1. Executive Summary
1.1. Context
Typhoon Pablo (known in the Philippines as Bopha) made landfall on the island of Mindanao early on 4 December 2012 bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 210 km/h (130mph) which caused almost 1,150 casualties as well as extensive damage to housing and infrastructure, including power supply and communications. In addition to frequent natural disasters, Mindanao suffers from ongoing internal conflict between the government and armed groups, which has contributed to multiple and prolonged displacements, with 67,846 individuals estimated to be displaced on the island as of June 2013. The Department for Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has coordinated the shelter response on a regional level since December 2012, with support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) until May 2013.
Provincial level coordination has been undertaken through the Build Back Center in Davao Oriental; the provincial Shelter Cluster in Compostela Valley; and the Office of the Governor in Agusan del Sur. Technical coordination support is being provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
To guide the response, the Shelter Cluster provided a Shelter Emergency Strategic Operational Framework on 20 December 2012, which was replaced by the Shelter Recovery Strategic Operational Framework on 17 May 2013. The frameworks were developed in cooperation with the Build Back Center in Davao Oriental; the provincial Shelter Cluster in Compostela Valley; and the DSWD.
1.2. About the evaluation
The present shelter sector response evaluation was carried out eight months after Typhoon Bopha struck eastern Mindanao.
Commissioned by the Global Shelter Cluster (GSC), the objective was to evaluate the sector response and its impact on household recovery following the disaster. Remaining gaps and lessons learned were identified with a view to inform the current and future shelter sector responses. The performance of the shelter cluster coordination team was not assessed during this evaluation.
Building on previous assessments and on information collected by the Philippines Shelter Cluster, the evaluation focused mainly on the outputs and outcomes of the shelter response. Information pertaining to impact evaluation was also gathered during the field collection exercise, in order to help informing the impact evaluation framework under development by the GSC, the findings of which will be highlighted in a different document.
Lead by a REACH specialist, the evaluation was conducted by an interagency shelter cluster team with financial support by the Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAid).