Disasters and anecdotes
Born in Hong Kong but now a Canadian citizen, Catherine Bragg certainly knows about displacement. But in her work as assistant secretary-general and deputy emergency relief coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations, she works with people all over the world for whom displacement is often a jolting, shuddering development, born of natural or man-made disasters.
In the country this week for a short visit, Bragg visited Mindanao for the first time and there found Filipinos for whom displacement was not a single traumatic event, but in her words a “protracted humanitarian crisis, brought about by years of armed conflict and other forms of violence, as well as recurring national disasters.”
She visited communities in Central Mindanao “where people have been displaced repeatedly over several years, and saw projects assisting them, as well as people who have recently been able to return to their home communities.” Indeed, she found that the situation in Mindanao remains dire, with an estimated 700,000 people in need of “humanitarian relief, protection and livelihood support … particularly in conflict- and flood-affected areas.”
One of those she met during her visit, said Bragg, was a woman in Datu Piang who, with her four children, “had been displaced by armed conflict twice in the last five years.” When recurring floods threatened their present location, “although her family’s original home was only seven kilometers away, the security situation meant they could not return, and their old family home no longer existed.”
While some families have been able to return home, she added, “their situation remains precarious, and risks such as ‘rido,’ conflict and natural disasters are very real.”
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Bragg wasn’t here for just sightseeing. Part of her work in OCHA is to assess the needs of disaster-prone areas, coordinate the work of other UN agencies and international NGOs, and raise funds for the action plans they devise.
For Mindanao, the UN and partners appealed last year for $33.3 million for a Humanitarian Action Plan. “The plan is currently 54 percent funded,” she told a media gathering, and next year, “an action plan for $37.9 million that prioritizes protection activities will be launched.”
While OCHA’s work would seem to be needed only when disaster or emergencies strike, Bragg seems aware that there are many things both government and civil society can do to stave off a crisis. “Unfortunately,” she noted, “people will continue to need humanitarian aid as long as conflict and violence deprive them of the opportunity to rebuild their lives.”
Another argument is for the deployment of resources now in conflict-affected areas while there is still time and peace to allow survivors to pick up the pieces and begin anew, free from the shadow of violence and of social unrest.
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At the National Media Consultation Forum on CCT Implementation last Wednesday, many of the provincial media cited “stories” about beneficiaries pawning their cash cards—which would entitle them to up to P1,400 a month if they meet conditionalities tied to health and education for their children—in exchange for discounted amounts ahead of the scheduled disbursement.
Assistant Social Welfare Secretary Parisya Taradji, deputy project director of the “4 P’s,” the name by which the conditional cash transfers are known, raised the point that out of 2.2 million families served, “there have been only 25 cases of pawning of cash cards.”
This brought up the question of when and where media should base their conclusions about the success or failure of a government project. Do we rely on “widespread evidence-based successes or anecdotal failures”?
When do anecdotes count as evidence? When they accumulate into a critical mass? When they are documented and verified?
On the other hand, project managers ignore “anecdotal evidence” at their own risk. Should the DSWD, for instance, wait for a sufficient number of incidents like cash card pawning, diversion of money into unintended goals (like gambling and drinking), or the interference of politicians, to grow before they do something about it? Even if unreliable, anecdotes could indicate a growing trend, or an alarming development.
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One participant from Mindanao also pointed out a flaw in the way the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program has been communicated in some areas. When motivating the beneficiaries, he said, some local officials choose to focus only on the money they will receive, threatening the stoppage of the cash grants if families don’t bring their children to health centers or monitor their school attendance. “But instead of using money as the motivation, why don’t they use the aspect of social transformation” to convince beneficiaries, he suggests. Even poor people, after all, realize the link between personal behavior and common good.
According to Taradji, so far surveys show a generally positive outcome in areas where the “4 P’s” is being implemented. A Social Weather Stations “spot check” of the program found that 95 percent of the children had improved school attendance, there was 84 percent compliance with the health conditions, including 81 percent immunization rate, and the cash grants were being used “properly.”
Among the beneficiaries, there was a high awareness of the conditionalities and a high compliance rate. In other words, they knew what the cash transfers were for, and were willing to honor the commitment they made when they became part of the program. They kept their word. As one beneficiary declared: “Kaming mahihirap meron rin kaming dignidad (We the poor also have dignity.)”
