More than 30 city planners and academic institution representatives from Cagayan de Oro (CDO), Iligan and Davao Oriental convened in Tagaytay City to participate in a week-long training seminar held by the Climate Change Commission under Project Climate Twin Phoenix.

The capacity building training seminar entitled “Training of trainers on DRR/CCA for Local Partners” aims to empower its participants to become trainers on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation for their respective areas as part of enabling the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan to bounce back from the Sendong tragedy last December 2011.

Project Climate Twin Phoenix, funded by the United Nations Development Programme and Australian AID, officially launched on Dec. 11, 2012, is the Climate Change Commission’s response to the climate-impacts suffered by the CDO and Iligan cities. The project, which will be implemented until June 2014, seeks to address the institutional capacity and individual competency gaps on climate/disaster risk management of stakeholders in CDO and Iligan cities; and put in place a river basin-wide institutional network to address increasing risks from climate change.

The training is part of the project’s third of six outputs, Awareness Raising and Capacity Building. Under Output 3, skills, knowledge and appreciation of all local stakeholders on climate and disaster risks, climate change, disaster preparedness, mitigation and reduction are enhanced. This ensures that people, institutions, structures and government are better prepared to prevent and cope with disasters in the future, while at the same time working towards reducing risks and building resilience.

“This activity is an integral part of one of the project’s outputs, which aims to increase the capacity of local leaders against climate impacts which is also one of the strategic priorities of our National Climate Change Action Plan” Climate Change Commission Deputy Executive Director Joyceline Goco said. “After this training, we would want to develop a core group of trainers in the local academic partners and selected key project stakeholders who will provide technical expertise and assistance to other project stakeholders and partners at the local level,” Goco added.

Among the topics to be discussed are geologic and hydro-meteorological hazards in the country, climate change sectoral vulnerability and adaptation assessment, basics of disaster risk assessment, disaster risk reduction-climate change adaptation mainstreaming into development planning, and the National Climate Change Action Plan.

(Source: Climate Change Commission)