The State of Humanitarian System Report (SOHS) was once again launched in the Philippines on March 8, 2023. It is currently the third time that the report has been launched in the country, with the previous two conducted in 2018 and 2015. The SOHS Report is an assessment of the scale and performance of the international humanitarian system and how it interacts with other networks and institutions of support for people in crisis. In this 5th edition, the report provides a closer look at the humanitarian system landscape from January 2018 to December 2021, with special updates from key events up until the last quarter of 2022.
Through its four-year study period, the researchers have noted that the global number of people needing humanitarian assistance recognized by the UN-coordinated Global Humanitarian Overview rose by over 87%. This rise has been influenced significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global crisis indeed has reached an unprecedented socioeconomic impact to a wide geographic scale, affecting the economic capability of donor countries to provide local as well as international support, and making beneficiaries even more vulnerable.
The humanitarian system is composed of various entities that receive international funding and operate within shared humanitarian principles. And throughout its operation, the thrust of enabling locally led action is becoming more and more imperative. In this regard, the 2022 SOHS launch in the Philippines was aptly co-hosted between Oxfam and the Philippine Preparedness Partnership (PhilPrep). PhilPrep is a partnership engagement model of localization in the country, which aligns with the localisation focus of the 2022 SOHS report.
PhilPrep is comprised of four key humanitarian stakeholders: the government, the academe, the civil society, and the private sector. Representatives of these partner institutions have been invited as panel reactors to help facilitate discussion of the SOHS Report presentation by Dr. Alice Obrecht of the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP). The UP Resilience Institute, as the academic pillar of PhilPrep, was represented by Chief Science Research Specialist Richard Ybañez of the Education Division. Together with him on the panel was Director Harold Cabreros of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Ms. Mayfourth Luneta of the Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP), Mr. Rene “Butch” Meily of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), and Mr. Edwin Salonga of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).
In support of the focus of the SOHS report on Anticipatory Action, Mr. Ybañez emphasized the UPRI’s thrust and advocacy for probabilistic risk assessment in support of anticipatory action. Anticipatory action is most effective when it is well-informed by the different kinds and magnitudes of hazards that can affect an area considering different return periods and climate change projections. UPRI provides this kind of information generation and support to our partner LGU’s and grassroots organizations in order to mitigate the effects of various kinds of natural hazards.
On the topic of employing more locally led initiatives, UPRI recalled its role as a nexus for DRR study and practice in the nationwide UP system as well as the secretariat of the Philippine Academic Society for Climate and Disaster Resilience, a nationwide network of academics and researchers in the field of DRR-CCA. Through these roles and platforms, UPRI is able to facilitate knowledge exchange within, and outward from, the academic sphere. These include capacity building and response programs that meet the specific needs for specialization from the academe.
Read the full 2022 SOHS Report at: https://sohs.alnap.org/help-library/2022-the-state-of-the-humanitarian-system-sohs-%E2%80%93-full-report-0
Watch report presentation and panel discussions at: https://fb.watch/j9rRxJem4-/
Posted by the UP Resilience Institute Education on April 11, 2023