Government agencies led by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has launched a web-based application that will assist local government units (LGUs) and other disaster response policy-makers in responding efficiently in times of natural calamities.
Dubbed as PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild, NDRRMC Executive Director Raymundo B. Ferrer said it is also designed to help LGUs to plan for disasters more efficiently and to build back better faster.
“We welcome the development of the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app and its support capacity building program as tools for our LGUs that are at the forefront of mitigating and managing disaster risks. This app, which will systematically generate RRPs using science-based information and pro-forma templates, will significantly help LGUs plan for quick and resilient recovery,” said Ferrer.
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Sec. Renato Solidum said the app speeds up the development of RRPs (rehabilitation and recovery plans) and supports evidence-based decision-making and planning for pre- and post-disaster events.
The app, which is an offshoot of the GeoRiskPH Integrated Platform developed by DOST and the Ready to Rebuild (R2R) Program led by OCD, enables LGUs to autogenerate an RRP through the use of a pro-forma document template.
“Through PlanSmart, it is my vision that we will have a geospatially-enabled Philippines where we evaluate data, time and location together for better analysis and decision-making,” said Solidum.
He said the development of the app was a product of the coordination of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), and the World Bank.
Ndiamé Diop, World Bank Country Director for the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Brunei said the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app is just the first of a series of planning tools that are being developed under the PlanSmart platform.
"This is as an opportunity to continue highlighting the importance of access to risk information to support comprehensive hazard and risk assessments and data sharing among national government agencies, LGUs, and the public for science-based planning and investments programming,” said Diop.
DILG Sec. Benhur Abalos, Jr., for his part, urged the LGUs to maximize the use of PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app in every aspect of their respective disaster risk management – recovery and rehabilitation, preparedness, response, and prevention processes, mechanisms, and strategies.
"For us to be able to effectively and efficiently utilize the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild application, I am also encouraging our LGUs to populate the baseline data in the GeoRiskPH Integrated Platform to enrich the database of the platform,” he said.
The PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild launch also heralds the rollout of capacity building activities to enable LGUs, particularly data managers, DRRM officers, planning officers, and other staff involved in disaster rehabilitation and recovery programs, to use the app for the creation of their local RRPs.
For its pilot run, the training program intends to equip more than 400 participants from 137 LGUs in the National Capital Region, Region IV-A (CALABARZON), Region V (Bicol), Region VII (Central Visayas), and Region XIII (CARAGA).
LGU participants in the pilot run will include R2R Program graduates, those with existing GeoRiskPH Memorandum of Agreements with DOST-PHIVOLCS, and those located in areas that were identified by the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction as vulnerable to impacts of climate change and disasters.