Influencing in Emergencies: A joint after action review

Nearly two years since typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines, advocacy teams from ActionAid, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision take a step back to evaluate their respective advocacy engagements.

This report puts together what different agencies saw as strengths and successes in their respective advocacy work. It looks at gains in achieving both formal policy changes and behaviour changes of relevant sectors or communities. It also reflects on key challenges encountered, key lessons learned at different levels that were engaged (national and local), and the various implementation mechanisms utilized (direct, through partners, through consortia).

This report makes a strong case for advocacy in humanitarian work in the Philippines by highlighting how it has become instrumental in pushing for key reforms after Haiyan. Effective advocacy is critical in bridging reforms that should cut across both the humanitarian and development phases. It is likewise significant in hastening recovery and building resilience.

Moreover, this report also highlights that there is much more that needs to be done. Best practices and areas for improvement are appropriate cues for moving forward, and are significant for forming the future agenda not just for the agencies involved in this study, but for all key stakeholders as well.