As natural disasters displace Filipinos the most compared to their neighbors in the region, multilateral lenders enjoin quick aid and response to calamity victims to prevent them from sliding into poverty.

"The Philippines is, by far, the country most affected in Southeast Asia, with nearly 43 million disaster displacements having occurred between 2014 and 2023," the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) said in a joint report titled "Harnessing Development Financing for Solutions to Displacement in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific."

The ADB-IDMC report pointed out that five to 10 destructive typhoons pass through the Philippines every year, making the country among the most at risk to extreme weather not only in the region but also the world.

Since the Philippines already has displacement-prevention measures under its 2011-2028 National Climate Change Action as well as 2020-2030 National Disaster Risk Management plans, the report pointed to vast improvements in the country's preparedness during recent years.

In particular, its 20-year-old Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) has been making strides in compiling data that not only identify internally displaced persons (IDPs) but also monitor assistance delivery to them, the report said.

"It also has been used to plan for future needs, such as identifying the need for pre-positioned relief items, detecting families that require special assistance, and anticipating the need for livelihood support during displacement," the report added.

As such, the report noted that the experience from super-typhoon "Yolanda" (international name: Haiyan), which flattened central Philippines in 2013, "allowed for better preparatory action toward a similar disaster," citing the experience when super-typhoon "Odette" (international name: Rai) struck in 2021.

"It took more than a year for many IDPs to return to their homes after typhoon Haiyan, but the pace of returns after typhoon Rai was much faster. A specific rehabilitation and recovery plan was implemented in Western Visayas, the region where most displacements were reported following the Haiyan and Rai disasters," it noted.

In its "Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024: Pathways Out of the Polycrisis," the Washington-based World Bank cited that the Philippine government immediately provided cash aid to the recipients of its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the country's flagship social safety net, post-typhoon Yolanda more than a decade ago.

"Non-contributory social assistance programs, or social safety nets, aimed at those who are chronically or extremely poor also serve as last-resort insurance. The use of adaptive social protection can help vulnerable people manage risks from climate-related hazards by timely transferring resources to disaster victims," the World Bank report read.

While post-disaster transfers have benefits, the World Bank likewise enjoined anticipatory cash transfers before traditional humanitarian response would be dispensed as these "can have a significant additional welfare effect."

"While safety nets serve as last-resort insurance, they need to be complemented by social insurance programs designed to protect a broader segment of the population from falling back into poverty because of individual or systemic shocks. Additionally, global insurance mechanisms are essential to help countries manage the effects of large-scale natural disasters affecting multiple nations or pandemics," the World Bank said.

In an Oct. 15 statement, the ADB noted that there were more people worldwide who were internally displaced or forced to move within their country last year — reaching 26.4 million, than the 20.5-million internal displacements wrought by conflict and violence.

During the last decade, 177 million internal displacements were recorded in Asia-Pacific due to natural calamities. The ADB's developing member-countries, which included the Philippines, accounted for over 168 million or 95 percent of total disaster displacements from 2014 to 2023, it noted.

Citing its joint report with the IDMC, the ADB warned that "the effects of climate change will likely increase the scale, duration, and severity of displaced persons globally."

"Addressing displacement in the context of climate change and disasters is a significant challenge for the region. However, we know what needs to be done and how to do it. Development and adaptation finance channeled through multilateral development banks, such as the ADB, can support member-countries in addressing the root causes of displacement through sector investments, technical assistance, and co-financing," ADB vice president Fatima Yasmin said.

"Disaster displacement can upend lives, cost countries billions of dollars, and set back development efforts by years, but it doesn't have to be this way. Investments in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation plans can reduce the scale and negative impacts of displacement. The payoff could be huge," IDMC director Alexandra Bilak was quoted by the ADB as saying.

To prevent and respond to natural disaster displacements, "multilateral development banks can support and encourage displacement-inclusive policies and investments, better national data systems, and raise awareness for countries to include displacement in their development strategies," the ADB said.

"Governments also need to better reflect their priorities to reduce displacement through specific and concrete measures in the national development plans, adaptation and disaster risk reduction plans, and nationally determined contributions, and to better recognize the complexity of displacement occurring in the context of climate change," it added.

World Bank senior managing director Axel van Trotsenburg noted in an Oct. 15 statement that climate shocks, together with the Covid-19 pandemic, sluggish global economic growth, rising debts as well as conflict and fragility have become "serious setbacks" in putting an end to poverty worldwide.

