Sustaining coordinated community engagement in preparedness and humanitarian response: lessons from the Philippines

Over a three-month period in 2013, the Philippines experienced three major disasters: the Zamboanga siege (September), the Bohol earthquake (October) and Typhoon Haiyan (November). One of the key lessons from the humanitarian responses to these events in relation to engaging with affected communities and integrating accountability into the overall response was the need to be more proactive in pre-positioning capacities and resources: not just experts, specialists and practitioners, but also accountability, communication and assessment tools, feedback channels and other communication applications as part of field-level working groups and common service platforms. Drawing on lessons from recent humanitarian responses in the Philippines, and the experience of the Community of Practice on Community Engagement, this article analyses the evolution and expansion of coordinated community engagement in preparedness and response.