UN-WFP hands over disaster relief project to DSWD

The United Nations-World Food Program (UN-WFP) has formally handed over the ownership of a mechanized production system to the Philippine government for the efficient delivery of relief goods in times of disaster.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rolando Joselito Bautista and UN-WFP Country Director Stephen Gluning led the signing of the deed of donation.

The system, which was installed and launched in April, 2016 at the Visayas Disaster Response Center in Mandaue City, Cebu, consists of equipment that automates and streamlines the production of family food packs to allow DSWD to quickly and efficiently

provide relief resources to local government units (LGUs).

The project is one of the results of the strategic partnership between DSWD and UN-WFP aimed at enhancing the emergency response capacity in the Philippines. With its installation, the production rate of family food packs has reached 50,000 packs a day, which is enough to feed 250,000 people for three days.

DSWD saw the usefulness of the machine at the height of recent strong typhoons where the agency was able to deliver almost immediately family food packs because of the efficient and mechanized system. It has also introduced the innovative way of packing goods from plastic to boxes, which is now more convenient and environmentfriendly.

As part of the partnership, the first mechanized production system was installed at the National Resource Operations Center in Pasay City.

Bautista expressed the department’s gratitude for the generosity of UN-WFP but added that “it would be great if we can establish another disaster production center in Mindanao, which we hope that WFP can also help us with.”

Gluning expressed his joy for the realization of the project and said that he looks forward to the continuation of the friendship and partnership. “I think there is a great deal of opportunities in Mindanao and Luzon, and in our continued partnership, it is something we can achieve in the future,” he said.

“The Philippines is a beautiful island state, which has the problem of being located at the ring of fire and is visited by numerous typhoons yearly. With the system, we are now seeing that the impact of natural hazards is being reduced. However, we can still better prepare, better respond, and we can still do more,” he added.

“The reward we get from this partnership is that more affected families will not go to sleep hungry. And for us responders, we can also sleep peacefully knowing that we were able to give the assistance that disaster survivors deserve,” Bautista said.