Lesson Learned: For Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Disaster and Climate Risk Governance in the Philippines
To avoid the vacuum associated with the end of projects, mentoring and monitoring of project partners should be part of the project's withdrawal plan, drawn up by the implementors in partnership with the Local Government Units and the civil society groups working with Persons with Disabilities. In the present case, this provision would have prevented the loss of learning from the project's training and workshops and, at the same time, provided the Organizations of Persons with Disabilities a sense of continuity on the variety of projects they were working on. All Organizations of Persons with Disabilities in the project already have some form of organizational structure, but they must be regularly mentored to continuously improve their representation at the local development council.
This project works to empower people with disabilities to participate in disaster risk reduction approaches in 20 local government units in Cebu Province. It will build capacity for 20 organizations of persons with disabilities to have a real voice in formal community planning processes, with the goal of influencing local government to break barriers, open spaces for inclusion, and encourage at-risk populations to take an active role in disaster preparedness, risk reduction and other community development agenda issues.