Digital readiness strategy for PH
PUBLISHED by the UN Development Program (UNDP), the Digital Readiness Strategy (DRS) for the Philippines advances the use of digital resources and technologies for disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA) in the Philippines.
The DRS draws from the findings of the Data Governance Study (DGS) organized into two components: first is to measure the institutional capacity of the Prevention and Mitigation (P&M) member agencies using the Digital Disaster Risk Reduction Maturity Model (DDRRMM), and second is to understand or “paint the picture” of the current digital DRRM-CCA landscape in the country by characterizing the flow of data and identifying potential gaps and needs in data-driven decision-making.
The DRS, composed of a threepronged strategy for digital readiness, adopts the technology aspect of the DDRRMM and groups the business processes and enabling environment of the DDRRMM under governance, including a component highlighting people in the system. The latter comes from the findings that there is a significant opportunity to build and strengthen the competencies, capacities, and resources for agency staff and users within the DRRM-CCA ecosystem.
The technology component aims to bolster resources and improve the ICT infrastructure in the DRRM-CCA ecosystem, and integrate and adapt the DDRRMM framework and dashboard as a tool to monitor and guide the digital maturity of stakeholders. While the scope of the study emphasizes the digital ecosystem of DRRMCCA in the Philippines, its overall framework seeks to provide a more comprehensive view and approach to the gaps and challenges, with technology as one of the three overall components.
One significant finding is that insufficient funds limit the procurement of software and hardware as well as the enhancement of skills and competencies. In addition, the study revealed that most respondents of the DDRRMM framework were not familiar with the relevant ISO standards.
As such, one of the central recommendations in the technology component is the establishment of a DRRM system with a centralized and interoperable data warehouse, which will require the allocation of sufficient financial resources to bolster the agencies current information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure. To achieve this, the DDRRMM Dashboard can be leveraged to support and guide agencies in improving their maturity levels across the use of digital resources and tools. This way, government agencies cannot only direct their improvements toward compliance with international standards but also strengthen their coordination, collaboration, and alignment with one another toward this goal.
For instance, a cross-cutting issue for DoST-Pagasa, DoST-Phivolcs, OCD, and UPRI is that there is an insufficient implementation for computing and network infrastructure. This can be enhanced with additional resources for full implementation, performance assessment, and compliance with national standards.
All components (i.e., technology, people and governance) are geared toward working together to ensure that the proposed DRS can be sustained indefinitely despite being dynamic with multiple stakeholders with different mandates or objectives. Under each strategy, the DRS has specific workstreams. The key differentiator of the DRS is its holistic approach to addressing problems.