THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Phils. held a ceremonial handover activity of disaster response-communications equipment on January 26 at the University of the Philippines-Diliman’s College of Science Amphitheater.
Under the “Immediate Response, Recovery, and Resilience Initiatives in Typhoon Odette Affected Areas” project of UNDP, the transfer aims to ensure the assets’ continued use for DICT’s disaster and emergency response by strengthening its coordination and communications capacity.
In the event Dr. Selva Ramachandran who is UNDP Phils.’ resident representative, together with Undersecretary Manuel Anthony S. Tan and Assistant Secretary Wilroy V. Ticzon of the DICT, signed the Deed of Transfer of all disaster-response equipment and assets to the agency, as four remaining emergency-response vehicles were also handed over to the agency.
They will be instrumental in addressing the needs of the affected areas in the aftermath of Typhoon “Odette” (international name Rai), where coordination and communications were severely disrupted.
“The Philippines is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and natural disasters. How do we lessen the burden on our people? The government is proactively working hand-in-hand to provide better disaster preparedness, speedy emergency response, and faster recovery time,” said Tan.
Dr. Ramachandran pointed out in his message that UNDP will remain committed to assisting national and local governments in building resilient communities, and in strengthening their adaptive capacity to climate-related natural hazards: “I…would like to commend the [DICT’s proactive stand…that played a key role during ‘Odette’s onslaught],’ and we hope…this joint endeavor will help in coping with future disasters.”
Ticzon also reaffirmed the DICT’s vow to disaster response and improving equal access to emergencies: “[We have a collaborative engagement with UNDP in carrying out disaster response and recovery work toward community resilience, with a goal of improving equal access to sustainable basic service through the provision of various emergency-response equipment. They will enable us to seek recovery, while planning the restoration of bypass services,] infrastructures and other measures in resilience-building.”
In 2022 UNDP delivered the first set of assets and equipment to DICT, including six pick-up trucks, 20 units of mobile radio-communication systems, 40 units of very small aperture terminals or VSATs, 50 units of generator sets, 30 units of rugged tablets, 40 units of satellite phones, and one base transceiver station.
In coordination with DICT’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Division, the items have been distributed among the department’s regional and provincial offices, as well as six severely affected local government units to provide rapid response in terms of emergency telecommunications.
The project aligns with a component of the DICT-UNDP’s “Connectivity, Capability and Resiliency through Free Wi-Fi for All” project, which seeks to improve disaster preparedness and response for emergency connectivity and communications. More disaster communications equipment will be deployed under it, such as generator sets, satellite phones, and base transceiver stations.
Pursuant to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Memorandum Circular 1, series of 2019, the DICT is designated as the lead agency for the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, and is mandated to strengthen the ICT capacities at the national cluster level down to local levels to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of disasters.
Image credits: UNDP