Picking from where we left off: Community assessment and analysis on gender, health, and climate impacts

by Orland Quesada and Danica Marie Supnet

Editor’s note: Orland Quesada is ICSC’s community outreach officer and gender focal point under the RE-Charge Pilipinas program. Danica Marie Supnet is ICSC’s lead analyst for climate governance and a fellow of the Asian consortium Women and Earth Initiative (WORTH) of the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW). Orland led the team that was deployed in Guiuan, Eastern Samar to conduct community gatherings, with Danica supporting the work online, following an initial round of workshops on gender, health, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and climate under WORTH in March 2021.

A blog on the initial round of workshops preceded this piece which was also written by Orland and ICSC transitions analyst Elainne Lopez.

After back-to-back workshops last March, we are back on the field to continue the gains from the previous activities. The agreement with our local government partner is to expand the community field gathering to support the limitations of the climate risk assessment (CRA). This is needed to further connect gender and health, including sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues, discussed during the workshop’s community interviews and photos. We decided to match the methodology of the CRA with the methodologies of the rapid care analysis (RCA), and adaptive social protection (ASP) to address the limited up-to-date information and reports on gender and health impacts at the community level. This integrated analysis approach (IAA) for planning rounds off the entire workshop design.

Rapid care analysis (RCA) focus group discussion (FGD) on the distribution of care roles as output of the team in the Barangay Banaag roll-out. Photo by community roll-out facilitators.

The good thing is that we are not alone. SIKAT, another civil society partner of Guiuan, led the roll-out of the RCA tools and the discussion on community and household issues of unpaid care work, women empowerment, and sexual reproductive health and rights. Alongside this, we developed the questionnaire for the ASP based on the climate risk assessment (CRM) and climate and disaster risk finance and insurance (CDRFI) work of ICSC to focus on access and availability of services and climate finance to address impacts of climate change at the household and community levels. The local government generously pulled in portions of their gender and development (GAD) fund to support the training and field roll-out financially. Looking back, it seems that the GAD fund is indeed a “cookie jar” – a misconception that connotes funding is diverted to projects not intended for its purpose, but this time, the GAD fund was used in a good and innovative way.

“Unang beses ko itong makadalo sa isang kakaibang proseso. Bilang namumuno sa aking komunidad, mahalaga ang ganitong paraan upang makita ang tunay na kalagayan ng mga tao sa aking komunidad at nang sa ganun ay maisaalang-alang sa pagpaplano maging sa mga programa mula sa lokal hanggang sa mataas na antas ng pamahalaan.”–Hon. Gertudes, Brgy.Chairperson- Brgy. Trinidad

(This is my first time attending a new process. As the leader of our community, this (process) is important to see the realities and state of the people in the community and so programs will be included from the local up to the highest position of the government.)

The lead facilitators prepare for the community roll-out. The focus group discussions (FGDs) were engaging and creative. Photo by community roll-out facilitators.

In addressing the issues of the community, genuine consultation and participation is a must. They must have the platform or space to express and share their issues and the opportunity to identify possible solutions. This was exactly our experience during the field roll-out. Beyond the data gathered, the IAA use innovative and effective strategies that ensure genuine participation of different vulnerable sector from the community create a safe space. The collaboration of community members and local government planners in conducting focus group discussions (FGDs) and consultation with the eight (8) communities is one of the best practices that the WORTH project initiated.

“Bilang empleyado ng Munisipyo, nakita ko ang tunay na kalagayan ng mga nanay lalo na sa panahon ngayon na napakaraming suliranin ang kanilang kinakaharap. Ngunit sa kabila nito, makakapulot tayo ng aral kung paano nila nasurvive ang pang-araw araw na buhay. Dahil sa activity na ito nakita ko ang mga problema at isyu na nararanasan ng mga komunidad mula sa kakulangan ng supply ng malinis na tubig dulot ng pagbabago ng klima. Nakita ko rin kung gaano kaseryoso ang impact ng climate change sa buhay ng tao lalo na sa mga mahihirap”. Clarissa Salas- IAA Facilitator from the Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO)

(As a local government employee, I saw the real conditions of the mothers especially that they are experiencing many difficulties. Despite this, we can learn how they can survive their daily needs. Because of this activity, I saw the problems and issues that community is experiencing from the limitations on the supply of water due to the changing climate. I saw how serious the impact of climate change is in the lives of people especially for the less fortunate.)

From here, the local government planners take in the bigger task to present a comprehensive impact chain analysis and identify adaptation measures to address the identified issues. By expanding the impact chain analysis (ICA) that puts primer to gender and health-SRHR impacts, we were able to emphasize climate change impacts on care work, gender roles and responsibilities, livelihood, sexual reproductive health (SRH) needs, and access to basic health and social services.

These will be integrated into their annual investment plan (AIP), Gender and Development (GAD) plan, and enhancement of their local climate change action plan (LCCAP) as well as the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP)—the local government’s long-term development plan. The municipality of Guiuan incrementally strived for resiliency, and this is reflective of the local government take on their long terms climate responsive development plans. The community data gathering and the enhanced CCAF that we worked on together is a promising step for gender and health-SRHR mainstreaming in local climate resiliency. There’s more work to do of course, and we hope to see these plans implemented in the community.

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