Typhoon Haima is expected to intensify into a super typhoon as strong as Typhoon Haiyan before hitting northern Philippines tomorrow morning. As many as 2.7 million people may be affected by the typhoon across seven provinces.
The government has not made an international call for assistance yet. However, Start Network agencies in the Philippines have been monitoring the situation and are in discussions on the capacities that may be used to support the government response if needed.
Start Network members in the Philippines have been working to improve coordination on humanitarian response through the Philippine INGO Network (PINGON), which engages with the Humanitarian Country Team.
The Transforming Surge Capacity project has been providing support to further enhance collaboration and localization through the development of a shared roster at the national level in the Philippines to create a pool of skilled, trained and experienced individuals who can be deployed across the Philippines to support emergency responses. The project has also connected international and national NGOs to form a national platform for localized surge.
This is the first collaborative roster in the Philippines and consists of experienced NGO staff and former staff, technical specialists from the public and private sectors and individuals from voluntary organisations, thereby providing NGOs with a large pool of individuals to meet their human resources needs in a range of sectors such as WASH, food security and livelihoods, health, shelter and others.