Philippines
Harmony in Crisis: Unveiling Lessons of the Humanitarian Partnership Platform in Philippine Disaster Management
CARE launched the Philippines Humanitarian Partnership Platform (HPP) in 2016, which serves as an avenue to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of CARE and its partners’ humanitarian and development plans and work. This initiative focuses on strengthening coordination, decision- making, and collective action. Comprising 14 active member organizations including CARE and with a presence in all regions of the Philippines, the HPP has adeptly assessed and responded to 32 disasters since its inception. In FY 2022, coinciding with the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Rai—the second costliest typhoon in Philippine history after Typhoon Haiyan—the HPP supported 2,201,920 participants, both directly and indirectly. In FY 2023, it supported nearly 400,000 people in crises. Fifty percent of those directly assisted in the last 2 years are women and girls.
IN A NUTSHELL: STRONGER PERFORMANCE
1. Rapid responses with flexible funding: 76% of humanitarian funding in the Philippines goes to local partners, compared to the wider sector's average of around 1.2% in 2022.
2. Gender at the center: 88% of responses mainstreamed GBV protection, surpassing the 67% in CARE’s global project portfolio.
3. Better coordination, broader reach: By coordinating across diverse actors, including corporations and local governments, local organizations can help more people faster.
4. Enhanced Learning and Accountability: All projects (100%) feature Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms, exceeding the 79% in CARE’s global project portfolio. These mechanisms are vital for rapid learning and ensuring accountability to the communities served.
5. All projects met or exceeded reach and impact targets, based on a rapid analysis of available project reports. Read More...
IN A NUTSHELL: STRONGER PERFORMANCE
1. Rapid responses with flexible funding: 76% of humanitarian funding in the Philippines goes to local partners, compared to the wider sector's average of around 1.2% in 2022.
2. Gender at the center: 88% of responses mainstreamed GBV protection, surpassing the 67% in CARE’s global project portfolio.
3. Better coordination, broader reach: By coordinating across diverse actors, including corporations and local governments, local organizations can help more people faster.
4. Enhanced Learning and Accountability: All projects (100%) feature Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms, exceeding the 79% in CARE’s global project portfolio. These mechanisms are vital for rapid learning and ensuring accountability to the communities served.
5. All projects met or exceeded reach and impact targets, based on a rapid analysis of available project reports. Read More...
Moving Urban Poor Communities in the Philippines Toward Resilience(MOVE UP 3)
An external evaluation was conducted from 10 October 2020 to 21 December 2020for the third phase of the Moving Urban Poor Communities in the Philippines toward Resilience (MOVE UP 3) Project in the Philippines. Contributing to the resilience building of urban poor populations in highly urbanized cities that are most vulnerable to disasters, MOVE UP 3 specifically aimed at increasing the preparedness and risk reduction capacities of the local populations and government units through the replication and scaling up of interrelated urban resilience strategies on alternative temporary shelters (ATS) and resilient livelihoods (RL) including social protection and risk transfer, in hazard-prone, urban poor communities in Marikina City and Taguig City in Metro Manila, Cebu City in the Visayas, and Cotabato City in Mindanao. The external evaluation determined if the project has achieved its intended objective; identified the contextual factors that have enabled or hindered the delivery of the expected outcomes; assessed the overall performance of MOVE UP 3; and provided recommendations on how the project could further be scaled up or replicated. Read More...
CARE Rapid Gender Analysis on Power INCREASE: Northern Samar, Philippines
Vulnerable groups – particularly women – suffer most from natural and man-made hazards. Now more than ever, there is a need to account for their needs and interests in public decision-making spaces to ensure that community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) mechanisms and governance structures are effective, inclusive, and are sustainably adopted. Providing women with the opportunity and ability to actively participate in DRR planning and solutions not only amplifies their voice in decisions that affect their lives, but also harnesses their potential in leading community DRR work.
Aimed at increasing the resilience of small-scale farmers, fisher folk – with focus given to female headed-households and women collectives in its partner communities, Project INCREASE sought to augment its
women engagement activities and advocacy work through (1) piloting the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE)
action research model in its activities, and (2) drawing insights from the Rapid Gender Analysis on Power (RGA-POW) conducted in nine crisis-affected barangays in Mapanas, and Palapag, Northern Samar, Philippines covered by the project.
This RGA-POW provides information about the different needs, capacities and aspirations of women – with a focus on the structural and relational barriers to, and opportunities for women’s leadership and public participation during and after emergencies, as well as relevant information on the local context from previous studies (e.g. post-distribution monitoring reports, rapid gender analyses, etc.).
Apart from demonstrating that women do have power and exercise this with other women, the report also outlines underlying reasons for limited public voice and decision-making for different groups of women, and identifies potential resistors and risks, as well as present opportunities and actions that can address observed barriers. Thus, providing promising directions for WLiE in INCREASE. Read More...
