Together with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is stepping up efforts to institutionalize the Anticipatory Action (AA) approach in the country’s social assistance programs.
At the 6th National Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Action, which will take place in Clark Field, Pampanga, from May 11 to 12, over a hundred experts from a community of AA practitioners will come together to operationalize the DSWD-FAO collaboration.
The two-day event, with a theme “Scaling up, Learning together,” will be attended by participants from national government agencies, humanitarian institutions, and development organizations.
It will highlight knowledge-sharing sessions and learning activities geared towards the adoption of AA in social assistance programs and social protection systems in the Philippines.
DSWD said anticipatory action is an innovative approach that systematically links early warnings to a set of interventions aimed at protecting families and their assets ahead of a hazard.
“The platform is an opportunity for key actors to assess the country’s AA landscape, identify the challenges as well as areas for improvement in its implementation,” DSWD-Disaster Response Management Group Assistant Secretary Diana Rose S. Cajipe said.
She pointed out that with the sustained interest of development practitioners from various fields including in disaster management and social protection, the platform “should serve to strengthen collaboration among government, civil society, the humanitarian and the development community, to help address food insecurity and disruption of livelihood during times of disasters.”
In the Philippines, the FAO has been working with humanitarian and development partners in piloting the approach at the local government level and helping build their capacity.
The FAO has also been closely collaborating with the DSWD in employing AA to help strengthen the government's social protection systems and policies to proactively reach and support vulnerable populations ahead of forecast shocks.
“Scaling up our efforts is critical to help mitigate the impacts of climate-induced hazards and build resiliency among the most vulnerable. FAO is committed to sustain the momentum with our partners in changing the way disasters are managed using the Anticipatory Action approach in the Philippines, aligned with the various efforts from international and national non-governmental agencies and government partners,” said FAO Representative in the Philippines Lionel Dabbadie.