built back safer and have increased resilience.” .

Program Background

CARE’s livelihood assistance program aimed to reach the most vulnerable families in villages assisted previously by the food distributions and emergency shelter program.

Household targeting was undertaken for the first round of cash transfers (CT1) using an economic and vulnerability selection tool. Barangay Selection Committees —comprising of women, men, younger and older people— managed the targeting process under the guidance of CARE and its partnerorganizations.

Household livelihoods assistance was provided to 27,040 households across 17 municipalities in Leyte (8), Western Samar (1) and Panay (8). CARE selected the most vulnerable households with the lowest monthly income to benefit from the livelihoods cash grant. Selected households nominated a household member to participate in seminars on improved money management and livelihoods planning. Once a simple business plan has been completed, families receive about USD181 (PhP8,000) in two installments to (re) start a quick-impact livelihood or income-generating activity (IGA) over a 6-12 month period.

The program was implemented in partnership with seven NGO partners who have active presence in the provinces assisted.

The Haiyan response was the first time that CARE undertook cash transfer programming on a large scale in the Philippines. This assessment report aims to provide analysis, indicate additional findings about livelihood outcomes, and identify lessons learned from the program.

With the current global average temperature now at around 1°C above pre-industrial levels, poor people in developing countries are already suffering devastation from climate change impacts. It is therefore critical and urgent for vulnerable countries and communities to adapt to climate change impacts. Being prepared for changes in climate and severe weather events can reduce the impacts on people’s lives, their livelihoods and food security. For too long, however, action in cutting emissions and scaling-up adaptation has been utterly inadequate. As a result, more and more of these impacts are exceeding people’s ability to adapt.

Loss and damage is therefore now part of the reality of climate change, and must be tackled. Loss is often understood as irreversible (e.g. loss of lives, species or habitats), while damages can be repaired (such as roads, embankments etc.). If the planet undergoes 2°-3°C of warming, which is a possibility with current national climate pledges – known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – on the table, the scale of loss and damage will be catastrophic.

As past greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of climate change and associated loss and damage, historic responsibilities for these emissions must be taken into account when it comes to providing financial and technical means to those countries and communities most affected, and least responsible for global warming. This is a matter of justice and human rights.

This joint report between CARE, ActionAid and WWF explains the current reality of loss and damage and outlines recommendations to ensure that the international community’s response to climate change in the 21st century can adequately address loss and damage during the UN climate negotiations at COP21 in Paris.

By Sam Bolitho

Emergency teams in the Philippines from international humanitarian organisation CARE are preparing for the arrival of Typhoon Melor, as it approaches areas hit hard by Typhoon Haiyan two years ago.

The category-three storm, known locally as Nona, is expected to make landfall on Monday night local time.

Packing winds of up to 150kmh, the storm is likely to bring heavy rain which could cause flash flooding and landslides.

Storm surges of up to 3.6 metres are also possible in coastal areas.

“This storm is looking big and heading straight for communities that were devastated just two years ago by Typhoon Haiyan. We’re working to ensure people are prepared, and our team will be set to respond should the worst eventuate,” said Tess Bayombong, CARE’s acting country director in the Philippines.

CARE’s Tacloban office is taking precautionary measures and key emergency staff are ready to conduct rapid assessments if needed.

CARE is monitoring weather updates and will provide updates as they become available.

CARE has a long history in the Philippines that stretches back to 1949. CARE has been providing emergency relief when disasters strike and helping communities prepare for future disasters. CARE responded to Typhoon Ketsana (2009), Typhoon Bopha (2012) and again when Super Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the central Philippines in 2013, affecting more than four million people.

CARE Australia is an international humanitarian aid organisation fighting poverty, with a special focus on working with women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities. Donations to CARE’s Global Emergency Fund can be made at www.care.org.au.

– ENDS –

Interviews with CARE staff in Philippines are available. Contact Sam Bolitho (0419 567 777) to arrange.

“All of the houses in my village were destroyed in a snap,” says Analita Garcela, the captain of the upland village of Cambucao in Tabon Tabon, Leyte – one of the communities hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Though it is already two years after the typhoon, Analita says that the tragic experience is hard to forget:

It was devastating but we had no choice but to move forward. People in my community worked hard to recover and I must say we are on the right track.

CARE and local partner Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD) have supported Cambucao through emergency food distributions, shelter repair assistance, financial support to restore livelihoods, and training on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation.

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and since Haiyan, further typhoons such as Hagupit and Koppu have further tested the recovery efforts of the affected communities. Analita says:

Good thing that we were able to rebuild and repair our damaged homes through the support of CARE.

“We were taught how to apply the ‘Build back better’ techniques that definitely improved the quality and durability of our homes,” she adds.

After the shelter repair and livelihoods recovery support, CARE and ACCORD implemented disaster risk reduction training in the affected communities. CARE also conducted a series of DRR training sessions and community drills in Cambucao involving all the members of the community to increase their ability to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and emergencies. Analita explains:

Everyone in my community participated, from the youngest to the oldest. They saw its relevance and importance and the people themselves wanted to be well-prepared for future disasters.

The training helps community members identify resources at risk from climate hazards, analyse changes in seasonal activities, understand trends and changes over time, and develop livelihoods and coping strategies.

The community drill involved responding as a village to a Haiyan-like typhoon. Analita says: “Everyone joined the drill and they took their roles seriously. Even it was just a simulation, they acted like it was really happening.

“They went to designated evacuation areas, they brought their important belongings with them, wore raincoats and boots, and even rescued those who needed help such as trapped older people.

If the people know how to prepare, adapt and respond, it will lessen the damages and avoid cases of casualties. We thank CARE for addressing that concern.

“I could say that my community is now disaster-resilient,” she concludes.

By Dennis Amata, Information and Communications Manager, CARE Philippines

By CARE Australia

As we mark six months since Cyclone Winston devastated Fiji, CARE Australia’s Emergency Response Manager Adam Poulter reflects on the pattern of severe storms that is becoming the new normal.

We have crossed the threshold. Gone are the days when catastrophic cyclones were a once in a lifetime event.

A couple of years ago it would have been inconceivable to have multiple category-five mega-storms hitting Australia’s neighbours in so short a time. But that is today’s reality.

In just the last three years we’ve seen three of the biggest storms ever recorded – all in the Pacific.

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, it was unprecedented. We had never seen 300km/h winds and the damage they could inflict. Homes were destroyed, whole communities devastated.

The recovery effort was huge. CARE helped people mend their homes and we provided advice on how people could build safer homes that were better able to stand up to storms.

Afterwards, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Well, we thought, we won’t see one of these again for another five-to-ten years. Then, just over a year later, Cyclone Pam struck Vanuatu. It was the biggest storm the country had ever seen.

