The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) immediately attended to the needs of localities affected by weather disturbances, armed conflicts, and other hazards as instructed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2022.
This is part of the mandate of the DSWD as the Vice Chair of the Response Pillar of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
“One of the President’s marching order is to ensure that sufficient food are available to each and every locality before a disaster strikes. We are proud to say that we have been consistently partnering with local government units to set up more regional warehouses to preposition food and non-food items,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said.
As part of its response preparedness, the DSWD produced and delivered 2,372,371 family food packs (FFPs) and 3,723,954 non-food items (NFIs) as augmentation support to local government units (LGUs) in 2022.
A significant portion of the FFPs, at 53.8 percent, and NFIs at 72 percent were prepared and delivered by DSWD regional offices from July to December 2022, which covers the first six months of the Marcos administration.
In the first semester of 2023, a total of 1,352,425 FFPs and 496,977 NFIs were produced and delivered by the Department.
Disaster Response
In terms of response efforts, a total of 1,046,559 internally-displaced households were assisted for both major and minor disasters during the second semester of 2022.
The DSWD also provided resource augmentation to 1,485 local government units (LGUs) services for their disaster response operations in 2022, including 270 LGUs for their COVID-19 response.
From January to June 2023, the Department immediately addressed the needs of regions affected by major disasters such as low-pressure areas, northeast monsoon, and shear line in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The DSWD also augmented food and non-food items (FNIs) to 633 LGUs serving a total of 452,071 families.
Cash assistance were also rendered to 16,562 families under the Cash-for-Work (CFW) program as a form of disaster response intervention of the DSWD.
In addition, a total of 7,833 families were also given Emergency Cash Transfer (ECT) assistance from January to June 2023.
Early Recovery and Rehabilitation
In line with the implementation of rehabilitation and recovery programs for disaster-affected households, the DSWD provided early recovery services to 1,139,647 families during the first six months of the Marcos administration.
From the total amount of recovery services provided, 91 percent was for Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) to help families with partially and totally damaged homes to rebuild their houses.
In the same period (July to December 2022), a total of 379,331 household beneficiaries were able to benefit from the Cash-for-Work for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (CFW-CCAM).
The CFW-CCAM facilitates temporary employment by engaging disaster-affected families to render work which minimizes the impacts of climate change and disasters.
Meanwhile, in the first semester of 2023, the DSWD provided early recovery services to 150,004 disaster-affected families for various disaster incidents inclusive of 40,107 families with damaged houses provided with ESA; 108 affected families provided with ESA with CFW; 44,665 affected families provided with CFW as early recovery intervention; 382 affected families provided with Food-for-Work (FFW) for early recovery and rehabilitation; and 64,742 affected families provided with ECT as early recovery intervention.
Buong Bansa Handa
Under the leadership of Secretary Rex Gatchalian, the DSWD will continue to strengthen its disaster capability efforts through the Buong Bansa Handa Project, which will set up two supply chains for disaster preparedness.
The first supply chain will be an expanded network of national and local government warehousing infrastructure, while the other one will be private-sector driven.
In addition to improving the supply chain, the DSWD will continue to work with public and private sector partners to immediately address emerging challenges and bottlenecks in disaster response. #
