Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian has renewed the agency’s partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Philippines aimed at making disaster response more humanitarian in its focus.
The DSWD and the IOM on Friday (March 14) forged an updated collaboration that focuses on strengthening and enhancing capacity building initiatives, undertake knowledge building and transfer of technology on camp coordination and camp management (CCCM), protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and accelerate efforts toward the digital service transformation in disaster management.
“This partnership signals more learning for us and more learning for local government units which are looking for DSWD standards in camp management and in responding to the internally displaced persons (IDPS),”
Secretary Gatchalian said in his message during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the DSWD and the IOM at the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City.
The DSWD chief said the Department looks forward to gain more knowledge through working with the IOM, especially on making sure that camp management is not a “one size fits all solution” but contextualized to the individual needs and vulnerabilities of the IDPs.
Secretary Gatchalian stressed that what the Department appreciates best in the partnership is the know-how that IOM can share.The IOM has a depth of experience and knowledge on camp management and the protection of IDPs.
“Governments world-wide are grappling with how to deal with disaster response and I think the best tool or instrument towards a better, more humane response is not in the number of food packs, or the number of
things that we can get from partners, but what we can assimilate in terms of knowledge. That is what the partnership is all about,” Secretary Gatchalian said.
The DSWD chief also thanked the IOM for their continued support to the Department’s disaster response initiatives.
In her message of commitment, Chief of Mission Tristan Ashley Burnett said the IOM has decades of experience working with the DSWD prior to the formal partnership.
The IOM executive also expressed her gratitude for the continued trust of the Department in working with the organization.
“I want to thank you for this opportunity and express our appreciation for this long-standing partnership and trust that you also placed in us in our co-chairmanship and support you in the CCCM cluster by signing this renewed, updated agreement on where we can expand our shared commitment to IDP protection, resilience and disaster preparedness and response,” Chief Burnett said.
The IOM is a member of the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team (UNHCT) and was designated as the DSWD’s co-lead agency of the CCCM and IDP Protection Clusters under the Response and Early Recovery Approach of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (PDRRM) system.
Witnessing the signing were Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao of the DSWD Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG), Director Maria Isabel Lanada of the Disaster Response Management Bureau (DRMB) and IOM Head of Programs Euan Mcdougall. (GDVF)