As the recovery process got underway, again we breathed a sigh of relief. That’s a one-in-twenty-year event. We won’t see another one like that in a while, we said, not in the Pacific anyway.

Then Cyclone Winston ripped across Fiji. It was the biggest storm ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fiji is a robust country with a centralised, well-organised government. People were evacuated and, thanks to an investment in disaster preparation, the number of casualties was relatively low. But the long-term impact is more complex.

The trouble is these disasters are smashing people’s homes and their livelihoods – the way they make a living. And the storms are destroying the vital infrastructure of countries. If you take the case of one island alone in Vanuatu – Tanna – Cyclone Pam cut gross domestic product by 50 per cent.

While the ‘debate’ around climate change continues, it is the world’s poor who are paying the price.

But there is some positive news: the number of people being killed by disasters is falling. And there is a clear reason for this: preparation.

In places like Vanuatu and Fiji where we work with partners Live and Learn, we are helping remote communities gain better access to cyclone warning systems. We have been working with telecom providers to disseminate warning messages to the ever-expanding mobile phone network, and working with communities to build safe community structures which are more robust in the face of storms. Crucially, we have been training men and women to lead disaster preparedness teams, called Community Disaster Committees (CDC).

In Vanuatu, once the CDC knew Cyclone Pam was near, they started the evacuation procedure, using the megaphone provided by CARE, to announce the imminent arrival of the cyclone. Using CARE’s cyclone map and listening to warnings via radio, the team advised everyone to prepare their houses and to be ready to move to an evacuation centre. Immediately people started preparing: cutting down branches near their homes, fastening roofs, pulling fishing boats out of the water, and gathering essential supplies.

The CDCs were successful: there were no deaths reported in the many villages where CARE has been working.

In today’s reality, preparedness is more important than ever.

As powerful Typhoon Haima continues to strengthen and barrel towards the Philippines, CARE is preparing to support affected communities with emergency supplies. An estimated 2.7 million people in the northern part of the country are predicted to be affected by extremely strong winds and heavy rainfall.

CARE’s Country Director in the Philippines, David Gazashvili said: “Typhoon Haima is reported to be the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, and may cause significant damage to infrastructure and livelihoods. Our emergency team and partners on the ground are helping communities prepare for this typhoon and are ready to provide relief assistance.”

The Philippines weather bureau said Haima has reached maximum winds of up to 210 km/h with gusts of up to 260 km/h.

“This strong typhoon could become a super typhoon and may cause storm surges in coastal communities and landslides and flash floods in low-lying areas,” said Mr Gazashvili.

This is the third emergency that CARE has responded to in this area since November 2015. The humanitarian aid organisation is closely monitoring the situation in coordination with local partners and government bodies and has prepositioned food packs and relief items in areas likely to be affected.

CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE's past responses in the Philippines have included Typhoon Bopha in 2012, Haiyan in 2013, Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015. CARE continues to assist Typhoon Haiyan-affected communities to rebuild their livelihoods.

Donate to CARE’s Global Emergency Fund at www.care.org.au/emergency or call 1800 DONATE (1800 020 046)

For interviews contact Nerida Williams on 0412 449 691

Category four Typhoon Haima (locally known as Lawin) continues to strengthen and will be hitting Northern Luzon, Philippines with heavy rains and strong winds. An estimated 2.7 million people will be affected by Haima in several provinces in northern part of the country.

In its bulletin issued 8 am on Wednesday, state weather bureau PAGASA said Haima now has maximum winds of up to 210 kilometers per hour (km/h) and gustiness of up to 260 km/h. Moderate to heavy rain is expected within Haima's 700-km diameter. PAGASA earlier warned that Haima could become a super typhoon and may cause storm surges in coastal communities and landslides and flashfloods in upland and low-lying areas. In PAGASA classification, a super typhoon has maximum winds of at least 240 km/h.

CARE is closely monitoring the typhoon situation and coordinating with UNOCHA, the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council and international non-government organization networks in Manila. CARE has activated its emergency response team and mobilized partner organizations located in areas to be affected by the typhoon (Cagayan, Ilocos and Cordillera). CARE and its partners Citizen’s Disaster Response Center, Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services and Ilocos Center for Research, Empowerment and Development have started prepositioning food packs and non-food items.

“Our emergency team and our partner organizations are ready to carry out rapid assessments in affected areas and provide relief assistance,” said David Gazashvili, CARE Philippines’ Country Director. “Typhoon Haima is reported to be strong and may cause significant damage in infrastructure and livelihoods. Our partners are also helping disseminate information in communities to prepare for this typhoon,” added Gazashvili.

CARE has provided emergency food packs yesterday in communities heavily affected by typhoon Sarika in Central Luzon region and also conducted information sharing in communities about taking precautionary measures for approaching typhoon Haima.

CARE has already responded to three emergencies in this area since November 2015, and has established linkages with communities and local government units. CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE's past responses in the Philippines have included typhoon Bopha in 2012, Haiyan in 2013, Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015. CARE continues assisting typhoon Haiyan-affected communities helping them to rebuild their livelihoods.

*Haima, with maximum sustained winds up to 137 mph as of the moment, is a category 4 typhoon under the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale

CARE Philippine Key Contacts For Media Interviews:

Spokesperson:

David Gazashvili, Country Director
Mobile: +63 917 510 6974
Email: dgazashvili@care.org
Skype: gazata

Other contact:
Dennis Amata, Information and Communications Manager, CARE Philippines
Mobile: +63905 275 3752
Email: dennis.amata@care.org
Skype: dennis.amata2

Emergency teams have begun assessing the damage caused by Typhoon Haima in the Philippines, which has affected an estimated 2.7 million people and caused the evacuation of 90,000 people from their homes.

Heavy rains and ferocious winds of up to 225 km/h have caused significant damage to infrastructure, houses and crops. There have been cases of flashfloods in low-lying areas and landslides in upland communities.

International aid agency CARE is working with local partners in affected areas to provide immediate relief to families who fled their homes with few belongings to evacuation centres in schools, churches, and gymnasiums.

CARE’s Country Director in the Philippines, David Gazashvili said: “There is still a complete power blackout across the most severely affected areas, which is hampering relief efforts. In this type of emergency, it really is a race against time to get immediate relief to those who have lost everything and ensure families can stay safe and healthy.”

Many of the provinces are still recovering from powerful Typhoon Sarika, which caused severe damage to houses and crops earlier this week.

“It will be another day or two before we get a true picture of just how much destruction this storm has been caused,” Mr. Gazashvili said.

CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE's past responses in the Philippines have included Typhoon Bopha in 2012, Haiyan in 2013, Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015. CARE continues to assist Typhoon Haiyan-affected communities to rebuild their livelihoods.

Donate to CARE’s Global Emergency Fund at www.care.org.au/emergency or call 1800 DONATE (1800 020 046)

ENDS

For interviews contact Nerida Williams on Nerida.williams@care.org.au or 0412 449 691

OTTAWA, November 2, 2016

Thanks to the Canadian Humanitarian Assistance Fund, Philippines residents affected by Typhoon Haima will receive immediate life-saving assistance from Humanitarian Coalition member CARE Canada.

On October 19, 2016, Typhoon Haima lashed the northern tip of the Philippines with winds gusting up to 315 km/h and torrential rain, resulting in flooding and landslides. Haima followed on the heels of Typhoon Sarika, leaving thousands of residents vulnerable to volatile and strained conditions. At least 8 people were killed, and more than 380,000 people were affected. Two weeks later, more than 150,000 people remain displaced, and while many have found refuge in shelters and with family and friends, an estimated 40,000 have no place to stay.

With $350,000 allocated from the Canadian Humanitarian Assistance Fund, CARE Canada is able to respond immediately to the needs of 10,000 people affected. The organization will increase access to essential shelter and improve living conditions to affected residents by providing cash grants earmarked for buying construction materials like lumber and educating beneficiaries on building back safer principles and techniques.

CARE has been working in the Philippines since 1949, developing strong relationships with local communities and other non-governmental organizations. CARE has 38 staff in country, and is currently implementing recovery programmes for the Haiyan response and other emergency programs.

The Canadian Humanitarian Assistance Fund is a joint mechanism financed by Global Affairs Canada, the Humanitarian Coalition and its member agencies.

For more information:

Yosé Cormier
Humanitarian Coalition
613-292-2687
yose.cormier@humanitariancoalition.ca

Darcy Knoll
CARE Canada
613- 228.5641
darcy.knoll@care.ca

Three years after typhoon Haiyan caused catastrophic devastation across Central Philippines, more communities have become resilient to disasters and climate change impact. On 08 November 2013, Haiyan shocked the world as it mercilessly swept away houses, destroyed farmlands and livelihood assets, and left unimaginable number of casualties. The typhoon struck mostly the poorest communities and left people --including landless farmers and fisherfolks, indigenous tribes and micro-entrepreneurs-- without any source of income. As of November 2016, international aid organization CARE and its partners in the Visayas have reached more than 380,000 people through emergency food distributions, shelter repair and livelihoods recovery assistance, and various trainings on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, women empowerment, and skills advancement. “Typhoons and other natural calamities have been hampering people’s recovery efforts. So it is important to not just provide livelihood options but also educate the communities about disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation,” said David Gazashvili, CARE Philippines Country Director. “CARE was quick to mobilize its staff and resources from different parts of the world after the typhoon. Through the generous support of our donors and collaboration of our staff, partners and communities we support, we are able to help build sustainable livelihoods and disaster-resilient communities,” said David Gazashvili, CARE Philippines Country Director. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Philippines endured a total of 274 natural calamities over the past two decades, making it the fourth most disaster-prone country in the world. After Haiyan, the Philippines experienced relatively strong typhoons such as Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015 and recently Sarika and Haima that caused massive agricultural damage. “The biggest challenge for these communities is to protect their assets from natural calamities that’s why our emergency response is part of a long-term commitment. We place great importance on building local capacity, partnerships with local organizations and strengthening women’s participation.” CARE is currently implementing livelihoods recovery programs for communities severely affected by Haiyan in Eastern and Western Visayas regions. A total of 281 community associations have been supported through financial assistance and trainings to revive rice and corn fields, provide harvest facilities for farmers, boost abaca and seaweed production, promote eco-tourism, have economic opportunities for women weavers, etc. Also, more than 900 women micro-entrepreneurs have been assisted to start their income-generating activities and involve more people in their respective communities. Aside from the financial support, CARE has partnered with various local NGOs, government agencies and LGUs, the Academe and training institutions to provide learning sessions to people affected by the typhoon. The trainings include relevant topics on entrepreneurship, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, hazard mapping and contingency planning for disaster preparedness, gender and development, climate change mitigation and other industry-focused subjects. CARE’s assisted community organizations are now practicing organic farming, using solar dryers for their commodities, and other eco-friendly livelihood practices. CARE continues to work with the affected people and reach more communities in the Philippines through livelihoods recovery assistance and skill-building trainings. CARE works in the most vulnerable and geographically isolated areas affected by Haiyan, with special attention given to women and girls and the most marginalized.

Written by: Dennis Amata (Information & Communications Manager, CARE Philippines)

Severe Tropical Storm Nock-ten (locally known as Nina) is expected to make landfall in the Bicol Region, Philippines on December 25, Christmas Day. The storm is expected to intensify into a typhoon before it hits land.

In a bulletin issued 11 a.m. on Friday, state weather bureau PAGASA reported that Nock-ten is already 790 kilometers east of Guiuan, Eastern Samar. The severe tropical storm strengthened further late Friday morning and now has maximum winds of up to 105 km/h and gustiness of up to 130 km/h.

Nock-ten’s landfall this Sunday (Christmas Day) in Bicol will either be in the afternoon or evening. This might bring difficulty for the people to immediately evacuate.

PAGASA earlier warned that Nock-ten could become a typhoon and may cause storm surges in coastal communities, and landslides and flashfloods in upland and low-lying areas.

CARE is closely monitoring the typhoon situation and coordinating with its partners, UNOCHA, the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council and international non-government organization networks in Manila. CARE is working with the Leyte Center for Development (LCDE) and other partners for rapid needs assessment and immediate response in the affected areas. “It is very unfortunate that the storm will hit on Christmas Day, a festive time for Filipinos to celebrate and be with their families,” said David Gazashvili, CARE Philippines Country Director.

“Our emergency team and our partner organizations are ready to carry out rapid assessments in affected areas and provide relief assistance.”

CARE has already responded in Eastern Visayas region (one of the areas to be affected) since November 2013, and has established linkages with communities and local government units. CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE's past responses in the Philippines have included typhoon Bopha in 2012, Haiyan in 2013, Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015. CARE continues assisting typhoon Haiyan-affected communities helping them to rebuild their livelihoods.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report, based on extensive research and consultations by CARE International, argues that efforts to protect and assist people caught up in natural disasters and conflict will be more effective if women can contribute.

Over the past two years, CARE interviewed over 300 women involved in humanitarian action either at a global level or in emergency responses in Jordan (to the Syria crisis) and the Philippines (to Typhoon Haiyan). Three interlinked, and widely shared, issues emerged:

• Women are not just victims: the humanitarian system still primarily sees women and girls as victims, and treats women and girls as passive beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance.

• Gender is not just a tick-box: efforts to ensure that the specific needs of people of all genders are addressed in humanitarian action are seen as a tokenistic, tick-box exercise at the planning stage, with a lack of followthrough in the implementation of humanitarian assistance.

• She is a humanitarian: women’s organisations, and individual women, are already playing a key role as frontline responders in disasters and conflicts. They are playing a leading role in affected communities, helping everyone in those communities – women, men, girls and boys – survive, cope with and adapt to the crisis. The contribution of women as humanitarian actors needs to be recognised and supported.
Based on our extensive consultations with women activists at national and global levels, as well as a literature review and discussions with policy-makers, the report identifies four emerging trends in humanitarian response:

• A shift from women as victims to women as first responders: this shift in policy and practice was recognised at a global level by the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, and now needs to be carried through in implementing and delivering on the Summit’s core commitments on gender.

• A shift from tick-box gender accountability to a comprehensive approach: this means ensuring gender is addressed at all levels, from funding through project planning and delivery to M&E and accountability.

• Increasing the support and space for women to participate in humanitarian action: as agencies more seriously address their accountability to affected populations, the specific challenges of accountability to women and girls are getting recognised.

• Recognising the participation of local women’s groups in humanitarian action: contributions by women-led civil society groups are increasingly recognised at the level of policy rhetoric, but this is not yet translating into funding or joint work on the ground.

The challenges and opportunities are explored in evidence from Jordan and the Philippines, including a case study of Syrian women’s activism in Jordan, and accountability for gender in the shelter sector in the Philippines. The report concludes with recommendations for different stakeholders involved in humanitarian action: donors, governments in crisis-affected contexts, the United Nations, INGOs, and local women’s groups. Key recommendations are:

• Bring the World Humanitarian Summit Gender Core Commitments to the field level.
Emphasis should be placed on integrating the Summit’s gender outcomes into follow-up on the Grand Bargain and the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies at global and field level, for example by identifying pilot countries. Donors and host governments in crisis-affected countries should likewise identify action plans to translate the global commitments on women’s participation into practice in the context of national disaster management strategies, national action plans on women, peace and security, emergency response funding and related frameworks.

• Identify individual and collective commitments on gender and Leave No One Behind at the leadership level in global clusters, Humanitarian Country Teams, field clusters or sector working groups, and national line ministries.
Humanitarian Coordinators should convene consultations with relevant stakeholders, including local women’s groups, to identify priorities in implementing UN Humanitarian Response Plans for 2017. Senior leadership at global and country levels is critical to enable technical gender expertise and the experience of women from affected communities to inform decision-making. Progress should be reviewed at mid-year and end-of-year points.

• Strengthen and align approaches to ‘whole of programme cycle’ accountability for gender and Leave No One Behind, measuring outcomes, not just processes, in humanitarian funding.
Donors, UN agencies and NGOs should work together to integrate good practices, building on the IASC Gender and Age Marker, the Minimum Standards on Gender and Age piloted in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, and the IASC Gender-based Violence Guidelines. Accountability in crisis response funding should be framed in a comprehensive manner to address gender equality, women’s leadership and participation, gender-based violence prevention and response, and sexual and reproductive health and rights – avoiding siloed approaches and maximising links between efforts in different sectors. Crucially, it needs to shift away from the tick-box approach focusing only on processes towards accountability to ensure actual improvements in how people access assistance and protection.

• Give humanitarian action a women’s face – appoint female staff at all levels.
All institutions involved in humanitarian action should undertake gender audits of their organisational culture and human resource management and set milestones to increase female staffing and gender sensitivity at all levels.
Donors should make this mandatory in multi-year funding for preparedness, resilience and disaster risk reduction.

• Strengthen partnerships with and increase multi-year and flexible funding to local women’s organisations (in line with the wider Grand Bargain commitment to channel 25% of funding to local organisations).
Partnerships between local women’s groups and humanitarian agencies should be fostered to promote learning in both directions and leverage these partnerships to become drivers of change for women’s participation, gender equality and gender-based violence prevention and response in each sector.
The needs of people affected by a crisis, as well as their coping strategies, are shaped by gender. As humanitarians, if we don’t try to understand these, then we are not doing our job. While the specific roles played by women and girls are often off the radar for mainstream humanitarian action, they are in fact amongst the first and frontline responders. It’s already happening, and the challenge and opportunity for the humanitarian system is to now better support those efforts.

FOREWORD

The year 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of the Global Shelter Cluster, the inter-agency coordination mechanism for shelter response. During these ten years, coordination has improved in consistency, shelter responses have grown in scale, and there are more people with experience in shelter programming, but people continue to lose their dwellings and be displaced due to conflict and natural disasters. Global humanitarian shelter needs continue to greatly exceed the capacity and resources to respond.

In recognition of the need for better shelter programming at scale, often with limited resources, Shelter Projects 2015-2016 has been developed as a core product of the Global Shelter Cluster, to help us learn from the past so that we may better respond in the future. It has been developed through a truly collaborative effort of a working group composed of international shelter experts from several humanitarian organizations and institutions.

This is the sixth edition in the series of publications that started in 2008. It contains 31 new shelter case studies and 12 overviews of responses, contributing to a repository of over 200 project examples and response overviews, from programmes of over 50 agencies in around 70 countries overall. As in past editions, the case studies in this book vary greatly in scale, cost, duration and project design. Although they are not statistically representative of all shelter projects, this growing body of knowledge represents a source of learning, includes many years of experience of nearly 400 field practitioners who have contributed, and reflects the highly contextual nature of individual shelter and settlements responses.

The objective of this publication is to share experiences of humanitarian shelter and settlement responses, paying close attention to the strengths, weaknesses and potential lessons that can be extracted from each. We hope that this edition will represent a source of inspiration and reflection, and that it will contribute to having to “reinvent the wheel” a little less.

Previous case studies have been used for several purposes by a diverse audience working in humanitarian shelter and settlements. In reviewing past editions, the primary uses of Shelter Projects were found to be:

• As a reference or set of examples to inform shelter programming or strategy development;

• For advocacy purposes, using precedents in discussions with governments and local stakeholders in affected countries;

• For workshops and training of national staff of several organizations, as well as cluster coordination and technical teams;

• For research purposes, both by academics and students.

Beyond the case studies themselves, the process and inclusion used to develop them are important. Engaging those who implemented projects to draft case studies encourages not only self-reflection and learning, but also helps to ensure that practical and operational challenges are included in the case studies. Engaging agencies and many people in their production and review ensures broader inclusion and investment in their learnings.

