HPN Humanitarian Practice Network Managed by Humanitarian Humanitarian Policy Group Exchange Commissioned and published by the Humanitarian Practice Network at ODI Number 63 January 2015 Special feature The Typhoon Haiyan response HPN Humanitarian Humanitarian Practice Network Managed by Humanitarian Policy Group Exchange Number 63 January 2015 Contents Editorial The Typhoon Haiyan response 3 Coordinating the response to Typhoon Haiyan 5 Typhoon Haiyan: pushing the limits of DRR? 8 Assessing early warning efforts for Typhoon Haiyan in Leyte 11 Typhoon Haiyan: lessons from the response and how to prepare for the future 13 Constructing a culture of accountability: lessons from the Philippines 16 Pamati Kita: ‘Let’s Listen Together’ 19 Coordination around communicating with disaster-affected communities: insights from Typhoon Haiyan 23 Engaging with clusters: empowering and learning from local organisations 25 Humanitarian partnerships: reality lags behind the rhetoric 27 ‘Recently noticed’ aid actors: MSF’s interaction with a changing humanitarian landscape 29 Are cash transfers the ‘new normal’ in the Philippines? Challenges and opportunities from Typhoon Haiyan 34 The private sector: stepping up 36 Urban shelter and settlement recovery: a ‘menu of options’ for households 39 Supporting shelter self-recovery: field experience following Typhoon Haiyan This edition of Humanitarian Exchange focuses on lessons from the humanitarian response to Typhoon Haiyan, the worst disaster ever to hit the Philippines. Making landfall on 8 November 2013, the typhoon killed About HPN more than 6,000 people and affected more than 14 million. It also triggered The Humanitarian Practice Network at the Overseas a swift, large-scale national and international (Level 3) response. In the lead Development Institute is an independent forum article, David Carden and Ashley Jonathan Clements highlight the important where field workers, managers and policymakers coordination role of the Philippines government in the response, while Katie in the humanitarian sector share information, analysis and experience. The views and opinions Peters and Mirianna Budimir analyse why such heavy losses were sustained expressed in HPN’s publications do not necessarily despite significant government investment in Disaster Risk Reduction state or reflect those of the Humanitarian Policy (DRR). Julie Hall analyses the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s long Group or the Overseas Development Institute. experience of responding to disasters in the Philippines, emphasising that government structures need to be able to handle multiple waves of health Cover photo: Residents walk past debris in East Samar, needs for months or even years after an event. Articles by Barb Wigley and which Oxfam staff visited during an assessment in the Alex Jacobs reflect on the attitudes and tools needed to build a culture of aftermath of the Typhoon © Jire Carreon/Oxfam accountability to affected populations, and Caroline Austin and Nicki Bailey Editorial photo: Military helicopter delivers relief supplies in discuss lessons learned from a review of support to enhance two-way Guiuan after Typhoon Haiyan communications with communities. © US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Peter Burghart Articles by John Tipper, Anne Street and Michiel Hofman and Sandrine Tiller focus on the need to improve the quality of partnerships and engagement with local actors by clusters and individual agencies. Alesh Brown reflects on the collective cash response in the Philippines, one of the largest humanitarian cash-based interventions ever mounted, while Serena Brown Britain’s leading independent think-tank on international points out the extensive and growing role of the private sector in the Haiyan development and humanitarian issues response. The issue ends with articles by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NJ Philippines and Victoria Maynard and Phil Barritt discussing key aspects of United Kingdom. the shelter response. Tel. +44 (0) 20 7922 0300, Fax. +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 HPN e-mail: [email protected] As always, we welcome any comments or feedback, which can be sent to HPN website: http://www.odihpn.org [email protected] or to The Coordinator, 203 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NJ. HUMANITARIAN 2 exchange THE TYPHOON HAIYAN RESPONSE Coordinating the response to Typhoon Haiyan David Carden and Ashley Jonathan Clements Typhoon Haiyan made landfall on 8 November 2013, priorities. The Haiyan response saw advisors from a cementing the position of the Philippines as one of range of areas being deployed in support of the response, the countries most at risk from natural hazards. Within including gender, private sector engagement and the days of the disaster the Emergency Relief Coordinator environment. OCHA established its largest sustained formally activated a system-wide level 3 (L3) response – a civil–military coordination operation to date, leading designation marking the highest level of humanitarian crisis. engagement with 22 militaries and the Armed Forces In responding to the needs of 14 million affected people, of the Philippines. As well as being the largest single the Haiyan response became the first large-scale relief donor under the SRP (accounting for 26%), the private effort for a sudden-onset disaster since the Inter-Agency sector also responded directly from the very earliest Standing Committee protocols under the Transformative stages. Significant efforts were made to engage the Agenda were adopted, setting the parameters for improved private sector at the local, national and international collective action in humanitarian emergencies. level, including briefing companies on how best to assist affected communities and partnering with businesses in Scaling up the provision of cash-based assistance. Accompanying the L3 declaration was a massive inter- agency surge that saw over 450 international staff deployed At least 45 international humanitarian agencies used within the first three weeks. There was a particular cash transfers, reaching 1.4m disaster-affected people. In emphasis on information management necessitated by the addition to emergency employment and livelihoods, cash scale and geographic impact of Haiyan, and recurring high- assistance was used extensively in support of food security impact disasters that had affected in-country capacities in and shelter, constituting around a fifth of the response the lead-up to the typhoon. The L3 declaration also made in each of these sectors. Due to the number of actors available $25 million through the UN Central Emergency involved, the scale of cash interventions, and differing Response Fund, and the Strategic Response Plan (SRP) approaches within the sector, cash transfers were difficult brought in $468m of the requested $776m, including to monitor and coordinate, particularly as many took THE RESPONSE TYPHOON HAIYAN projects from over 50 UN agencies and NGOs. An additional place outside the established humanitarian coordination $375m-worth of funding was recorded for projects outside architecture. Preparedness work that encompasses the SRP, with a far larger amount not registered on the planning around cash – in particular the role of financial Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s service providers within the Philippines – is underway Financial Tracking System. to ensure a more systematic and efficient approach to cash in future responses. More thinking is also needed at This unprecedented scaling up of response structures the global level to better define the role of cash during a and personnel was set against the backdrop of a middle- response (and beyond), and the coordination structures income country with strong national capacities and a well- needed to maximise its effectiveness. developed disaster management system. Long-standing relationships meant that coordination with the government Preparedness work by both national and international was strong from the outset. Government-led humanitarian humanitarian actors ensured that effective systems clusters – enshrined in national law in 2007 – led and and structures were in place prior to Typhoon Haiyan, oversaw coordination for the response, with the support of even though the impact of the storm proved to be international actors. Despite being heavily affected itself, beyond what could be accommodated without external the government provided an enabling environment for support. The Haiyan response has highlighted how international responders, with visas being waived during critical adequate investment in emergency preparedness the first months, and some Local Government Units (LGUs) is, a point reinforced yet again following Typhoon Ruby in hosted humanitarian agencies throughout the response. December 2014, where the government’s preparedness Even so, interoperability between the international efforts have been widely praised. humanitarian system and the national Philippines res- ponse framework was a challenge, particularly around Engaging communities strategic planning and how long humanitarian action The Philippines became a priority country for global should be pursued before giving way to recovery. initiatives around Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) and Communications with Communities (CwC). New ways of working Whilst AAP has its origins in civil society concepts of The social, political and economic environment in the accountability and the importance of adapting interventions