Accountability for Disaster Risk Reduction: Lessons from the Philippines

In the Philippines, the passing of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Law in 2010 and the Climate Change Law in 2009 reflect significant advancements in orienting DRM towards a risk reduction  and resilience approach. This has been hard won by a multitude of stakeholders. Supported by a context of participatory governance and a culture of ‘accountability’, important lessons have been emerging from the Philippines from efforts to hold the government to account on its DRR responsibilities. The operationalisation of accountability by civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Philippines has guided
DRR mainstreaming in local planning including participatory budgeting for DRR, the tackling of single issues at the appropriate scale (logging concessions, roads for markets, land tenure security), and the establishment of strong national advocacy and learning networks for national legislative change, and continued engagement and policy monitoring. The approaches taken balance collaboration, critical participation and contestation, and in general keep DRR integrated in broader work on sustainable development.

Underpinning these approaches is an ‘enabling environment’ for CSOs to hold government to account for DRR. This environment becomes continually stronger through attention to power, wealth inequality, interests, scales of governance and partnerships and process-oriented outcomes of interventions. The enabling environment comprises: opportunities or strategies for participation and citizen action; high numbers and capacity of citizens claiming their rights and holding their government to account and capacity for responsiveness amongst relevant authorities; and recognised legitimate standards as the measurement against which actors are held to account.