By examining the shelter-related needs of populations affected by natural disasters and conflict, compared to the total people reached with shelter and non-food items (NFI) interventions and the funding received by the sector in the past two years, it is clear that there is a gap between the scale of needs and the funding and capacity of the humanitarian community to respond to such needs. Although shelter actors universally recognize that affected people remain the first responders (and should be supported to address their own shelter needs), lack of resources clearly hinders agencies from supporting people to help themselves.

The introduction of this edition of Shelter Projects contains a discussion of the major natural disasters, conflict-induced and complex crises in 2015 and 2016. Although natural disasters continue to affect millions of people worldwide, responses to conflict are assuming a much larger scale, both in terms of displaced individuals and shelter needs for the affected populations, primarily due to the protracted nature of several ongoing crises. These include, but are not limited to, the Syrian crisis, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, Lake Chad and Ukraine. The Shelter Sector recognizes the need to be better prepared to respond to such crises, which in some cases have significant, regional, impacts.

The website (www.shelterprojects.org) has been updated with the new case studies and overviews in this edition, and provides an easy way of searching through the large repository of examples and opinions collected since the first edition. Whether you are reading Shelter Projects as a reference to work on a particular response, to inform better programming, are studying it for research or are merely looking at the pictures, we hope that you find it as informative as we have done in compiling it. However you read it, reflect on how the projects described within it represent an enormous amount of work by many hundreds of humanitarian workers, often working in challenging situations and with crisis-affected people, who find themselves in unexpected circumstances and often in extreme hardship.

The Global Shelter Cluster
Shelter Projects Working Group,
April 2017.

Since the year 2000, disasters have been responsible for the loss of one million lives.

As one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid organisations, CARE is one of the first to respond and the last to leave when disaster strikes. But there’s also a lot of work that we do preparing communities for disaster, to reduce their impact.

This work is more important than ever. In just the last three years we’ve seen three of the biggest storms ever recorded – all in the Pacific. When Typhoon Haiyan struck the **Philippines** in 2013, it was unprecedented. We had never seen 300km/h winds and the damage they could inflict.

Then, just over a year later, Cyclone Pam struck **Vanuatu**. It was the biggest storm the country had ever seen.

Then **Cyclone Winston** ripped across Fiji in February 2016. It was the biggest storm ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.

We are in the midst of the cyclone season now, and hope that this trend does not continue in 2017. But there is some positive news: the number of people being killed by disasters is falling. And there is a clear reason for this: preparation.

In places like Vanuatu and Fiji, where we work with partners Live and Learn, we are helping remote communities gain better access to cyclone warning systems. We have been working with telecom providers to disseminate warning messages to the ever-expanding mobile phone network, and working with communities to build safe community structures that are more robust in the face of storms. Crucially, we have been training men and women to lead disaster preparedness teams, called Community Disaster Committees (CDC).

In Vanuatu, once the CDC knew Cyclone Pam was near, they started the evacuation procedure, using the megaphone provided by CARE, to announce the imminent arrival of the cyclone. Using CARE’s cyclone map and listening to warnings via radio, the team advised everyone to prepare their houses and to be ready to move to an evacuation centre. Immediately people started preparing: cutting down branches near their homes, fastening roofs, pulling fishing boats out of the water, and gathering essential supplies.

The CDCs were successful: there were no deaths reported in the many villages where CARE has been working.

We can’t stop emergencies like earthquakes and cyclones, but there are ways that we can reduce their impact.

The United Nations Development Program states that for every dollar invested into disaster preparedness, up to seven dollars are saved in the aftermath of a disaster.

In today’s reality, preparedness is more important than ever.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Program, “Typhoon Haiyan Response,” is a three-year (November 2013 - December 2016) initiative implemented by CARE Philippines. It supports the emergency relief and recovery of people affected by Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Visayas Region in November 2013. The Program aims to assist affected communities (men, women, boys and girls) in Regions 6 and 8 to recover, build back safer and increase resilience.

The Program has three phases. Phase 1 is the emergency phase, which covered the period November 2013 to February 2014. Activities were focused on the provision of emergency food, emergency shelter kits (tarps, repair kits), and non-food items. Phase 2 is the early recovery phase, which covered the period February – December 2014. Support were focused on self-recovery for safe shelter, food security and livelihoods augmentation. Phase 2 livelihood interventions include household level cash grants (HHCT) provided in two tranches: Php 3,000 for the first tranche to jump start quick-impact livelihood and Php 5,000 for the second tranche to expand and diversify livelihoods.

Phase 3 is the medium-term recovery phase, which covers the period January 2015 – November 2016. Financial assistance was provided to group-owned and women-managed enterprises through two funding facilities: Community Enterprise Facility (CEF) and Women Enterprise Fund (WEF). Support to enterprises also included capacity building and technical assistance. CARE uses the value chain approach to strengthen communities’ links to the market.

Project areas are in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo (Region 6), and Leyte and Samar (Region 8). In the delivery of assistance, CARE collaborated with the following partners:
Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development, Inc. (ACCORD) in Eastern Leyte and Iloilo, Sara Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SMPC) and Business Fair Trade Consulting (BizFTC) in Iloilo, Uswag Development Foundation (UDF) in Aklan, Pontevedra Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Inc. (PVDCI) and Sigmahanon Development Foundation, Inc. (SDFI) in Capiz, Laua-an Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) and Antique Development Foundation (ADF) in Antique, Leyte Center for Development (LCDE) in Western Samar and Samar, Metro Ormoc Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Inc. (OCCCI) in Western Samar and Western Leyte, and Rural Development Initiatives (RDI) and Fatima Multi-Purpose Cooperative (FMPC) in Leyte.

The evaluation focused on the livelihood recovery assistance program during the early to medium-term recovery phases. Emergency sectors such as food and shelter and non-food items have been adequately covered in previous assessments and evaluations.

The livelihood program is funded by various donors such as Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH) in Germany, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministere des Affaires Etrangeresor MAE) in Luxemburg,
H&M Conscious Foundation in Netherlands, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Affairs Canada (previously DFATD), Foundation of Dutch Cooperating Aid Organizations (SHO), European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), funds from the people of Austria, Australia, Germany, UK, and the USA, and from private foundations such as InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and French private companies.

The objectives of the Final Evaluation as per Terms of Reference (ToR) are the following:

1. Assess the overall achievement of results of the response program based on the logframe and focusing on the livelihoods recovery component, specifically pointing to evidence that the program was able to contribute to positive changes in communities’ lives.