Aimed at increasing the resilience of small-scale farmers, fisher folk – with focus given to female headed-households and women collectives in its partner communities, Project INCREASE sought to augment its
women engagement activities and advocacy work through (1) piloting the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE)
action research model in its activities, and (2) drawing insights from the Rapid Gender Analysis on Power (RGA-POW) conducted in nine crisis-affected barangays in Mapanas, and Palapag, Northern Samar, Philippines covered by the project.
This RGA-POW provides information about the different needs, capacities and aspirations of women – with a focus on the structural and relational barriers to, and opportunities for women’s leadership and public participation during and after emergencies, as well as relevant information on the local context from previous studies (e.g. post-distribution monitoring reports, rapid gender analyses, etc.).
Apart from demonstrating that women do have power and exercise this with other women, the report also outlines underlying reasons for limited public voice and decision-making for different groups of women, and identifies potential resistors and risks, as well as present opportunities and actions that can address observed barriers. Thus, providing promising directions for WLiE in INCREASE. Read More...
WOMEN LEAD IN EMERGENCIES Global Learning Evaluation Report
CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies (Women Lead) model has been developed to operationalise CARE’s commitment to women’s leadership as one of our four focal areas for Gender in Emergencies.1 Women Lead supports women within communities at the frontline of conflict, natural and climate-related hazards, pandemics and other crises to claim their right to a say over the issues that affect them, and to participate in emergency preparedness, response and recovery.
The Women Lead model looks to address fundamental gaps in humanitarian response that result in the exclusion of women from meaningful participation and leadership in the decisions that affect their lives.
Since 2018, CARE has piloted Women Lead in 15 locations in Colombia, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Tonga and Uganda. In 2020, Women Lead worked directly with 804 women’s groups. Through piloting this approach in diverse locations and within different types of humanitarian crisis, Women Lead has sought to understand challenges, barriers and enablers regarding this kind of programming in different contexts.
Women’s confidence, knowledge and self-efficacy: The evaluation identifies considerable qualitative evidence of increases in confidence, knowledge and capacities. Participants identified the Women Lead model as being relevant to their needs and accessible to them. We can see evidence of women identifying Women Lead as an important enabler of collective action – supporting women to raise their voice, advocate for their needs and engage more effectively with stakeholders. Quantitative surveys support these findings. In Niger, 88% of Women Lead participants feel confident in their knowledge of their rights compared with 58% of non-participants. In Uganda, 58% of Women Lead participants reported ‘confidence in accessing services’ compared with 40% of non-participant women who said the same.
2. Women’s presence and meaningful participation in decision-making: The evaluation finds that Women Lead increases women’s presence, regularity of attendance, and meaningful and effective participation in decision-making community settings. In Niger, 91% of women who participated in Women Lead had attended formal community meetings and almost 60% said they had attended these meetings regularly compared with only 34% of non-Women Lead participants. This had occurred despite men in the community previously challenging women’s presence at these meetings. The Women Lead model appears to normalise women’s presence in decision-making spaces, and we see some evidence of women forming their own decision-making forums and creating opportunities for themselves to make decisions, take action or hold leaders to account. In Uganda, the South Sudanese Refugee Women’s Association has formally registered to become the first recognised women's community-based organisation in Omugo settlement. We also see the incorporation of Women Lead groups in Colombia, where groups have formally registered and started to offer services to other women.
3. Women’s informal and formal leadership: We see strong evidence of women feeling empowered to take up leadership positions within their community, both formally and informally. In Niger, women are significantly more likely to be leaders in their communities than non-participants (31% of Women Lead participants compared with 9% of non-participants). In Uganda, 22% of Women Lead participants hold leadership positions in their communities compared with 14% of non-participants. In Colombia, for which we have pre- and post-comparison data available for this indicator, before Women Lead 21% of members held leadership positions within their community. This had increased to 40% by the time of this evaluation. However, there is scope to enhance this work further and for there to be more consistent promotion of women’s leadership through work around political representation, leadership style and horizontal/inclusive decision-making processes.
September 2022 – Global Evaluation Report vii
4. Women take collective action: The Women Lead approach both helps empower women and serves to address complex barriers to their meaningful participation. Women Lead action plans are a useful tool to mobilise women for collective action to advocate for women’s needs and wants, organise peer support and solidarity activities, and improve their communities by engaging power-holders. Action has also frequently been taken to tackle the preconditions for participation and, in the action plans available for analysis, 42% of actions related to livelihood and income generation. This highlights the importance of women being free to prioritise according to their needs, to ensure they can tackle the preconditions of participation where necessary. We can also see clear qualitative evidence of women taking collective action to make change within their communities. This includes:
• Influencing humanitarian actors and local authorities to address the needs of women and the community: In Uganda, group members successfully advocated for humanitarian response actors to move the food distribution site closer.