"Nearly one in five people globally are likely to experience a severe weather shock in their lifetime from which they will struggle to recover," the World Bank statement noted.

"Amid these overlapping crises, a business-as-usual approach will no longer work. We need a fundamentally new development playbook if we are to truly improve people's lives and livelihoods and protect our planet," van Trotsenburg said.

"Low-income countries and emerging market economies will do well to acknowledge the inevitability of tradeoffs among these objectives, but also to appreciate some synergies. Policies to reduce air pollution, for example, contribute both to climate and developmental goals. Sustained investments in education and health provide higher poverty- and prosperity-related payoffs in developing countries than do tax-financed social assistance programs. And well-executed government initiatives to increase the capacity of farmers to adopt new, climate-smart, technologies can reduce poverty, spread prosperity, and preserve the planet," World Bank Group chief economist and senior vice president for development economics Indermit Gill added.

The World Bank already conceded that "the global goal of ending extreme poverty—defined as $2.15 per person per day—by 2030 is out of reach: it could take three decades or more to eliminate poverty at this threshold, which is relevant primarily for low-income countries."

"Almost 700 million people—8.5 percent of the global population—live today on less than $2.15 per day, with 7.3 percent of the population projected to be living in extreme poverty in 2030... Today, 44 percent of the world's population lives on less than $6.85 per day, the poverty line for upper middle-income countries. The number of people living under this poverty line has barely changed since 1990 due to population growth," the World Bank lamented.

Update disaster risk reduction law

The Philippines, which is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Pacific Typhoon Belt, needs to update its 15-year-old disaster risk reduction law, two top officials of the country said during a plenary discussion of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) in Pasay City on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

“The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, which, upon consultation with DND Secretary Teodoro and his team, we hope to amend and revise to make it more up-to-date since it's a 15-year-old law,” Senator Loren Legarda said in her speech.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said it was also timely to review the disaster risk reduction law which had been enacted 15 years ago.

“Because of changing circumstances, because of experiences in the field, we have been able to identify some gaps that need to be filled, some streamlining that needs to be done,” he said.

“And this is a constant exercise that should happen in most areas of government, but it is critical that it happens in disaster risk reduction in order to optimize and to focus government efforts in all aspects of the topic,” he added.

Teodoro thanked Legarda for being their “partner and champion” in the Senate and for

her advocacy.

Teodoro emphasized the importance of collaboration between policymakers, legislators, and the executive branch in implementing laws effectively.

He highlighted the lawmaker’s point about the critical role of ongoing feedback between lawmakers and agencies, such as the Office of Civil Defense and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, in ensuring effective coordination and action.

“Hence, in this interaction between the legislators and us, it prevents the siloing because they are a source of important feedback and vice versa,” he said.

‘Leaving no one behind’

Leaving no one behind, according to Legarda, must drive the renovation of risk governance.

“We must take a look at hazards, risks, and vulnerabilities. Women, girls, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples' communities, marginalized groups must be at the heart of shaping the post-2030 disaster risk governance framework, post-Sendai, ensuring their leadership in building truly resilient and inclusive systems,” the senator said.

From risk assessment to recovery, she said persons with disabilities (PWDs) must be included in all stages of disaster risk management.
 

“At the same time, disability-inclusive governance is equally critical,” she added.

Legarda said early warning systems, evacuation procedures, and recovery plans must be accessible to everyone, especially in an archipelago of 110 million Filipinos in the most far-flung islands and the highest mountains, with inland rivers and lakes.

The lawmaker stressed that resilience cannot be achieved by working in silos, noting that governments sometimes are “very exclusive to each other and not inclusive.”

“Kanya-kanya, in the Tagalog word, to each his own, and that would spell disaster. Governance, the private sector, civil society, local communities, the education sector, all must collaborate to create inclusive and innovative solutions,” she said.

“Most importantly, local communities who are on the frontlines, whether you are in the provincial level, city, municipality, even barangay, purok, and sitio, at the frontlines of preparedness and disaster response in the whole scheme of things.”

Environment Secretary Loyzaga said this has “perennially bore the brunt of ever-increasing natural disasters due to rapid and slow onset climate and weather-related hazards.”

“Our large growing population and our steady economic growth are factors resulting in the singular distinction of being among the world’s countries at highest risk for several years running,” she said.

She said this distinction underscores the reality that climate hazards are a fact of life for all Filipinos.