2. Evaluate program performance under the four major themes – program delivery model, integration of gender equality and disaster risk reduction (DRR), partnership strategy, and accountability principles and practices. The four main evaluation criteria used are effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

3. Identify lessons learned, good practices and any particular challenges in the implementation of the program and achievement of results 4. Provide recommendations to improve future programming.
   The Evaluation employed the combination of utilization-focused and participatory approaches in the collection and analysis of results. The latter was realized through the involvement of a substantive sample of stakeholders for the livelihoods component in surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), and key informant interviews (KIIs).

Overall Achievements of Results

The following are the output achievements of the Program:

• 27,415 men and women who have used cash grants to jump start quick-impact livelihoods and attended income-generating activity (IGA) planning and money management orientation. Top five livelihoods that beneficiaries embarked on were rearing pig and chicken, sari-sari (retail) store, retail trading (various types), and tied to fifth place are vegetable farming and food vending.

• 25,330 men and women who received additional cash grants to expand and diversify livelihoods

• 284 community enterprises accessed livelihood support funds covering 16 types of commodities (rice, cassava, other rootcrops, abaca, tikog, other materials for handicraft, herbs, vegetable, vermicompost, seaweeds, ginger, banana, native chicken, aqua/marine, other agri crops, others) at four stages of the value chain (input supply, production, processing, and marketing, including logistics/transport)

• 38,566 men and women participated in community enterprise projects

• 912 women’s enterprises expanded and diversified. Majority of the beneficiaries are engaged in food vending. The rest are in agriculture (agricultural crop, marine/aquaculture, poultry/livestock), handicraft, textile products, and services.

• 39,478 men and women engaged in community and women-owned enterprises participated in trainings such as community-based enterprise development (C-BED), gender, disaster risk reduction, and business planning The livelihood component has contributed to the achievement of Program objectives. The financial assistance, complemented by capacity building and technical assistance, has increased the capacity of men and women to implement profitable and sustainable enterprises.
  Survey in December 2016 showed that a little over half of beneficiaries (55%) were even able to diversify their respective livelihoods. For women entrepreneurs in particular, 80% have increased confidence in managing their respective enterprises compared to 31.5% in June 2016. Women played a substantial role in the strategic business decision-making process.
  Moreover, 80% were able to establish market linkages. The types of markets are walk-in buyers (21%), retailers (6%), wholesalers (4%), institutional buyers (1%), and various/multiple (55%).
  Market transactions are primarily happening at the barangay level (31%). Households implementing the three tracks of livelihood support have earned income: 73% of household cash transfer beneficiaries earned income with a monthly net average of Php 2,785.15 compared to the previous Php 2,000 per month; 100% of women enterprise beneficiaries with a monthly net average of Php 4,382.09 compared to Php 412 before; and 36% of households participating in community enterprises with monthly net average of Php 42,050 compared to Php 40,850 before.
  From their income, beneficiaries were able to acquire household assets such as appliances and electronic gadgets (52%), furniture and fixtures (18%), and motorcycle (30%). They were also able to acquire productive assets: 63% own small livestock, 53% farm equipment (non mechanized), 5% farm equipment (mechanized), and tools (49%). Acquisition of assets was made possible either through the financial grant or income from CARE-assisted enterprises.
  Three years after typhoon Haiyan, affected communities are on their way to recovery and resilience as shown by the following:

• Households were able to meet or attain basic needs such as food (95%) and education (97%) compared to the pre-typhoon levels. On the other hand, health (93%) and shelter (88%) were partially improved/met while debt payment (48%) and savings (81%) are not improved or not yet met.

• Use of negative coping mechanisms was reduced. The percentage of people employing each of the nine negative coping mechanisms was reduced after the introduction of CARE’s program. As CARE was the major implementer of livelihoods in each Barangay, it is reasonable to assume that CARE’s intervention contributed to this reduction. Much fewer people are modifying food consumption of the households such as limiting meal portions, purchasing less preferred items, reducing number of meals eaten in a day, and borrowing food from others. Likewise, there has also been reduction in the use of nonfood negative coping mechanisms such as decreasing health/education/incomegenerating expenditures. Very few respondents used erosive coping mechanisms such as sale of assets or sending family members away to work.

• Households were able to employ livelihood protection mechanisms through cash transfers by CARE (shelter and livelihoods), and through replacement or rebuilding of assets either through the financial assistance from CARE and through the income from their enterprise operations.

Program Performance

The following are the findings related to program performance:

• The vulnerability of the beneficiaries were generally characterized by lack of disposable income, a limited asset base and livelihood opportunities. Efforts to address these issues mainly took the form of providing financial assistance, building human capacity (through trainings), group formation, and linking to financial services. Providing both financial and capacity development assistance helped in increasing local capacity in managing enterprises.

• Some livelihood activities are more appropriate or are the better option for some local economic and environmental contexts at particular points in time. During the early recovery phase, the goal was to provide quick-impact, low-capital livelihood activities through household cash transfers. For medium-term recovery, the goal was to promote market-oriented livelihood, or micro or small business enterprise through the CEFs and WEFs. Cash transfer pooling was one of the more exceptional and fruitful ways of starting a group-owned micro-enterprise. The collaborative micro-enterprises showed some scale up and sustainability potentials that eventually developed through the CEF.

• The use of the value chain approach supports the ongoing effort to increase revenue, to access a range of livelihood assets, and to reduce operating costs of micro-enterprises.
  WEF and CEF projects have been increasingly directed towards enterprises that have strong market scale-up potential through greater backward, forward and horizontal linkages. A more market-oriented livelihood assistance provided to the households played an important means in recovery especially in places where farming and fishing could not be immediately resumed. Moreover, the Program has identified and engaged partners to complete a network that provides beneficiaries with access to a range of livelihood assets, e.g., marketing, technical and business development support services, financing, and risk protection services such as insurance and risk mapping.

• Partnership with competent facilitating partners has enhanced the importance of community facilitators who are experts in enterprise management, understand the local value chain and know key industry players. For example, CARE benefitted from BizFTC that is knowledgeable on enterprise risk management, or from Antique Development Foundation that has a wealth of experience in community enterprise development and local government networks. Fatima Cooperative has post-harvest facilities and network system for savings build-up. It facilitated the work of CARE and the Program beneficiaries making productive use of local resources like cassava in building capital from their own savings.

• Important partners from the government and private sector were identified for the beneficiaries with the adoption of the value chain approach. Contracting agreements for training and coaching activities, provision of farm machineries and equipment, and marketing partnerships were made to ensure more long-term results. In partnership agreements with the government, the Program ensured that there is no duplication but instead complementation of programs.

