Soliman: Poverty is a Disaster

“Poverty in itself is a disaster,” said Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Juliano-Soliman during her keynote speech addressing the Central Visayas mayors and local government units (LGU) representatives in Cebu City recently.

The forum aimed to orient representatives on the National Community-Driven Development Program (NCDDP) and to consult the mayors on the possibility of using the community-driven development (CDD) strategy in post-disaster rehabilitation and development of those LGUs affected by typhoon Yolanda and earthquake.

The NCDDP is the scaling up of the operations of Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS).

Similar to Kalahi-CIDSS, NCDDP will use the CDD strategy, a development approach that focuses on empowering and building up the capacities of the ordinary members of a barangay and local government units so they will be able to lift their own communities out of poverty.

Describing how poverty remains a pressing problem in the Philippines, Secretary Soliman explained how disasters make people even more vulnerable to poverty, either by making them more poor, or sending non-poor families into poverty.

She added that this is an even bigger problem now, as the Philippine government is anticipating disasters similar in strength to Typhoon Yolanda will be hitting the country because of climate change.

This is particularly important in the Central Visayas region, which was struck by two strong natural disasters in 2013: the earthquake which hit Bohol and Cebu in October, and ‘Yolanda’ which hit the country last November.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Council (NDRRMC), there were 6,268 confirmed casualties nationwide due to ‘Yolanda’ as of March 14. On the other hand, the earthquake resulted in 222 deaths, all from the Central Visayas region, also according to the NDRRMC.

Given this, Secretary Soliman said that increasing people’s resilience is critical, not only to make them less vulnerable to the impact of disasters, but also to poverty itself.

“The people know what is resilient,” Soliman said ,explaining that their involvement in disaster preparedness and post-disaster recovery increases their capacity to withstand calamities, not only as families, but also as communities as a whole.

She added, “citizens’ participation cannot be denied. The people themselves take first part in disaster response and mitigation. As active participants, they are less likely to be victimized.”

She also emphasized the importance of having local government units (LGUs) work closely with the citizens and the national government in development, particularly in terms of governance, and in DRRM.

She said, “real change should be based on good governance,” adding that development can only happen when the different sectors work together.

“We need to have a responsive government and active citizenry to make people resilient against poverty and disasters,” Soliman added.

Image Credit: www.dswd.gov.ph