Lessons from a decade's research on poverty alleviation

1. Human Security and
Community Resilience in the
Wake of Typhoon Yolanda
Pauline Eadie – University of Nottingham UK
Facebook: Project_Yolanda
Twitter: #Project_Yolanda

2. Introduction
 Background to the case study
 Key questions
 What we found so far
 Ways forward
 #building back better

3. Yolanda/Haiyan - Damage
 On 8 November 2013 super-typhoon Yolanda hit the
the Philippines
 Official figures show that 6,293 individuals were
reported dead, 1,061 missing, 28, 689 injured.
 591 municipalities affected
 Total damage estimated at US$904,680,000
 Total number of people affected by this disaster in
terms of their livelihood, environmental and food
security is approximately 16 million.

4. Ferocity
 325 kms/per hr wind
 Forced a 17 foot high storm
surge (3 waves)
 Strongest typhoon ever to
make landfall
 But not for the first time in
this area

8. Key Questions
 To what extent have disaster relied strategies facilitated
human security post Yolanda?
 What challenges face communities, local and national
governments and local and national NGOs and
INGOs?
 Is the notion of Building Back Better Credible?
 Focus on housing and livelihood.

9. Human Security
 Fear, Want and Dignity
 According to the Sphere Handbook people affected by
disaster have the right to life with dignity, have the right
to receive humanitarian assistance, and have the right
to protection and security (2011, p. 21).
 Freedom from fear and want and the ability to live in
dignity are intimately association with the resilience of,
and strength that can be drawn from communities.

10. UNDP definition
 The UNDP defines human security as ‘safety from
chronic threats such as hunger, disease, and
repression; and protection from sudden and hurtful
disruptions in the patterns of daily lives, whether in
homes jobs or communities’ (UNDP 1994, p. 3).

11. Why was it so bad in
Tacloban?

12. Tacloban, Palo, Tanauan

13. Data Gathering
 beneficiaries
 800 x 3 household surveys = 2400
 40 families
 20 Barangays
 +NGOs, national and local government (barangay
captains, mayors, senators) INGOs, local business

14. Politics

15. What we found - Housing
 No dwell zone
 The Great Wall of Talcoban
 Land in the northern
barangays
 Too slow
 Lack of international
standards
 WATER!!!

16. Temporary Housing

17. What we found livelihood
 If in doubt give a boat
 Livelihood strategies drawn
up at bare subsistence level.
 Where is the business?
 What about the youth?
Donor Driven

18. Tension between relocation
and livelihood
 Housing too far from the sea
 Communities disrupted
 Fish stocks
 Infrastructure
 What will happen when the money goes?
 Wishing for another typhoon?

19. Ways forward
 Mitigate, adapt, migrate?
 Scaling up business?
 Goods, money and people
 A new regime?