Tools, Platforms and Mechanisms to Support Accountability to Disaster-Affected Populations in the Philippines

"Active community participation was undeniably missing in the conceptualisation, implementation and monitoring of the accountability platforms developed in response to Typhoon Haiyan."

This Making All Voices Count research report assesses the publicly accessible, web-based tools, platforms, and mechanisms put in place after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013 in terms of how well they supported, and continue to support, the accountability and transparency of government interventions during disaster responses in the Philippines. It also looks at how these accountability can be further enhanced and replicated both vertically - at all levels of government - and horizontally - with different agencies, sectors, and institutions - to help ensure that accountability and transparency are observed principles during all disaster responses.

From the nine commitments articulated in the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability, the researchers derived the following accountability principles for their data collection tools and analysis, to establish if the responses to Typhoon Haiyan: (1) were appropriate and relevant; (2) were effective and timely; (3) enabled communication, participation, and feedback; (4) addressed complaints; (5) strengthened local capacities; (6) were coordinated and complementary; (7) led to learning and improvement; (8) increased staff effectiveness; and (9) enabled responsible resource management. The research was then implemented using multiple quantitative and qualitative methods. In short, during the period August 29 - September 10 2016, the researchers conducted a survey to evaluate the communities' experiences and perceptions. The (urban) city of Tacloban and the (rural) municipality of Tanauan, Leyte, were selected because they suffered the greatest number of casualties during Typhoon Haiyan and still have transitional shelters for those who lost their homes. After the survey responses were processed, they held focus group discussions in each community to elaborate on specific concerns raised during the survey.

The report describes the Philippines as a disaster-prone country and discusses themes around disaster and accountability in that country. As detailed here, the Philippines has a well-defined legal structure that is conducive to promoting accountability and transparency for disaster risk reduction and management. For instance, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, established under the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Law in 2010 (the Republic Act 10121), was created to establish an enabling environment for government action at all levels, and embed a culture of continued accountability to and communication with people affected by a disaster. In terms of capacity-building and knowledge management for disaster risk reduction (DRR), Section 12 of the Act stipulates that each local disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) office should organise and conduct training and orientation, disseminate information, organise public awareness campaigns, and ensure the maintenance and provision of human resources, equipment, and facilities for DRRM.

Despite these measures, the authors explain that the monitoring and evaluation of progress in terms of disaster response still occurred in silos. Related to this lack of coordinated monitoring and evaluation, accountability and transparency efforts during the response to Typhoon Haiyan were very limited. Among the efforts that did take place were the establishment of the technical working groups for Communication with Communities and Accountability to Affected Populations. The report describes the activities of these two groups, finding that - despite their achievements, the Communication with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network found that, at the local level, there seemed to be overlapping functions; for example, both groups looked at transparency, information provision, participation, and feedback and complaints. The quality of the communications work after Typhoon Haiyan has been found to have been enhanced by the merging of the two technical working groups.

In the spirit of transparency and accountability, and in response to public demand to know where relief resources were being used, the government established several national-level tools, platforms, and mechanisms to enable public reporting. These attempted to record the aid received from various donors for the response to Typhoon Haiyan, as well as the status of relief programmes and projects. A dedicated section of the report features case studies of these tools, platforms, and mechanisms, which include:

• The Office of the Presidential Assistant for Recovery and Rehabilitation - responsible for harmonising the initiatives and efforts of various government agencies and other relevant bodies.
• The Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH) - an online platform to allow the government to track foreign aid for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, and allow the public to look at the status of foreign aid channelled through government agencies. (It was not able to track donations directed to local government units and coming from local donors.)
• eMPATHY - an online e-management platform that listed the rehabilitation projects being implemented by local, national, and foreign groups in areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan. (It failed to ensure that all system users were held accountable for submitting data.)
• The OpenBUB (bottom-up budgeting) portal - a monitoring tool for transparency. (Projects for 2017 were not budgeted in the 2017 General Appropriations Act.)
• Open Reconstruction - a free-to-use public website through which the media, local governments, and individuals can access all kinds of information about projects, including: status; a summary of requests for reconstruction projects; processing times; and costs. (Information must be uploaded regularly to achieve transparency, and all local government units must ensure that they are doing this - but this is not happening due to various reasons, such as a lack of training on how to use the platform.)
• Communication with Communities technical working group and community of practice - As part of the preparedness initiative in this region, the aforementioned Communication with Communities technical working group evolved to become a Community of Practice on Community Engagement in Eastern Visayas. This was done in response to the need for a formal network to mainstream an integrated, coordinated approach to communication, accountability, and community participation, especially in times of disaster. Through this, members could put both technologies (e.g., solar radios) and staff in place days before the typhoon made land. The use of social media and pre-evacuation community consultations and assessments, as well as strong coordination with the local government units, worked successfully after Typhoon Hagupit, according to an assessment made by members of the Community of Practice. Today, the Community of Practice on Community Engagement acts as an inclusive, cross-sector coordination and technical support group that brings together all those working on community engagement.

