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by Mark Cervantes

The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), an international non-profit organization that has been working with rural communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America for over fifty years, supports the call of Earth Hour 2010 for a global action to respond to the climate crisis. 

Earth Hour is a global movement launched in 2008 in order to contribute in raising consciousness on the effects of climate change and to push for global action symbolized by the global switch off of electric lights for one hour.

Read the full article here.

IIRR participated in the ‘Women First’ 5 kilometer run which took place in Addis Ababa on 6th March 2010 by sponsoring runners. Sixty female staff from IIRR and partner organizations took part in the race.

IIRR participated in the run to denounce violence against women and express solidarity with those who are committed to stopping it. This year’s run carried the slogans: "You have a key role to stop gender based violence" and "No woman should die while giving birth."

The world-famous Olympic athlete Haile Gebreselassie, who has so far broken 26 world records and still holds some including the Berlin Marathon, organized the Great Ethiopian Run.

by Marise Espineli

IIRR provided support to Non-Timber Forest Products and other partners in the National Strategy Formulation of Reduce Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) Plus in the Philippines through the ‘writeshop’ process. REDD is an effort to create financial value for carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development.

Read the full article here.

(MANILA, Philippines – March 19, 2010) – The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction was tasked to facilitate a group discussion as an offshoot of the second day of the Climate Investment Fund 2010 Partnership Forum held March 18-19, 2010 at the Asian Development Bank headquarters in Manila. The Climate Investment Fund is a gathering of various nations that are stakeholders to the financing support of multi-development banks such as ADB, World Bank, Bank of Africa, etc.

 

The second day of the forum centered on the discussion “Building Alliances for Climate Resilience: Implementing the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR),” one of the financing modalities supported by the MDGs as part of developing country commitments to supporting climate financing.

 

The participants were then divided into groups with various sector representation wherein IIRR sat alongside organizations from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Egypt, Bolivia, India and the Philippines. The group was asked to answer the guiding question “How do you overcome barriers and create opportunities for transformational change to make development climate resilient?”

 

IIRR facilitated the discussion and gathered various standpoints from participants. One suggestion was that a national alliance on climate resilience should be formed with strong basis of involving communities or grassroots organizations in the process using local experiences and good practices as the basis of the national strategy for climate resilience. It was also shared that vulnerable groups like women, children and the youth have to be involved.

 

The discussion touching institutional mechanisms of local government units and civil society organizations has to be strengthened in order to reach a more concrete climate resilient strategy. IIRR raised the point that apart from strengthening institutional mechanisms, there is a need to level off with the definition of “resilience” since this is crucial in guiding the CIF’s adaptation financing. Finally, in relation to building national alliances, there is a need to ensure that financial support is in place especially for civil society organizations. IIRR then presented the output to the plenary representing the group.

Read the article on IIRR's website.

IIRR Uganda signed a new letter of agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to continue with the Farmer Field School project in Amuru District. The project is to enroll 600 new farmers who will be organized into twenty Field School groups. The project will also continue with its support to existing farmer groups.

Statement from USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah on the Occasion of International Women's Day

WASHINGTON, March 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today we commemorate International Women's Day and honor the courageous women who endeavor to build a better world for their children, families, societies, and themselves.  This is a day to celebrate and acknowledge the essential role women play in the economic, political, and social advancement of their countries.

Development outcomes are greatly dependent on the degree to which women and girls are empowered to realize their potential and to benefit from, and contribute to, their society's progress.  USAID welcomes President Obama's leadership in its efforts toward achieving women's empowerment and gender equality.  The Agency has a long-standing history of working to improve women's status and removing constraints that limit their potential. 

Join me as we renew our determination to empower women and girls so all of us can succeed.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.

Public Information: 202-712-4810

SOURCE U.S. Agency for International Development

http://www.usaid.gov

IIRR to Sit in Technical Working Group on Climate Change Adaptation

by Mark Cervantes

(SILANG, Cavite, Philippines - March 5, 2010) - The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction was recently asked to join the Technical Working Group on climate change adaptation under the Civil Society Organization-Working Group (CSO-WG) on Climate Change and Development, a loose network of civil society organizations in the Philippines actively involved in climate change negotiations on both national and international levels.

IIRR signified its intention during the “Round Table Discussion on the Moving forward with the UNFCCC Multilateral Processes” held March 2, 2010 at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Social Hall in the National Office in Quezon City. The discussion was organized by the CSO-WG with assistance from the Climate Change Office of DENR.

The discussion aims to update the current status of the Philippines after the COP15 Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. It was also intended to solicit stakeholders coming from the CSO on how to move the negotiations after the COP15.

Segfredo Serrano, Under Secretary of the Department of Agriculture provided an update on the current position of the Philippine government on climate change adaptation. This was followed by a presentation on Mitigation by Ms. Joy Goco of DENR and a presentation entitled “Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation + the Conservation and Enhancement of Existing carbon stocks” by Lawrence Ang of the Philippine Climate Change Commission.

Neth Dano of the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC) provided an input on Technology and finally Dir. Leila Lora-Santos of the Department of Foreign Affairs provided some updates on Climate Change financing.

An expert on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction, IIRR will position itself on the adaptation side of the negotiations which currently lacks substantive mechanisms on moving forward and has a weak position under the COP15 Accord.

Under Secretary Serrano, however, stressed that the position of the Philippines in relation to addressing loss and damage associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable includes supporting the adoption of a broader framework for disaster risk reduction, management and sharing that includes risk insurance, risk transfer mechanisms, rehabilitation and compensation for loss and damage.

With the participation of IIRR in the CSO-WG, it hopes to provide additional input on disaster risk reduction that the Philippines will push during pre-COP16 Cancun, Mexico climate change negotiations in December 2010.

Read the full article and more feature stories here, or visit us at http://www.iirr.org.

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Read more about Value Chain Finance here.

(SILANG, Cavite, Philippines - February 27, 2010) - A roundtable discussion on Disaster Resistant Sustainable Livelihood Framework and Decentralized Disaster Risk Management by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction and Practical Action-Sri Lanka was held last February 23 in IIRR with about 25 participants from different non-government organizations, academe and government agency working on climate change and DRR in attendance. The RTD was focused on the centrality of securing livelihoods in any disaster resistance work.

Dr. Isaac Bekalo, President of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction gave an overview on the work of IIRR on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction or CMDRR. Dr. Bekalo stressed that CMDRR puts community or villages in the center of the whole process in building resilience to respond to both natural and man-made hazards.

Mr. Lauro Monzon, Head of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of the Provincial Government of Cavite also shared their program on disaster management and preparedness which includes setting up community based early warning systems and capacity building on disaster response.

One of the highlights of the activity was the presentation of Ms. Madhavi Ariyabandu, Regional Program Office of the United Nation International Strategy for Disaster Reduction on “Integrating DRR at the Local Level”.

Ms. Ariyabandu stressed that local level governance institutions must actively take the lead on DRR wherein participation of community and their institutions, private sector and other stakeholders is crucial. She also added localizing DRR also means a bottom up planning to understand hazards-vulnerability scenario to come up with DRR strategies and significantly the existence of local level partnerships to influence decision making that is centered to a participatory methodologies to facilitate multi stakeholder responsibilities.

Ms. Ariyabandu also presented the challenges in integrating DRR at the local level which includes low awareness and understanding of development and DRR by the community; the local authority (LA) considered mostly as an implementing /service provision arm of government; gaps in implementing decentralization; weak institutional arrangements to obtain community inputs at LA level; weak community organization to provide inputs to local level decision making; political difference and lack of trust between community and LA; and capacity and resource availability to carry out disaster sensitive development, especially with multiple expectations.

Mr. M.A. Jayantha R. Gunasekera, Team Leader, Markets and Livelihoods Programme of Practical Action-Sri Lanka then gave a presentation on “Disaster Resistant Sustainable Livelihood Framework and Participatory Market System Development Approach”.

Mr. Gunasekera shared that Practical Action’s approaches to livelihood development and disaster risk reduction includes Disaster Resistant Sustainable Livelihood (DRSL) frame work and Participatory Market System Development.

He further shared that the DRSL is a livelihood centered approach to DRR wherein it looks at the inter linkages between disaster risk, poverty, and livelihoods and lastly it is guided by DFID’s Sustainable Livelihoods Framework.

In Practical Action experience of DRSL framework in Duryog, Nivaran in Sri Lanka, DRSL utilizes technology systems like roof water harvesting, ground water harvesting; disaster sensitive farming practices and crop varieties; community based access road construction and community based constructions of minor irrigation channels and flood mitigation structures.

It also utilizes processes and approaches like local seed production and delivery systems; land use planning at village level; community based natural resource governance; promotion of agricultural research and innovation as a measure of adaptation to climate change.

After the presentations, the participants were then grouped and discussed the level of implementation of the Philippines in terms of integrating DRR at the local level and disaster resistant sustainable livelihood frameworks. They were also asked what has been the role so far of the communities in the process.

The result of the RTD proves that there has been little effort so far in integrating DRR at the local level where they are mostly still engaged in disaster management and disaster preparedness. Some of the participants claimed that they are already integrating DRR into livelihood and enterprise but it’s not explicitly called DRR.

In summary, Dr. Julian Gonsalves, Senior Advisor of IIRR, asserted that livelihood security is a key to disaster risk reduction. He added that livelihoods are influenced by the state of environment (natural resources management) and the relevance and the presence of enabling environments. Livelihood-centered approaches to DRR assume that asset building, diversifying livelihoods, increasing the skill base to provide long term resilience and enhanced recovery is crucial. He further stressed that there is a need to do more to increase community capacities to conduct assessments, to plan locally, to access local government resources and to advocate for attention at the local level. In doing all of this, Dr. Gonsalves reiterated that communication is crucial and building a culture of prevention must be looked into as a knowledge-intensive business where strong local organizations are important and direction is needed towards this purpose.

Participating organizations included the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC), Southeast Asia Regional Institute for Community Empowerment  (SEARICE), Center for Disaster Preparedness Foundation, Inc., ChildFund Philippines, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC), Office of the Provincial Government of Cavite, PAMANA-DCF , Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF),  Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), Philippine Social Enterprise Network (PhilSEN), Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), TEBTEBBA, UNICEF and IIRR.

See full feature on IIRR's website at http://www.iirr.org/index.php/aboutus/features_item/roundtable_discussion_on_disaster_risk_reduction_held/.