Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Development Planning and Decision-making Processes: The Philippines Experience

As global climate change escalates, the risk of floods, droughts and severe storms increases. In the Philippines, one of the countries in the world that is highly prone to natural hazards, the situation is further aggravated by the effects of climate change. While natural hazards and climate change cannot be prevented from happening, the vicious cycle of disasters and underdevelopment can be reversed. This can be done through “mainstreaming” disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in the development planning and decision-making processes. While mainstreaming efforts are being strengthened, institutional mechanisms are likewise being reinforced. This is manifested with the creation of Climate Change Commission (CCC) in 2009 to mainstream climate change, in synergy with disaster risk reduction, into national, sectoral and local development plans and programs among its other functions. In 2010, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) was created to deal specifically with disaster risks. In 2008, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) formulated the mainstreaming framework that involves two processes. The first is disaster risk assessment (DRA) which analyzes the natural hazards of a place together with the risks to exposed elements. The DRA model consists of four steps: hazard characterization and frequency analysis, consequence analysis, risk estimation, and risk evaluation. The second process concerns how the results of risk assessment enhance the development planning analysis leading to better design and prioritization of interventions that are intended to reduce risks to and vulnerability of exposed population and property. The framework and the DRA are contained in the DRR Guidelines that was officially adopted with the issuance of Executive Order No. 1 directing the local government units to adopt and use the guidelines and the DRA in their planning activities. The DRA model is being refined to incorporate climate change considerations and the sectoral impacts and vulnerability assessments. Together with other projects and activities, these initiatives supports the two long term objectives of adaptation and mitigation as embodied in the seven strategic priorities of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) of food security, water sufficiency, ecosystem and environmental stability, human security, climate-smart industries and services, sustainable energy, and knowledge and capacity development. 1 A paper presented in the UNFCCC Workshop on the identification of gaps and challenges in the implementation of risk management approaches to the adverse effects of climate change, 10 – 12 October 2011, Lima, Peru by Dr. Jacob Tio (Philippine Representative)