Philippines: ERC Flagship Initiative February 2024 Newsletter

Flagship Initiative tests Resilient-Based Community Appraisal in CARAGA region

From 12 to 15 February, the ERC flagship initiative team in collaboration with local government and partners conducted its first rollout of the Resilience-Based Participatory Community Appraisal (ReBPCA) in priority barangays in the CARAGA region, with the enhancements and lessons learned integrated from the testing of the tool in Tiwi, Albay in Region 5.

The ReBPCA is a structured and in-depth listening exercise focused on unfiltered understanding and strengthening communities over disasters and climate change. The activity provided an opportunity to refine the tool further and devise appropriate strategies.

Under the community engagement pillar of the ERC, the Listen, Discover, and Enhance (LDE)methodology was promoted and tested, with ReBPCA serving as a specific toolkit for the listening process. It aims to systematically capture unfiltered information from communities, focusing on their understanding of resilience, essential assets the community value most before, during, and after disasters, capacities and priority actions for resilience and empowerment.

A total of 301 individuals from different sectors in four barangays (Oslao, 66; Amontay, 81;Canlanipa, 79; and Day-asan, 75) participated in the testing, ensuring representation from men, women, elderly, youth, indigenous peoples, LGBTQI+ and persons with disabilities (PWDs). Additionally, 39 men and women from various government units, UN agencies, ING0s, and national and local NGOs actively participated. Agencies include the Regional Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), UN OCHA, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, FAO, CARE, CFSI, ACTED,ECOWEB, LPFI, Local Lab, and GNIP.

The distribution of the group are as follows: Adult women, 65 (22%); adult men, 51 (17%); PWDs, 46 (15%); elderly, 40 (13%); youth, 35 (12%); LGBTQI+, 29 (10%); and !Ps, 25 (8%). Meanwhile, the 10 barangay officials, elected and hired, constitutes 3% of the total number of participants.

The first day involved a half-day orientation for the facilitators, followed by the actual ReBPCA session with constituents in selected barangays. Following data gathering, another one-day reflection and preliminary analysis session took place. Facilitators were trained to perform a basic community resilience analysis for each barangay and a sectional resilience analysis for participating sectors.

The community resilience analysis aimed to understand how communities perceive resilience based on their assets, considering gender and intersectionality. The intersectional analysis delved into the perspectives and priorities of specific segments of the population. Some of key recommendations coming from the consultation are that community-driven efforts, especially those lead by women should be supported immediately after the impact of the disaster. The