• The gender strategy was very relevant and appropriate to the livelihood recovery as well as to the longer-term challenges beneficiaries face in building competitive, growthoriented and sustainable livelihoods. The gender-responsive value chain analysis facilitated the identification of gender issues and identified ways and means of integrating women’s and men’s needs and opportunities in the enterprises. The integration of gender in needs assessment, proposal development, activities and outcomes was done promptly.

• The disaster risk reduction – climate change adaptation (DRR-CCA) practices adopted particularly in the value chain analysis and enterprise activities contributed to minimizing enterprise risks and maximizing results. Mainstreaming climate change and disaster risk reduction involved mobilizing beneficiaries and communities to increase their awareness of local DRR-CCA issues and the importance of environmental sustainability, and develop a shared approach to addressing community enterprise priorities.

• CARE exercises ‘do no harm’ policy and communicate key accountability principles throughout the phases of the program cycle. CARE and local facilitating partners made a deliberate effort to identify and prioritize households that needed most help. They consulted these households about their needs for livelihoods recovery. Protocols for communicating beneficiaries’ complaints and grievances to CARE and the local facilitating partners provided particular assistance needed.
  The evaluation identified the following key challenges:While the shifts from HHCT to WEF and CEF were noted and successes were reported, these were achieved not without overcoming challenges. Among the challenges encountered were: a) low production level due to lack of good equipment; b) inability to reach demand requirements of the market; and c) upgraded enterprise management skills of the CEF project management that meet the standards of the markets.

Lessons Learned

The following are the most meaningful lessons from the Program that can provide decision makers with relevant information for future programming:

1. A sustainable livelihood program can improve the poor’s ability to protect and promote their economic conditions when this includes a comprehensive analysis of vulnerability context of their livelihood conditions. Based on HHCT experience, vulnerable households tend to allocate their scarce resources to maintain consumption levels and reduce risk rather than to maximize profit or income as in the case of WEF beneficiaries.

2. In designing inclusive and market-oriented livelihood intervention, the use of value chain approach for priority sector could guide the beneficiaries in identifying opportunities in the market, and consider the constraints to exploiting these opportunities. To provide a foundation for analysis and technical guidance, the assistance from facilitating partners in undertaking a detailed value chain analysis is one good approach.

3. Providing business advisory support services, including access to market information, financing facilitation, technology transfer, business counselling, marketing and product development, rather than working with traditional business support systems, is important to the success of these enterprises. However, available resources and capacity should match the level of enterprise development of the beneficiaries.

4. Engaging with national and local government, non-government organizations and the private sector facilitates the sustainability of these initiatives as these institutions can provide the necessary support services, particularly in the provision of technical and financial assistance for the scaling of production and business operations.

5. A holistic approach to gender mainstreaming is important for livelihood intervention of any kind to build deeper attitudinal and behavioural changes and greater levels of economic empowerment and participation in enterprise decision-making.

6. Intensive monitoring and evaluation is important to track that beneficiaries and partners graduate to the next level of results. Monitoring will keep track of progress of the beneficiaries’ enterprises and provide much-needed focused support.

Recommendations

The following recommendations will enhance the future programming:

1. An integrated livelihood program employing market-oriented approaches is an appropriate response to ensure resilience of the livelihood enterprises. To ensure its sustainability, a comprehensive support of value chain analysis and upgrading and technical expertise on entrepreneurship, and results-based monitoring and evaluation approaches should be provided through competent facilitating partners or service facilitators or providers.

2. The existing collaboration of individual and community enterprises with government agencies and private sector players can still be strengthened for better impacts. These include coordination with local stakeholders to provide more efficient and effective delivery service and to link beneficiaries with business support systems such as markets, technology and finance.

3. Capacity-building efforts must focus on the delivery of the business support services as well as in managing risks. Institutions that are not able to manage risks effectively can quickly become overwhelmed, seriously jeopardizing their ability to continue to provide services.

4. Improve program monitoring and evaluation systems and tools, and ensure their integration with facilitating partners’ tools and systems. Weaknesses in tracking results should be addressed through additional training and technical assistance for partners to adopt appropriate tools for monitoring and evaluation at the project level. Additional support is needed for program staff to improve analysis of monitoring and evaluation results.

A "Gender in Emergencies" specialist in the midst of crisis around Lake Chad

Fatouma Zara is the Gender in Emergencies specialist with CARE’s Rapid Response Team. Fatouma works with our teams in humanitarian emergencies to ensure gender remains at the heart of everything we do. Fatouma’s work has taken her to many countries including Cambodia,
Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Turkey.

Today we find her in Diffa, in the south east of her native country Niger. Diffa is hosting around 340,000 of the 2.4 million people displaced by the crisis in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin. Caused by the ravages of violent conflict, extreme poverty, underdevelopment and climate change, the crisis is affecting more than 17 million people across north eastern Nigeria, Cameroon’s Far North, western Chad and south eastern Niger.

CARE is assisting more than 300,000 people currently seeking refuge in the Diffa region; working with local partners to provide hygiene and shelter kits, build latrines and boreholes, and distributing cash, food, seeds, agricultural equipment and small scale livestock such as goats and sheep.

CARE ensures that the communities with whom we work have a voice in the planning, implementing and evaluation of our programs. Fatouma is leading a team of evaluators talking to displaced communities around Diffa about the services CARE is providing them.

3.30am

It’s Ramadan so my day begins at 3.30am, while it’s still dark. I begin with prayer to mark the end of the previous day, have a quick breakfast – just milk and coffee – and then prayers for the start of a new day. After that I prepare myself for the day ahead. But before I start my work day, I call home and check on my family. I travel a lot for my job and it’s not easy to be so far from home. My husband is like the mum and the dad to our three children when I’m away. Technology helps, I manage to talk to them every day, no matter where I am.

8.00am

At the office I check with our logistics team to make sure we have transport to the field sites. We are three teams and we’re each travelling to different sites so it’s a big operation. Our teams consist of CARE staff as agricultural equipment and small scale livestock such as goats and sheep.
CARE ensures that the communities with whom we work have a voice in the planning, implementing and evaluation of our programs. Fatouma is leading a team of evaluators talking to displaced communities around Diffa about the services CARE is providing them. well as our partners from local NGOs and government agencies. The scale of this crisis is enormous and it’s important that we all work together.

I’ll be travelling to Garim Wazam, a village to the north east of Diffa town, to support the team collecting data there. A few years ago, the population of Garim Wazam was around 700 people. Today it’s more than 21,000. The community is now sheltering refugees from Nigeria as well as Nigeriens displaced by this crisis.

Typhoon Yolanda, internationally known as Haiyan, has become a name that’s hard to forget. The super typhoon wiped out homes, killed more than 6,000 people, and devastated agricultural lands leaving those who survived homeless and without any source of income. But for the people who witnessed its wrath, the only way to move forward was to pick up the pieces and rise.

