The Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has released the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild web programme, which will allow local government units (LGUs) affected by disasters to prepare restoration and recovery plans (RRPs) promptly.
“This app, which will systematically generate RRPs using science-based information and Pro-forma templates, will significantly help LGUs plan for quick and resilient recovery,” says Undersecretary Raymundo Ferrer, Administrator, Office of Civil Defense and Executive Director, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
The PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild web application is an automated planning tool designed to revolutionise the disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) planning processes in the country by assisting the government, particularly LGUs with disaster preparedness.
Undersecretary Raymundo stated that they applaud the development of the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app and its support capacity-building programme as tools for the nation’s LGUs that are at the forefront of disaster risk mitigation and management.
He added that the goal of PlanSmart is to make the Philippines a geospatially enabled place where data, time, and location can all be looked at together for better analysis and decision-making.
The app speeds up the process of making RRPs and helps people make decisions and plan for disasters based on facts.
The app was launched by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center (NDRRMC), and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in collaboration with the World Bank.
It is a spinoff of the GeoRiskPH Integrated Platform, which was made by DOST, and the Ready to Rebuild (R2R) Programme, which is run by OCD. LGUs can use a Pro-forma document template to automatically make an RRP.
The World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery (GFDRR) strongly back this effort led by the national government partners. They are also glad to hear that the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app is just the first in a series of planning tools that are being made on the PlanSmart platform.
This is a chance to keep talking about how important it is to have access to risk information to support comprehensive hazard and risk assessments and the sharing of data between national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and the public for science-based planning and investment programmes.
The launch of PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild also marks the start of capacity-building activities that will help LGUs, especially data managers, DRRM officers, planning officers, and other staff who work on disaster recovery and rehabilitation programmes, use the app to make their own local RRPs.
LGUs are urged to use the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild app in all aspects of their local disaster risk management processes, mechanisms, and strategies, including recovery and rehabilitation, readiness, response, and prevention.
Using the PlanSmart Ready to Rebuild tool effectively and quickly, LGUs are also encouraged to populate the baseline data in the GeoRiskPH Integrated Platform to improve the database.
Moreover, the training programme plans to equip more than 400 trainees from 137 LGUs in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Bicol, Central Visayas, and Caraga during its pilot run.
LGUs participating in the pilot run will include R2R Programme graduates, those with existing GeoRiskPH Memorandum of Agreements with DOST-Phivolcs, and those located in areas identified as vulnerable to the effects of climate change and disasters by the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction.
