The regional hubs were established through the five-year support from Christian Aid Philippines through the Advancing CSO Engagement in DRRM-CCA (ACED) Project beginning in 2014. The project provided DRRM capacity development to over 100 member-based organizations that eventually led to the creation of the hubs across the country. The independent impact assessment study of the project stated that, throughout the years, the DRRM regional coordination Hubs have gained an overall ‘Good Progress’ in terms of governance and leadership, structure, protocols, capacity to conduct assessments, resources and equipment, partnerships, advocacy and learning exchange. Through the hubs, their own community partners have become more aware on preparing for and mitigating disaster risks and emergencies. Some hubs have even established rapport and engagement with their respective LGUs’ Local DRRM Councils on public DRRM processes. As a result, hub members were able to respond to disasters that hit the country in the last five years, such as Typhoons Ruby, Lando, Lawin, Nina, Ompong, Usman, the eruption of Mt. Mayon, the Marawi Crisis, and the 2019 Cotabato earthquake.
A five-month ACED Project is being supported by Christian Aid Philippines once again this 2019, its sixth year of support. This project aims to sustain the hub work in the Cordillera region, MIMAROPA (Region 4B), and National Capital Region (NCR). The regional hubs were selected based on the historical path of typhoons and the anticipated Big One Earthquake in NCR. Through a training of trainers, hub leaders will be renewed of their skills and practice on Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), safeguarding, cash programming, and other emergency interventions. They will also update and enhance their contingency plans and coordination protocols, and initiate an Emergency Response Fund through small seed grants. The hub learners must re-echo the training on CHS and contingency planning to at least 30 other hub members.
Aside from this, CODE-NGO exchanges information and assessment during disasters and jointly advocate for locally-led response through different consortia like PPERR and Balik Lokal. In November 2019, a national conference on Balik Lokal – an advocacy platform of CSOs that promotes locally-led humanitarian response – was co-organized by CODE-NGO, and attended by different humanitarian stakeholders. This provided space for different organizations to showcase approaches on localizing humanitarian responses. CODE-NGO Executive Director Roselle Rasay presented the creation and work of our 10 regional DRRM coordination hubs. The regional DRR hubs come together for learning exchange and advocacy during peace times, and to coordinate response in times of emergencies.