My staff was on her way out of the Center for Social Policy Building in the Ateneo Campus when another staff called out to her to bring along a jacket for the cold. This was at five in the afternoon!

People have noticed how unusually cold January is in Metro Manila. Temperature was registered at 18 degrees Celsius, which commonly occurs on clear nights in Baguio City. Cold weather is expected in December, a prelude to Christmas, when puto bungbong is cooking along the streets and people clad in sweaters and coats flock to churches for the simbang gabi. It appears that northeast winds are bringing colder air to the Philippines, prompting individuals to wear clothing to fight the chill at five in the afternoon.

Weather patterns around the globe have been changing dramatically over the past decades. Experts attribute this to the warming of the world’s climate system, which has brought not only occasional disturbances but bigger disasters – super typhoons, tsunamis, long-term droughts. For the Philippines, a country prone to natural disasters and host to an average of 20-30 tropical cyclones in a year, this can mean massive losses.  Natural disasters cost lives and rob people of their possessions, homes, and, most critical of all, their livelihoods. Most often, the poorest communities take the brunt of disaster impacts when they strike. Their poverty makes them more vulnerable – their livelihoods depend on natural cycles and yields, they do not have much savings, and their homes, often made of light materials, cannot withstand the forces of nature.

However, building communities that are able to cope with disaster risks begins with a sound policy that responds to the needs of modern times. A good law should be able to protect communities from disaster impacts, or, at the very least, reduce disaster risks. That goal can be achieved by making a strong shift to a paradigm of disaster risk reduction from the age-old emergency response practiced by our country. The Ateneo School of Government strongly supports that shift.  In November 2008, the School partnered with the Disaster Risk Reduction Network Philippines (DRRNet Phils) for the passage of a Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Bill that seeks to modernize and strengthen the country’s capacity to manage and respond to disaster risks. The DRRNet Phils. is a coalition of Philippine civil society organizations, communities, practitioners and advocates adhering to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and implementing community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM).

But while the battle is fought at the national level, particularly at the Senate and House of Representatives, the School does what it can for its partner communities at the local level.  The School recognizes that some of the country’s poor communities have managed to cope, despite their dire circumstances. There are documented best practices of technologies and social innovations that make communities more resilient to the impacts of disasters. The local office of Christian Aid has been working with some local communities in developing strategies that will help increase their chances of survival and enable them to adapt to their changing environment. Their groundwork has uncovered some interesting community innovations like water purifiers made from indigenous materials and food storage schemes. We would like to highlight these technologies and innovations in a learning exchange on climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

The Ateneo School of Government, through the iBoP Asia Project and in partnership with Christian Aid, will host a forum on March 4 and 5, which will highlight innovations that reduce risks from climate change impacts, particularly in the areas of housing, livelihood, water and sanitation, food security, and disaster preparedness/early warning. Since components of governance, education, and risk assessment and management are also key to the implementation of DRR, technical experts - geologists, meteorologists, architects, engineers and policymakers - will be invited to talk about the basic science of climate change, geographic hazards, disaster-resilient structural designs, and policies that will facilitate the integration of DRR in development plans and the adoption of risk-reducing innovations. By inviting our Southeast Asian colleagues who can share their own experiences in CCA and DRR, we hope to turn this local initiative into a regional dialogue. 

We invite you to join us! Please find the details in the poster below (Click to enlarge). We look forward to seeing you there.