Typhoon Yolanda (internationally named Haiyan) devastated the Philippines’ Visayas region on November 8, 2013. Eastern Visayas is the most affected region with a population of 3.6 million people and an estimated recovery cost of $8.1 billion.
Challenge
On average, 20 tropical storms enter Philippine waters and roughly 50% of these make landfall. In Eastern Visayas, failure to prepare for Typhoon Yolanda resulted in loss of lives, damage to properties and destruction of livelihood sources. This required that people “build back better,” a concept that will not only bring back normalcy to their lives but will also increase their resilience by building on their capacities to mitigate environmental vulnerabilities.
Solution
In 2014, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) selected WSP to implement its Rebuild project, which focuses on restoring access to education, health services, livelihood activities, and providing technical assistance and support services to the Philippine government’s Department of Budget and Management (DBM), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).
The Rebuild project’s achievements include:
- Building and furnishing 285 climate-resilient classrooms and providing teaching kits.
- Rehabilitating 12 health facilities in different municipalities of Leyte Province.
- Providing farming inputs and training on climate-adaptive farming strategies to at least 3,000 farmers.
- Providing tools and training on climate-adaptive and high-value mariculture to at least 6,000 fisherfolk.
- Reconstructing and restocking at least 1,000 sari-sari stores.
- Assisting at least 1,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
- Constructing at least 30 agri-fishery support facilities to address post-harvest needs of farmers and fisherfolk.
- Providing manpower to the executive offices of the DBM and NEDA.
- Supporting at least 152 development scholars under DAP.