• Advocating to address an injustice: In Niger, women had difficulty accessing maternity services owing to high costs. The Women Lead groups advocated to the district medical officer and the head of the hospital – and achieved a considerable reduction in the cost of accessing hospital services.
• Connecting and complementing community actors: In Uganda, Women Lead groups took a lead in addressing community tensions. For instance, when there were tensions around access to land and firewood, women worked with leaders from different communities to put in place agreements on the use of natural resources.
• Direct delivery and problem-solving: We see examples of women working to respond directly to the needs of their peers. In the Read More...
The Women Lead model looks to address fundamental gaps in humanitarian response that result in the exclusion of women from meaningful participation and leadership in the decisions that affect their lives.
Since 2018, CARE has piloted Women Lead in 15 locations in Colombia, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Tonga and Uganda. In 2020, Women Lead worked directly with 804 women’s groups. Through piloting this approach in diverse locations and within different types of humanitarian crisis, Women Lead has sought to understand challenges, barriers and enablers regarding this kind of programming in different contexts.
Women’s confidence, knowledge and self-efficacy: The evaluation identifies considerable qualitative evidence of increases in confidence, knowledge and capacities. Participants identified the Women Lead model as being relevant to their needs and accessible to them. We can see evidence of women identifying Women Lead as an important enabler of collective action – supporting women to raise their voice, advocate for their needs and engage more effectively with stakeholders. Quantitative surveys support these findings. In Niger, 88% of Women Lead participants feel confident in their knowledge of their rights compared with 58% of non-participants. In Uganda, 58% of Women Lead participants reported ‘confidence in accessing services’ compared with 40% of non-participant women who said the same.
2. Women’s presence and meaningful participation in decision-making: The evaluation finds that Women Lead increases women’s presence, regularity of attendance, and meaningful and effective participation in decision-making community settings. In Niger, 91% of women who participated in Women Lead had attended formal community meetings and almost 60% said they had attended these meetings regularly compared with only 34% of non-Women Lead participants. This had occurred despite men in the community previously challenging women’s presence at these meetings. The Women Lead model appears to normalise women’s presence in decision-making spaces, and we see some evidence of women forming their own decision-making forums and creating opportunities for themselves to make decisions, take action or hold leaders to account. In Uganda, the South Sudanese Refugee Women’s Association has formally registered to become the first recognised women's community-based organisation in Omugo settlement. We also see the incorporation of Women Lead groups in Colombia, where groups have formally registered and started to offer services to other women.
3. Women’s informal and formal leadership: We see strong evidence of women feeling empowered to take up leadership positions within their community, both formally and informally. In Niger, women are significantly more likely to be leaders in their communities than non-participants (31% of Women Lead participants compared with 9% of non-participants). In Uganda, 22% of Women Lead participants hold leadership positions in their communities compared with 14% of non-participants. In Colombia, for which we have pre- and post-comparison data available for this indicator, before Women Lead 21% of members held leadership positions within their community. This had increased to 40% by the time of this evaluation. However, there is scope to enhance this work further and for there to be more consistent promotion of women’s leadership through work around political representation, leadership style and horizontal/inclusive decision-making processes.
September 2022 – Global Evaluation Report vii
4. Women take collective action: The Women Lead approach both helps empower women and serves to address complex barriers to their meaningful participation. Women Lead action plans are a useful tool to mobilise women for collective action to advocate for women’s needs and wants, organise peer support and solidarity activities, and improve their communities by engaging power-holders. Action has also frequently been taken to tackle the preconditions for participation and, in the action plans available for analysis, 42% of actions related to livelihood and income generation. This highlights the importance of women being free to prioritise according to their needs, to ensure they can tackle the preconditions of participation where necessary. We can also see clear qualitative evidence of women taking collective action to make change within their communities. This includes:
• Influencing humanitarian actors and local authorities to address the needs of women and the community: In Uganda, group members successfully advocated for humanitarian response actors to move the food distribution site closer.
• Advocating to address an injustice: In Niger, women had difficulty accessing maternity services owing to high costs. The Women Lead groups advocated to the district medical officer and the head of the hospital – and achieved a considerable reduction in the cost of accessing hospital services.
• Connecting and complementing community actors: In Uganda, Women Lead groups took a lead in addressing community tensions. For instance, when there were tensions around access to land and firewood, women worked with leaders from different communities to put in place agreements on the use of natural resources.
• Direct delivery and problem-solving: We see examples of women working to respond directly to the needs of their peers. In the Read More...
