UN: Yolanda (Haiyan) victims need $301M

MANILA, Philippines – It’s going to be $301 million for 11.3 million persons.

In light of the massive destruction left by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan), the United Nations (UN) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) launched an action plan to help rehabilitate the affected provinces in the Philippines.

To effectively help the 11.3 million people who lost their homes and livelihood get back up on their feet, the action plan needs $301 million, said UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines Luiza Carvalho.

Carvalho made the flash appeal before the country’s diplomatic corps on Tuesday, November 12.

The money will be going to the following relief clusters:

Emergency Shelter

• Immediate life-saving shelter interventions 
• Rapid support for shelter projects
• Provision of appropriate non-food items
• Shelter-related care and maintenance of existing evacuation centers
• Coordination support

Early Recovery

• Immediate debris clearing
• Stopgap support to local government usnits (LGUs)
• Short-term sources of income for at least 200,000 women
• Rehabilitation of solid waste management in LGUs

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)

• Water quality surveillance and installation of mobile water treatment units
• Rehabilitation of water supply systems 
• Distribution of water and hygiene kits
• Construction of gender segregated emergency latrines
• Management of solid waste and Installation of WASH facilities
• WASH cluster coordination

Education

• Debris clearing in schools
• Restoring and improving learning spaces
• Replacement of damaged and missing teaching and learning materials
• Strengthening of local school community disaster risk reduction and management system

Food Security

• General food distribution
• Emergency food for work and cash for work help to kick-start recovery activities

Logistics

• Information sharing
• Coordinated land and sea transport

Health

• Care for the injured
• Essential medical supplies
• Increase provision of access to health services
• Disease surveillance
• Referral system from community health facilities
• Support to systematic immunization
• Temporary health facilities
• Support to information management
• Reproductive health

Camp Coordination and Management

• Solar radios with lights
• Displacement Tracking Matrix
• Support in expanding camp capacity
• Relying on Evacuation Center (EC) structures

Nutrition

• Rapid nutrition assessments
• Support Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) in emergencies
• Community-based therapeutic feeding centers
• Provision of nutrition supplies for therapeutic feeding
• Capacity building on mangement of acute malnutrition
• Coordination and technical support to the Nutrition Cluster
• Standardized nutrition surveys

Protection

• Child protection
• Programs dealing with gender-based violence 

Livelihoods

• Emergency emplyment opportunities 
• Skills development
• Support protection
• Personal protective equipment
• Sustainability support

Agriculture

• Assistance to approximately 250,000 households to resume farming and fishing activities

Coordination

• Coordination hubs to support the government
• Principled humanitarian action
• Support authorities to orient local actors on cluster system
• Information products
• Mechanisms to improve two-way communication
• Coordination of communications with affected communities
• Enhanced analysis of context affecting vulnerability

Emergency Telecommunications

• Overall coordination of emergency telecomm services
• Deployment of fully operational communication centers (COMCENs)
• Recruitment and training of radio operators and training of UN and NGO staff on the proper use of life saving telecommunications tools

Cross-cutting issues

• Deployment of radio-in-a-box system to Tacloban
• Deployment of Vodafone Instant Network Services to assist in restoration of mobile connectivity
• Assesment of information needs
• Distribution of a minimum of 1,000 wind-up radios
• Provision of specific communication services to displaced communities
• Establishment of cross-cluster technical working group led by national authorities to serve the dual functions of coordinating work on with affected communities and providing clusters and responding agencies with technical support in scaling up communications work

Security

• Support to ongoing humanitarian assistance in affected areas

UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said the amount the UN is asking for the action plan excludes the separate pledges and donations earlier made by different countries and international organizations.

Rappler has a running list of aid and pledges given by various countries and international groups.

Amos also announced that the UN will be releasing $25 million in funds for the emergency life-saving efforts.

“While it’s too early to tell the scale of the destruction, it’s clear that the needs are huge,” Amos said. She urged the international community to act and help the people affected by the tragedy.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario meanwhile asked for people to be more aware of the effects of climate change and how the Philippines is in need of facilities to help the people adapt to the phenomenon. – Rappler.com