This brief gives a rundown of the COVID-19 pandemic’s current and projected impact on agriculture and food security in the country and highlights FAO’s response actions and anticipatory interventions to the crisis. It also provides information on the intervention gaps and FAO’s resource requirements to further address these impacts.

The country’s agriculture sector has been affected by pests and diseases such as African swine fever (ASF), avian influenza, and fall armyworm (FAW), as well as by natural disasters, the most recent being Typhoon Vongfong which hit the Philippines in mid-May at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restriction measures have contributed to aggravating existing challenges in the Philippines’ agri-food system – both short-term stresses (such as ASF, FAW and typhoons) as well as long term issues. In the framework of FAO’s Corporate COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme and the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19, FAO will implement humanitarian response activities in 2020 to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and address the needs of the most vulnerable households.

The report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the pilot project entitled “Development of National Food Safety Indicators with a One Health Approach” as presented during the initiative’s concluding workshop held on 27 February.

As indicated in the report, all stakeholders agreed that development of a set of common food safety messagesdeveloped collaboratively is effective, rather than having different pieces from each different agency. The workshop also provided a clear evidence of the need for One Health approach, as highlighted by discussions on common reporting systems and suggestions to include local government agencies as part of the initiative to enhance better food safety assurance
at local and national levels.

This publication highlights the drought early warning work done by the Philippines Country Office and the Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) team which enabled FAO to act over 4 months earlier compared to a standard drought response operation. This model is now being adopted by the government in an effort to extend to other regions, making a further contribution to FAO’s already solid track record in supporting disaster risk reduction efforts in the country.

Moreover, the project’s focus on Mindanao which is a conflict area also provided the opportunity to implement and analyze conflict as well as gender sensitive programming with interesting findings on both aspects. Finally, the project sets a basis for an increased use of social protection systems in the country as a means to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and inclusiveness of anticipatory action and response.

This good practice fact sheet looks at how UAVs contribute to strengthening disaster resilience in the Philippines.

In 2015, the Department of Agriculture (DA) and FAO collaborated to pilot an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-based methodology for pre- and post-disaster assessment in the Bicol and Davao Regions in order to mainstream innovative ways to enhance Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the agriculture sector. As of 2019, all RFOs are equipped and capable of operating fixed-wing or multi-rotor UAVs, which have been used in numerous areas affected by disasters.

This impact brief summarizes and presents the highlights of FAO's major accomplishments/achievements in the Philippines in 2019, through its Country Office, related to its activities, projects, and programmes in its mandate areas of agriculture, fishery, and forestry and guided by its Country Programming Framework 2018-2024.

The brief, which is presented in an easy-to-read, ready-to-print, coffee table book-format, also covers FAO Philippines' initiatives and achievements during the year in the areas of resource mobilization, donor relations, communications, operations, and partnerships.