In line with the campaign to promote disaster preparedness and response program in the Philippines especially in times of calamity such as earthquake and typhoon, the World Food Programme receives US$3.75 million (approximately PhP 160 million) grant from theUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help them expand their program in the country and most especially to more to disaster prone areas including Sorsogon, Benguet, Cagayan and Laguna. The central government and the Office of Civil Defense, WFP and local government units in four disaster-prone provinces that was mentioned has already rolled out a disaster preparedness and response pilot programme focused on building local emergency management capacity, disaster mitigation and protection of livelihoods.
According to WFP Philippines Representative and Country Director Stephen Anderson that the Philippines was among the world’s most disaster-affected countries in 2011 and WFP is doing its utmost to build resilience among vulnerable communities to allow them to better cope with natural disasters. “WFP is grateful to theU.S.government for its support, which builds on the successful results achieved by national and local governments over the past year.” Anderson explained.
With the new funding that came from USAID, it enables WFP to expand its disaster preparedness activities to parts of the Visayas (Iloilo) and Mindanao (Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and Davao), and to engage local non-government organizations and universities in efforts to build resilience to natural disasters, increasingly exacerbated by climate change.
The program will focus on the community-driven disaster mitigation and preparedness projects such as flood control and landslide mitigation activities, training for disaster management personnel tailored to local needs such as contingency planning, and the promotion of innovative and cost-effective disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation projects such as early warning techniques. The funding support of USAID to WFP that reaches to US$4.5 million, the organization already launches the pilot phase of the project, complementary matching resources from the national government and local government will be sought to reinforce the programme’s sustainability.
To get more updates on the project of World Food Programme worldwide visit www.WFP.org. This United Nations agency is world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.
