Enhanced Participation and Resiliency of 23 Coastal Communities in Eastern and Northern Samar

PROJECT BRIEF

Description

The proposed action is a three-year (2020-22) project aimed at enhancing the participation and resiliency of twenty-three (23) coastal communities in the provinces of Eastern and Northern Samar. With enhanced participation and resiliency, damages to livelihoods of men and women fishers will be reduced and will also enable them to access support to recover the losses resulting from the disaster/s and cushion their livelihoods from climate change impacts. In particular, focus will be on facilitating participation of civil society and local fishers’ organizations in local governance in the area of disaster risk reduction and management and local climate change action planning processes at the barangay and municipal levels from problem identification, vulnerability and risk analysis, identification of appropriate actions and budget allocation and ensure that plans are implemented and budget released accordingly. To enable effective engagement and partnership between CSOs, both NGOs and fishers’ organizations and LGUs, the knowledge, skills and, capacities of CSO partners in disaster risk reduction and climate change, local governance and accountability processes will be developed and enhanced leading to LGU having the capacity to implement DRRM Law. Men and women fishers and NGOs’ participation in the Barangay DRRM Council will improve monitoring of service delivery of emergency assistance, disaster response and overall performance of LGUs on Disaster Risk Reduction. The proposed action will target mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures in the barangay development processes. DRRM and climate change actions will take into account women, children, elderly and PWDs needs, vulnerabilities and issues arising from disasters. Sphere Handbook will be used as one of the references for the guidelines and standards on improved quality and accountability of disaster response.

NFR will work with three NGOs, 16 barangay-based fishers’ organizations in four municipalities namely Pambujan and San Roque in Northern Samar, Salcedo and Guiuan in Eastern Samar and 1 Municipal Fishers Federation with members in seven coastal barangays in the municipality of Mondragon, Northern Samar. The target groups are composed of 659 women and 359 men fishers from 17 Fishers’ Organizations and three (3) Non-government Organizations and 5 Local Government Units in Northern (3) and Eastern Samar (2).

OUTPUTS

The action proposes to achieve the following outputs: 1) Sixteen barangay/village level harmonized Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation Plans; 2) 1 Municipal (Mondragon) DRR-CCA Plan updated; 3) Thirty (30) men and women fishers per municipality and ten (10) Barangay Municipal Local Government Personnel trained on the conduct of Gender Responsive Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability Assessment (GR-PCVA)- Risk Assessment, total of ninety (90) men and women fishers and thirty (30) LGU personnel; 4) Sixteen barangays with GR-PCVA reports; 5) Representation and participation of 16 men and women fishers’ organizations in the Barangay DRRM Council; 6) 16 Contingency plans. These outputs will contribute to the attainment of the target outcomes: 1. Reduced damages to livelihoods of men and women fishers in the target areas. 2. Men and women fishers accessed support services from the LGUs to recover losses as a result of disasters and climate change. 3. Municipal LGU’s disaster risk reduction and management – local climate change adaptation plans are proactive and responsive to identified disaster risks of the target groups.

ACTIVITIES

The proposed action will include the conduct of capacity building and training activities on the following topics: disaster risk reduction and management, and climate change and its impacts to coastal communities and the fisheries; national laws on DRR, CC, GAD and fisheries governance, Gender responsive Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability Assessment including Risk Assessment, DRRM-CCA, community drills and simulations per major hazard, and Contingency Planning. Lobbying and advocacy will be done by the NFR staff together with the NGO partners and fishers’ representatives at the municipal level while the fishers’ organizations will also lobby and negotiate at the level of the Barangay DRRM Council so that identified DRR and CCA measures from the PCVA and Contingency Plan are integrated in the BDRR-CCA plan. Assessment of the major disaster risk per target area will be conducted using the gender responsive PCVA-Risk Assessment Tool and will be done by the trained fishers and NGO staff. Planning workshops will be organized in coordination with the MDRRMC and the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) using the PCVA results. The community drills and simulations will prepare the community on what to do in the event that a hazard happen in their area minimizing incidence of displacement and at the same time improving community cooperation and systematic response before, during and after a disaster. Conduct of 4 municipal level trainings on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Climate Change will be done for a better understanding of basic concepts on DRR and Climate Change, nexus and differences of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. 3 sessions on Trainers’ training on Gender Responsive Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability (PCVA) and Risk Assessment will be conducted and attended by 34 men and women fishers, 3 project staff and 6 representatives from the Barangay and Municipal DRRM Office. Community drills and simulation exercises will be done in each of 16 barangays, 10 in Eastern Samar and 6 in Northern Samar. For each major hazard identified by the community, a community drill and simulation exercise will be undertaken. This will be facilitated by a resource person/staff from one of the co-applicants, CERD. The result of the drills will be used in the Contingency Planning and DRRM-CCA planning. Facilitate 2-day Contingency planning per barangay followed by a 2-day barangay level DRR-CCA planning workshop. The target participants are the BDRRM Council members and to be conducted by CERD and SIKAT. Municipal level DRRM-CCA planning workshop will be conducted in Mondragon, Northern Samar.

PROJECT TEAM

The team is headed by a Program Director under the NFR. There are 3 Area Coordinators assigned for the project implementation, 1 under CERD and working in Mondragon, San Roque and Pambujan, Northern Samar; 1 under SIKAT for Salcedo, Eastern Samar and 1 under ZSL-Philippines for Guiuan, Eastern Samar. The 3 NGOS are members of NFR and are the implementing partners and co applicants to this EU funded project.