An innovative emergency response roster was launched this week in Manila. On Call is an initiative of the Transforming Surge Capacity project in the Philippines. The roster aims to improve emergency response in the Philippines through collaboration and by linking local, national and international responders more effectively.
The roster is the first of its kind and provides a pool of skilled, trained and experienced people who can be deployed across the Philippines to support emergency responses by any agency.
So far 30 organisations, including humanitarian NGOs and professional associations such as the Philippines Medical Association, have signed up to the roster. 340 individuals are already registered as roster members and more are expected to join. This will make On Call the central hub for civil society surge in the Philippines. The coordination of deployments from the roster will be facilitated through the innovative technology platform EMALSYS to ensure additional staff capacity reaches partners quickly and efficiently in a disaster.
In the long term, this roster is aiming not only to improve how emergency staff are deployed to disaster sites, but also revolutionise how emergency response planning is conducted in the Philippines.
Jing Pura from Christian Aid, who coordinates the Philippines platform of the project, shares: “We would like to grow this community of humanitarian organisations and individual roster members in terms of skill set and geographic spread. The aim is that at any point in tie, when we need people to assist disaster-affected communities, we can mobilise responders closest to the ground and closest to the people who need assistance, because they would be familiar with the context, culture and actors, and can quickly assess needs, impacts and identify workable solutions.”