THE United States government has announced it is giving P53 million ($900,000) for the second phase of a data platform project to improve the country’s capacity to identify disaster risks and support disaster response operations.
“Information and communication management is among the most challenging aspects in disaster response. We are proud of our latest collaboration with the Office of Civil Defense and the Pacific Disaster Center on the PhilAWARE information management platform,” said the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) Philippines Mission Director Ryan Washburn.
“The US government, through USAid, remains steadfast in our commitment to boost the Philippine government’s capacity to improve disaster preparedness and management systems for the benefit of the Filipino people,” he added.
Washburn and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director and OCD Administrator Undersecretary Raymundo Ferrer made the announcement during the recently held launch of phase two of the Early Warning and Decision Support Capacity Enhancement project.
The initial phase of the project, implemented from 2019 to 2021 in partnership with the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Disaster Center, introduced PhilAWARE (AWARE: All-hazards Warning, Analysis and Risk Evaluation), a customized data platform that collects complex information on disaster risks, vulnerabilities, and other real-time data to assist disaster response operations, according to the US Embassy in the Philippines Information Office.
Under its second phase of the project, the OCD “will further develop data sharing and processing, rollout pilot systems in regional offices, and provide more training to deepen the integration of PhilAWARE within the NDRRMC and reflect a whole of government approach to enhance digitization, data sharing, and reporting.”
Since 2010, the US government, through USAid, has poured over P21.1 billion (over $359 million) in disaster relief and recovery aid and has enhanced the disaster risk reduction capacity of more than 100 cities and municipalities in the country.
World Risk Index Report 2022 ranked the Philippines with the highest natural disaster risk among 193 nations in the world. (SunStar Philippines)