The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF)
61 members
The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) is the coordinator of private sector efforts in disaster risk reduction and management in the Philippines. PDRF was established in 2009 after Typhoon Ketsana and it complements and coordinates its efforts with the Government and the UN system. It has over 60 members who are organized in clusters and provide support according to their core competencies. PDRF aims to build disaster-resilient communities and businesses through private sector engagement. PDRF promotes learning and development in disaster management, more specifically, business continuity management, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation for PDRF’s network of corporations, micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), communities, and various partner organizations. PDRF also develops and implements programs in the areas of community resilience, recovery and rehabilitation, and research and innovation. During disaster response, the PDRF Emergency Operations Center coordinates the efforts of member companies and ensures that the needs of vulnerable populations are addressed.
PDRF is very active on multiple fronts, for example:
PDRF responded to over 20 crises coordinating private sector’s support during 2016-2020. In 2020, PDRF responded to COVID-19, two typhoons, flooding, and a volcanic eruption.
As part of the COVID-19 response, PDRF and its members provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospitals, supported health care logistics and capacity-building and provided accommodation and ready-to-eat meals for frontline and healthcare workers. Together with partners, PDRF raised US$35 million to fund the distribution of grocery vouchers to 14.2 million people in poor communities in the Greater Metro Manila Area. Moreover, PDRF and its partner organizations supported 77 hospitals and institutions and increased the pandemic management capacities of over 2,100 health workers. In addition, PDRF launched the SIKAP platform, an online business resilience hub, to help MSMEs respond to and recover from COVID-19.
The network also responded to a triple crisis in November: COVID-19 and Typhoons Goni and Vamco. PDRF led the private-sector response, working closely with the Government, the United Nations and other humanitarian actors and visiting affected areas to assess and respond to damage. They deployed vehicles, medical supplies, drinking water, ready-to-eat meals, call and charging booths, relief packs and a team of engineers to restore communications in typhoon-hit areas. Beyond this, PDRF had 17 of its 60 active member companies on confirmed heightened alert status, coordinated at least 14 rescue operations and helped to rescue 67 individuals. The PDRF Emergency Operations Center monitored the situation and shared warnings and daily situational reports to its members. This was assisted by the Hazard and Disaster Analysis for Business Resilience (HANDA), a disaster information management platform based on geographic information system (GIS) mapping.
In addition to crisis response activities, the network reached 7,500 people through its business continuity activities, over 18,300 people via disaster risk reduction activities, supported 400 women micro-retailers in early recovery and provided policy recommendations on how to bolster MSMEs by navigating paths towards recovery and resilience and identifying gaps in these processes.
