Pandemics not among focus in pre-COVID DRR program in PH

CEBU CITY-- Pandemics not a common focus among DRR stakeholders and actors in the pre-COVID disaster risk reduction (DRR) program in the Philippines, according to a survey by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) done from 2017 to 2019 whose results were published on October 20 this year.

HHI found out that before the onset of the Coronavirus disease or COVID-19, disaster risk reduction (DRR) actors in the Philippines had very limited connections and collaborations on pandemics.   Although the survey did not specifically focus on pandemics, it asked DRR actors which types of disasters they address, with pandemics being one of the options.

HHI then analyzed the data to see possible networking patterns observed for actors working on pandemics before the COVID-19 hit the country and to find out how the data could contribute to the understanding of the country’s levels of preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey results showed that out of 501 total respondent-organizations with DRR or CCA-related projects in the Philippines, only a total of seven percent or 35 actors reported that they focus on pandemics.

“Of these organizations, 15 were “isolates” or those with no connections to others working on DRR and CCA,” HHI said.

Of the 20 actors that had connections with other actors within the network, only one actor, a government agency reported collaborating with another organization who was also focused on pandemics. The agency collaborated with a local government unit (LGU) on the areas of public health expertise, logistics, policy, and volunteering, the survey said.

HHI went on that this certain actor was going to the other pandemic-focused organization for information sharing and communication due to a funding requirement. This means that there was no formal/informal partnership and that the collaboration was not necessarily by choice. 

The two organizations on the other hand have been collaborating for 5-10 years and collaborate often (more than five times in six months) but they rated their relationship only as “somewhat likely” to be recommended to other actors working on humanitarian response and preparedness, the data said.

The 20 actors in the network who had a focus on pandemics reported a total of 625 relationships with actors not working on pandemics, HHI bared.

It added that the most common collaboration areas were advocacy and community capacity building, which were the same two common collaboration areas found for the full DRR network in the Philippines.

HHI said that further research is needed to determine whether these relationships were for preparedness and resiliency for pandemics specifically, or for another disaster area and it could also help understand the system working to prepare for a global pandemic, such as COVID-19 in the Philippines, HHI added. (Photo: HHI-Logo)