Cebu City – A two-day, high-level summit on climate change kicked off here, Oct. 6, participated in by stakeholders from national government agencies, local government units, the academe, business, and civil society organizations. The summit hopes to yield a list of priority actions, particularly in the Yolanda-affected areas, a stronger commitment towards multi-stakeholder conference, new ideas and proposals for building local government capacities and harmonization of the policies on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (DRR-CCA). (See also http://focusweb.org/content/philippine-experience-climate-change-disaster-capitalism-and-food-insecurity)
Among the civil society groups participating in the Summit is the Community of Yolanda Survivors and Partners (CYSP), an alliance of around 163 community organisations and nine NGOs campaigning to raise the issues relating to the recovery and rehabilitation of Yolanda-affected communities. CYSP hopes to articulate in the summit its three main campaign demands: the issuance of an Executive Order for the creation of a central government body or authority on disaster response and recovery, a comprehensive audit of Yolanda recovery efforts, and the resolution of thematic issues and problems like that of land rights and conflicts, as well as concerns over particular projects such as the multi-billion peso tide-embankment project.
Focus on the Global South is part of the research and advocacy group of the CYSP. In September, we published a paper on government rehabilitation efforts based on a research conducted a year after Yolanda.
