Ms Jimenez presented experiences from early action implementions in the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, when it comes to natural hazards. In addition to Covid, the ongoing La Nina is expected to last well into the first quarter of 2021. In 2020, the occurrence of many typhoons coincided with the pandemic. Ms Jimenez shared lessons learned from recent experiences, noting that the Philippines remains under community quarantine, which requires agile thinking and continuously adjusting approaches like more efficient pre-positioning. Actors also need to consider how to adapt to shorter timeframes as seen recently with the landfall of typhoon Goni at short notice. Work with local municipalities must be intensified, and a step in the right direction is the new Forecast-based Financing Working Group, formed together with Office of Civil Defence. Lastly, education and advocacy are important, sharing efforts on COVID-19 and revised protocols on what to do when typhoons happen. These can be particularly useful with restrictions of movement in place. Ms Jimenez noted that just implementing current practices and protocols as they are could carry the risk of further exacerbating the further spread of the virus, for example at mass gathering during food distributions. Therefore, protocols must be adapted accordingly. Valuable efforts were made by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development, which were scaled down for application at local level.
Hilla Wessel