Four years after Haiyan, affected poor and vulnerable communities in Visayas, Central Philippines have been engaged in various activities and trainings to recover, better prepare for disasters and adapt to climate change impact.

International humanitarian organization CARE has supported more than 600,000 people through different livelihood recovery programs providing cash grants and skill-building trainings to women microentrepreneurs, farmers, fisher folks, and commodity producers and processors.

“The country is regularly affected by typhoons and other hazards, and these hamper the recovery process. CARE works with these communities in building resilience to disasters and engaging more women to lead and participate,” said David Gazashvili, CARE’s Country Director in the Philippines.

According to the 2016 World Risk Index, the Philippines is the third most disaster-prone country in the world. After Haiyan, the country suffered from relatively strong typhoons such as Hagupit in 2014, Koppu and Melor in 2015 and Sarika and Haima in 2016.

CARE is currently supporting over 280 community associations such as women’s organizations, farmers and fisherfolks’ groups and local cooperatives through trainings on entrepreneurship, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, hazard mapping and contingency planning for disaster preparedness, gender and development, climate change mitigation and other industry-focused subjects.

CARE’s assisted community organizations are now practicing organic farming and applying other eco-friendly and innovative agricultural techniques. Farmers and commodity processors are now using solar dryers for their products, building structures according to “Build back safer” techniques and ensuring that their livelihoods don’t degrade the ecosystem.

“The biggest challenge for these communities is to protect their assets from various hazards that’s why our emergency response is part of a long-term commitment. We place great importance on building local capacity, partnerships with local organizations and strengthening women’s participation,” shared Gazashvili.

Aside from financial support, CARE has partnered with various local non-government organizations, government agencies and local government units, universities and training institutions to provide technical assistance to people affected by Haiyan.

CARE continues to work with the affected people and reach more communities in the Philippines. CARE works in the most vulnerable and geographically isolated areas affected by Haiyan, with special attention given to women and girls and the most marginalized.

About CARE: CARE is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations supporting more than 963 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian-aid projects in 94 countries. CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes, helping communities prepare for disasters, and implementing sustainable livelihood projects. CARE’s past responses in the Philippines include typhoon Pablo (Bopha) in 2012, Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013, Ruby (Hagupit) in 2014, (Koppu) and (Melor) in 2015, (Sarika), Lawin (Haima), Nina (Nock-ten) in 2016, earthquake in Surigao City and Marawi armed conflict in 2017.

Media Contacts:

David Gazashvili, Country Director, CARE Philippines +63 917 510 6974 (dgazashvili@care.org) Dennis Amata, Information and Communications Manager, CARE Philippines +63 917 510 8150 (dennis.amata@care.org)

*For updates on CARE’s work in the Philippines, please follow @CAREphl on Twitter and CARE Philippines on Facebook

For more on our work in the Philippines, click here.

BACKGROUND

The attack of armed men in Marawi City, south of Philippines on May 23, 2017 resulted in massive bloody conflict between the ISIS-associated Maute group and government forces.

Hundreds of thousands of residents particularly women and children fled to nearby municipalities and cities and in various regions in the country. Eventually, the Philippine government declared Martial Law in the whole island region of Mindanao. The Islamic City of Marawi is the capital and the only city in the province of Lanao del Sur with a population of more than 200,000. People of Marawi are called Maranao and speak the Maranao dialect.

This report, the result of internal research by CARE International, argues that partnerships in humanitarian response not only meet lifesaving needs but can also address gender inequalities. Based on the review of five recent emergency responses, the report explores which partnership models and practices can best foster gendertransformative humanitarian action.

Gender dimensions

CARE’s focus on women and girls is based on overwhelming evidence of gender discrimination as an underlying cause of poverty and marginalisation, leading them to being more vulnerable to the effects of disasters than men and boys. Humanitarian programming that fails to account for the differing roles and power dynamics between men and women tends to exacerbate gender inequalities. At the same time, disasters often disrupt and displace social structures and relations, creating opportunities to promote gender transformational change, such as women taking on leadership roles in their household and community during relief and recovery. While urgent, lifesaving action is critical in crisis response, CARE firmly believes that gender-sensitive action is essential to an effective response. CARE is also convinced that humanitarian action can advance gender equality and transformation.

Partnership and Localising Aid dimensions

Partnerships are fundamental to CARE’s work. CARE believes that saving lives in emergencies, and overcoming poverty, can only be achieved through the collective action of many. CARE has long promoted working with local institutions in development settings and is increasingly partnering in emergencies. CARE recognises that partnering with local actors leads to greater reach and sustainability as they are often the first responders when disaster strikes, with best access to local populations, intimate knowledge of the local context, and long-term presence. CARE believes that localised aid is not only more effective but also just and fair. As such, CARE advocates for more operating space and resources for local actors and disaster-affected communities. CARE recently strengthened its commitment to localising humanitarian aid by endorsing the Charter for Change and the Grand Bargain2 , espousing the call to ‘reinforce – not replace – existing local and national capacities.’ This approach compels CARE to move away from subcontracting towards more equitable, powersharing partnerships, viewing local civil society as peers with common visions and purposes.

Tropical storm Tembin, locally known as Vinta, brought catastrophic damage to several provinces in Mindanao, south of Philippines. The death toll in the storm’s onslaught rose to at least 240 particularly in communities swept by flash floods and landslides in Zamboanga Peninsula region before Christmas day.

Tembin’s heavy downpour caused flooding, landslides and flashfloods that destroyed houses, rice fields and infrastructures. Over 500,000 people were affected in eight regions. Of which, more than 90,000 are now staying in evacuation centers.

International humanitarian organization CARE has mobilized its emergency team and local partners in Mindanao to conduct needs and damage assessments. CARE’s partner Agri-Aqua Development Coalition is assessing in the Zamboanga Peninsula, one of the hardest hit regions. Another partner Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks is in Lanao provinces where communities experienced widespread flooding.

“Our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy as this disaster happened before Christmas Day, a festive time for Filipinos to be with their families. Many are now staying in evacuation centers because their houses were totally destroyed by flashfloods,” said David Gazashvili, CARE’s Country Director in the Philippines. “Our emergency team and our partner organizations are ready to provide relief assistance.”

CARE has worked in the Philippines since 1949, providing emergency relief when disaster strikes and helping communities prepare for disasters. CARE specializes in providing life-saving assistance and has more than seven decades of experience helping people recover from disasters.

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For media interviews, please contact Dennis Amata (CARE Philippines’ Communications Manager).
Mobile: +63 917 5108150 Email: dennis.amata@care.org Skype: dennis.amata2