Urban poor climate resilience-building underway

“The urban poor is highly vulnerable to climate change,” he said on the sidelines of the National Urban Poor Summit in Metro Manila. (File Photo: Noel Kinazo Felongco/Facebook)

MANILA — The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC) are partnering to help the country’s urban poor build resilience to climate change.

Such resilience-building is important, so the urban poor can better cope with and recover from climate change’s impacts, PCUP Chairperson Noel Felongco said on Friday.

“The urban poor is highly vulnerable to climate change,” he said on the sidelines of the National Urban Poor Summit in Metro Manila.

He said it is urgent to help the sector deal with the impacts of climatic changes.

The PCUP refers to urban poor as “individuals or families in urban areas with incomes below the poverty line, as defined by National Statistical Coordinating Board.”

Poverty is among the factors that raise this sector’s vulnerability, as it lacks resources to fend themselves against flooding, drought, and other events caused by the onslaught of extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels.

To build resilience, Felongco said the CCC will conduct this year a training on enhancing the urban poor’s capacity to cope with climate change.

He said the PCUP and the CCC will jointly start implementing next year resilience-building interventions, prioritizing the country’s most poverty-stricken areas, consisting of 40 provinces, 10 municipalities, and 10 barangay settlements.

Felongco said such activities are aligned with the memorandum of agreement that the two agencies signed in Metro Manila this week.

Resilience-building is also in accordance with the PCUP’s 2018-2022 urban poor development plan, he added.

Felongco said the CCC will train urban poor leaders and PCUP area coordinators, so they can disseminate the knowledge gained and train people at the grassroots level.

He said training for the leaders and coordinators may start this September.

He said the training sessions will be in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, including Metro Manila.

Urban poor leaders, who will participate in the training, will be those from PCUP-accredited organizations, Felongco said.

He added the PCUP would also consult with the National Anti-Poverty Commission regarding possible urban poor leader-participants from groups that the agency recognizes.

“We’re open to considering participants from urban poor organizations that are not accredited with the PCUP but are willing to collaborate with us,” Felongco said.

He added the PCUP will also coordinate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and local government units concerned.

“We’re adopting the whole-of-government approach,” Felongco said.

The PCUP-CCC agreement calls for the creation of a technical working group that will assist in the development of climate change adaptation and mitigation programs for the urban poor.

The group “shall be composed of different national government agencies, private institutions, civil society organizations, and people’s organizations,” the agreement read.