Move Up: The Moving Urban Poor Communities Towards Resilience Project

The Moving Urban Poor Communities Towards Resilience Project, or Move Up, held its National Learning Conference last April 11, 2019 at the Diamond Hotel in Manila.The project is funded by the European Civil Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations and is also run by a consortium of international and non-government organizations led by Plan International, together with Action Against Hunger and CARE with ite local partner ACCORD.

For its first phase, the project focused on three cities prone to natural and manmade calamaties, Quezon City, Malabon and Valenzuela. On its second phase, it expanded to include Navotas and Caloocan. The project aims to empower and assist communities to become more resilient against the adverse impacts of various hazards both by nature and man-made such as fires, earthquakes and typhoons. The project focused on three main areas of intervention;

*designing and employing alternative temporary shelters

*providing mechanisms and strategies for resilient and sustainable livelihood

*sharing latest innovations and technologies on different risk transfer modalities. 

In its third phase, the Move Up Resilient Model is now being replicated in Cebu City and Cotabato City. The conference brought together key stakeholders in building resiliency of urban poor communities as an initiative for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The conference also presented the project’s urban resilience strategies developed and implemented in five cities in Metro Manila, review successes, better understand challenges for further refinement and scale, and to recommend policy innovations to enhance and mainstream current services essential to building resiliency.  

One of the Move Up initiatives is the Alternative Temporary Shelter or ATS that ensures survivability for the communities, at the onset and or aftermath of a disaster, providing them with safe and adequate and dignified alternative temporary shelter.  

 Resilent Livelihoods

SAMANAPO or Samahan ng mga Nanay na Nagbabayong sa Potrero, making of fashionable, durable and creatively designs "bayong", they have chosen this livelihood since the raw materials are easily available in their area.

Pentecostal Harvest Development Association's efforts include rice vending and and selling grocery items and home-made products.  

The Community Savings Group (CSG), One Tatalon in Quezon City, the first group that the Move Up Project organized in 2017. The group is made up of 12 women, mostly senior citizens and single moms, who started their business enterprise on soap making, detergent soap and dishwashing liquid allowing them to earn and augment their income.

Move Up Project conducts various efforts to enhance and expand the implementation of different alternative livelihood options such as risk transfer mechanisms. Risk mitigation initiatives enhance and expand the livelihood options of the targeted communities. The risk transfer mechanisms will provide the communities and local government units the capacity to bounce back after a disaster.