Typhoon Haiyan - Communicating with Communities Update 9

Telecommunication networks have largely been restored. In the affected areas, Globe Telecom has managed to restore network coverage in excess of 90% of capacity and Smart is operating normally. Progress, albeit much more limited, has also been made with
electricity. Radio and TV infrastructure, however, remains badly damaged. In terms of radio, Internews continue to broadcast out of Guiuan. First Response Radio (FRR) and two Government Stations, Radyo ng Bayan and Power FM are broadcasting in Tacloban.
However, FRR is due to cease broadcasting on 26 December and, whilst efforts are being made to facilitate a handover to local media, more resources are required. Despite the improvement in telecommunication network availability, many people still lack phones and radios which were lost during the storm. Thus, whilst the capacity to transmit broadcast messaging has largely been rehabilitated, the capacity to receive still remains severely constrained. There is space for other communications media to complement broadcast and continued work is required in this regard.

In terms of information, a number of agencies, particularly in the area of radio, are well established and able to provide regular and valuable information on the response activities. Despite this, considerable work remains to ensure that consistent and appropriate messaging is fed into these networks. Agencies also need to place equal weight and resources in the capacity to engage in dialogue rather than defaulting to a very limited one-to-many messaging approach. The ultimate goal, a continuous and systematic loop of drawing real time feedback from communities, analyzing it, acting upon it, and communicating those actions back to the community, is still some way off.

With regard to listening to feedback offered by the community, there are a range of systems run by radio stations, implementing agencies, and government, which are gathering and collating complaints, thanks, requests, and information from the ground. However, improvements need to be made in the management of this information. Collating the various datasets to more broadly represent the voice of the community, making that information available to a broader range of relevant actors, and ensuring that subsequent programming takes this feedback into account, are all areas in which agencies also need to invest capacity, skills and resources.