Sustaining Women’s Livelihoods: Stories of Recovery 7 Years Post-Haiyan (Yolanda)
From July 2014 to November 2016, CARE Philippines launched Women Enterprise Fund (WEF), a women-targeted livelihood recovery programming that worked on women's entrepreneurship development. The project assisted the beneficiaries from the most vulnerable households affected by Typhoon Haiyan to establish sustainable livelihoods to help them secure their basic needs, generate employment and other economic opportunities by contributing to long-term solutions of addressing social and gender inequality and increasing the resilience among women. Read More...
GENDER AND COVID-19 VACCINES Listening to women-focused organizations in Asia and the Pacific
More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed across at least 176 countries, with over 1.7 billion doses administered worldwide. Combating the pandemic requires equitable distribution of safe and effective vaccines, however, women and girls are impacted by gaps both in the supply side and the demand side that hamper equitable distribution of the vaccine. Evidence reveals that 75 per cent of all vaccines have gone to just 10 countries, and only 0.3 per cent of doses have been administered in low-income countries. Very few of COVID-19 vaccines are going to those most vulnerable. The vaccine rollout in Asia and the Pacific has been relatively slow and staggered amid secondary waves of the virus. India, despite being the largest vaccine developer, has only vaccinated 3 per cent of the population and continues to battle a variant outbreak that, at its peak, was responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases and set a record-breaking pace of about 400,000 cases per day.5However, the small Pacific nation of Nauru, reported a world record administering the first dose to 7,392 people, 108 per cent of the adult population within four weeks. Bhutan also set an example by vaccinating 93 per cent of its eligible population in less than two weeks. That success could be at risk, given the situation in India and the suspended export of vaccines. Read More...
Rapid Gender Analysis Philippines: Metro Manila
The NCR Rapid Gender Assessment (NCR RGA) summarises the gendered impact of the pandemic by putting into perspective the experiences of women, men, girls, and boys from different urban poor communities in Metro Manila. It recognizes the distinct situation created by urban poverty alongside the COVID-19 crisis. The NCR RGA contributes to surfacing knowledge by providing
a space for dialogue and recognising the value of stories to understanding the COVID-19 situation.
The NCR RGA was an inter-agency initiative coordinated by CARE, with participating INGOs Oxfam Pilipinas, Plan International,
Asmae; local organizations ACCORD Inc., ChildHope, Kanlungan sa Er-ma Ministry Inc.; and individual volunteers from DFAT. Agencies served as, or recruited, locally-based interviewers with backgrounds in community organizing or social work. RGA and Kobo orientations, toolkit training and simulation, and regular debriefings were facilitated virtually by CARE to support interviewers in data collection. As this assessment was during enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were not possible. Read More...
a space for dialogue and recognising the value of stories to understanding the COVID-19 situation.
The NCR RGA was an inter-agency initiative coordinated by CARE, with participating INGOs Oxfam Pilipinas, Plan International,
Asmae; local organizations ACCORD Inc., ChildHope, Kanlungan sa Er-ma Ministry Inc.; and individual volunteers from DFAT. Agencies served as, or recruited, locally-based interviewers with backgrounds in community organizing or social work. RGA and Kobo orientations, toolkit training and simulation, and regular debriefings were facilitated virtually by CARE to support interviewers in data collection. As this assessment was during enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were not possible. Read More...
INTER-AGENCY RAPID GENDER ANALYSIS TAAL VOLCANO ERUPTION, PHILIPPINES
Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA)1 provides information about the different needs, capacities and coping strategies of women, men, boys and girls in a crisis. Rapid Gender Analysis is built up progressively: using a range of primary and secondary information to understand gender roles and relations and how they may change during a crisis. It provides practical programming and operational recommendations to meet the different needs of women, men, boys, and girls and to ensure we do no harm.
This is the first inter-agency rapid gender analysis that has been organized and conducted in the Philippines. The agencies mobilized are a mix of women’s rights organizations that are active in the Gender-based Violence Sub-Cluster and civil society organizations/INGOs with extensive humanitarian experience that are members of CARE’s Humanitarian Partnership Platform. Read More...
This is the first inter-agency rapid gender analysis that has been organized and conducted in the Philippines. The agencies mobilized are a mix of women’s rights organizations that are active in the Gender-based Violence Sub-Cluster and civil society organizations/INGOs with extensive humanitarian experience that are members of CARE’s Humanitarian Partnership Platform. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
Cash and Voucher Assistance that Works for Women: 6 Lessons from the Field
A brief summary from a multi-country study on "what does gender-sensitive cash and voucher assistance look like?".
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...
The study adopted a user-centric approach to data collection. This ensured consistent reflection with crisis-affected people throughout the process and increased our ability to capture complexity and enhance accountability. Read More...