Donors’ forum held for Yolanda-hit areas in Antique

ANTIQUE, Philippines – Six months since Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall, hit the Philippines, many communities and local government units on its path are still struggling to make it back to normalcy.

In this province, declared under a state of calamity days after the typhoon, where several municipalities were heavily devastated by a storm surge and strong winds, rehabilitation work is ongoing in a joint effort amond the national and local governments, the residents, and the development community.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, through the Environment and Rural Development Program (EnRD), which has been working with several local government units (LGUs) in Antique prior to the typhoon, supports the rehabilitation efforts.

Together with the province, GIZ held a donors’ forum on Thursday at the Antique Vocational School in Bugasong town.

The event brought together 12 LGUs from central and northern Antique and various international and national development partners. Representatives of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs attended the forum.

The donors’ forum aimed to bridge the gap between the LGUs’ needs and the donors’ resources, and ensure efficient use of resources in areas where assistance is of priority.

The forum allowed the participating LGUs to present an overview of their rehabilitation concept and provide details on their priority projects per sector.

On the other hand, donor agencies and organizations were asked to identify and choose which among the projects they would provide technical and/or financial assistance to.

“The donors’ forum aims to ensure that these priority projects are properly linked to institutions and organizations for technical and financial assistance. It intends to link all this support to speed up the rehabilitation not just of the ravaged houses in the affected areas, but most importantly in rebuilding the lives of the survivors,” said Andreas Lange, chief adviser and team leader for the reconstruction assistance of GIZ.

GIZ-EnRD is implementing a two-year technical assistance program (January 2014-December 2015) in the Eastern Visayan communities.

It also supported the planning preparation of towns in Antique, particularly the Central Antique Marine and Forest Coastal Resources Management Alliance.

The rehabilitation plans presented by the LGUs at the donors’ forum were based on post-disaster needs assessments and existing comprehensive land use plans assisted by the EnRD program.

So far, the GIZ-EnRD has helped six Yolanda-affected LGUs in Antique to formulate their own rehabilitation and recovery plans.

To date, 12 LGUs have finalized their plans and identified priority projects vital to their communities’ recovery and to the protection of the watersheds in the province.