Partners for Resilience in the Philippines
For ten years, CARE supported community resilience in the MANATUTI river basin in the Philippines.
The Philippines is the world’s third most disaster-prone country, threatened by rising sea levels, with frequent floods, droughts, earthquakes, and typhoons. Rapid urbanisation has made waste management a major environmental challenge, increasing the risk of floods. In the highly urbanised Malabon-Navotas-Tullahan-Tinajeros (MANATUTI) River Basin in Metro Manila, the population of 2.3 million lives mostly under the poverty line.
The disaster management system lacks coordination with local development plans, and particularly the urban poor, most impacted by disasters, are often excluded. In this context, a consortium of CARE, Cordaid, The Netherlands Red Cross, Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre and Wetlands International implemented the Partners for Resilience (PfR) programme for ten years, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To increase community resilience, PfR took an Integrated Risk Management (IRM) approach, embedding climate and ecosystems structurally into DRR. This publication outlines CARE’s main achievements.
Alvin Martin’s story of resilience
Alvin Martin, a father of five, lives and fishes in Navotas, the Philippines. Alvin’s fishing community has been deeply affected by climate change, water pollution and solid waste, as well as stark competition by large commercial fishing companies. For Alvin, the climatic and economic uncertainty led him to start advocating for his community: he leads an organisation of small-scale fishers in their conversations with the government about opportunities and adaptation to extreme weather events.
CARE supported Alvin and his community to better understand the impacts of climate change and pollution and strengthen their capacity to adapt to changes in their environment. “During typhoons, our income used to stop, and through the trainings we received, we are now more prepared for these disasters”, Alvin adds. For Alvin and his community, resilience means involving multiple stakeholders to develop integrated solutions to restore the environment.