The researchers analysed these platforms to see if their content observed the nine criteria of the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability. Table 1 on page 22 summarises this analysis. In short, all the platforms evaluated lacked the capacity to assess the quality of disaster responses, particularly in terms of their appropriateness, relevance, effectiveness, and timeliness (criteria 1 and 2). eMPATHY, FAiTH, Open Reconstruction, and OpenBUB allowed relief organisations to submit their reports online. But the information made available in these websites was very general and only provided the "big picture" of the response efforts. As well as disseminating information, most of these tools were also used for monitoring and reporting purposes.

Based on this evaluation, the researchers also assessed other tools, platforms, and mechanisms that were designed to observe accountability and transparency during Typhoon Haiyan. Described individually, they included:

• Organisational websites - one finding: communities rarely access such websites or send inquiries via them - especially during emergencies, when they need real-time information.
• Social media sites - one finding: their use as an accountability platform has limitations. For example, after Typhoon Haiyan, hashtags were often used improperly, and there is no guarantee that the issues raised will be addressed.
• Face-to-face communication - one finding: communities prefer receiving information through interactions such as house-to-house visits or office walk-ins, particularly when people in authority are involved; this type of communication was found to be a good way to encourage the use of feedback mechanisms and provide immediate responses to complaints.
• Mass media - one finding: radio was the preferred and most accessible media channel during the Haiyan response; the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), for instance, used Radio Abante to broadcast, along with several talk shows, the Tindog Kita radio drama. This ten-part radio drama, broadcast five times a week, integrated key information on the most pressing concerns being faced by families and communities with psychosocial support that was achieved through entertainment. At the end of each episode, listeners were encouraged to answer questions through short message service (SMS, or text) and send feedback. (Despite the popularity of some of these shows, communities felt that the mass media was not able to provide them with information as often as they wanted or needed.)
• Targeted campaigns - described here is the Pamati Kita (Let's Listen Together) campaign by the IOM, World Vision International, and Plan International.

Sharing the results of the survey, the result moves discusses community experiences of transparency and accountability during Typhoon Haiyan. In short, the research found that these tools, platforms, and mechanisms did increase the information provided to communities and receive feedback from them, but that monitoring and evaluation of the services being delivered to communities was not often taking place. It also found that the unexpected magnitude of recent typhoon events in the Philippines overwhelmed service delivery, particularly in local government units. Overall, emergency response mechanisms, and the governance of these, were chaotic. The researchers explain that the previous administration had promoted accountability and transparency, highlighting the importance of these in the design of the tools, platforms, and mechanisms created in response to Typhoon Haiyan. But in reality, those that were created were merely used for increasing transparency: There was no accountability framework which government agencies could adhere to and use as a guide to render themselves accountable to people during and after disasters. There is no effective mechanism to challenge local officials who violate procedures or fail to deliver promised services. There are several laws concerning public officials, and cases can be filed against them, but in most cases corruption remains at the level of rumour, and litigation cases are rarely filed.

To improve access to information during and after disasters, respondents suggested that dissemination should be more localised. For example, barangay officials and local community leaders should be mobilised to provide accurate information to their communities. They wanted information to be provided through bulletins, house-to-house information campaigns from official sources, and via local news networks.

The report examines common challenges in achieving accountability. These include, in short, issues related to: limited spaces for people to receive immediate action in response to their complaints; achieving coordinated and complementary responses; effective management of resources; missing accountability criteria; and accountability to non-beneficiaries.

Furthermore, the research strongly recommends that the implementation of Republic Act 10121 should clearly define what accountability to disaster-affected communities is, including concrete measures to ensure accountability at all levels, and outline the checks and balances that all humanitarian agencies and other actors need to implement when providing disaster relief. The authors recommend that the Philippines creates an 'accountability during disasters' framework that will allow government and non-government agencies to apply the necessary revisions in current policies that will improve the delivery of their services during and after future disaster events. It is important, they say, for the national DRRM agencies to involve local government units, community leaders, and community-based DRRM organisations in the development of this framework, to ensure that communities' voices are heard and integrated into this.

The relevance of the government's online platforms, such as eMPATHY and FAiTH, during and after disaster events remains open to question, according to the report, especially in terms of whether they are being used by the public as intended. To that end, there must be a thorough discussion among different stakeholders on the usefulness and sustainability of having online accountability tools used during disaster response efforts. While the Community Engagement Community of Practice offers a process for establishing and running such online communications platforms in the future, there are a number of considerations for the Community of Practice to manage these platforms. In the final analysis: "It is not enough to be transparent. What is crucial is how people can use information to make the power holders aware of what should be done and enforce actions."