THE AMERICAN government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided the Philippines another P53 million for a program on enhancing capacity in disaster preparedness and response.
The grant, first announced on Oct. 12, will be used for the second phase of an information management system called the Early Warning and Decision Support Capacity Enhancement project.
“Information and communication management is among the most challenging aspects in disaster response,” USAID Philippines Mission Director Ryan Washburn said in a statement on Thursday.
The second phase will further develop data sharing and processing, rollout pilot systems in regional offices, and provide more training to deepen the integration of PhilAWARE.
The initial phase of the project, implemented from 2019 to 2021, introduced PhilAWARE (AWARE: All-hazards Warning, Analysis and Risk Evaluation), which is a customized data platform that collects complex information on disaster risks, vulnerabilities, and other real-time data to assist disaster response operations.
It also seeks to achieve a whole of government approach to enhance digitization, data sharing, and reporting.
Since 2010, the US has provided more than P21.1 billion in disaster relief and recovery aid to the Philippines, boosting as well the disaster risk reduction capacity of more than 100 of cities and municipalities. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan