Making its first landfall in the afternoon of 16 December 2021, Super Typhoon Rai, locally known as Odette, pummeled coastal communities across 11 out of 17 regions of the Philippines. More than three months since, the impact of Super Typhoon Rai is spread across several islands with diverse geographic characteristics and limited resilience. After nine landfalls, the typhoon damaged over 2.1 million houses destroying 426,000 altogether, affected 533,000 farmers and fishermen by destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of coconut trees and crops, and damaging 8,000 fishing boats.

Within a few days, on 24 December, the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) allocated US$12 million of humanitarian funds to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the most affected people in the provinces of Surigao Del Norte, Dinagat Islands, and Southern Leyte. CERF is one of the fastest and most effective ways to ensure that urgently needed humanitarian assistance reaches people caught up in crises. With OCHA providing coordination support, the funding channeled through IOM, UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP allowed the UN and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) to kick-start relief efforts immediately in a coordinated manner, alongside local actors such as the government and civil society organizations.

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The Humanitarian Country Team launched the revised Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan for Typhoon Rai/Odette. The revised HNP reflects our new understanding of the scale and extent of the damage wrought by the typhoon, which severely affected almost 10 million people.

The revised HNP targets 840,000 people, up from 530,000 in the original HNP, and calls for $169 million/ PHP 8.6 billion to meet these needs, complementing extensive Government-led efforts.

The Government has launched a massive, rapid response. But the scale of needs means seven weeks after the typhoon, nearly 144,000 people remain displaced; and 1.7 million houses, 16,000 schools and 330 health clinics have been damaged or destroyed. Over 10 million hectares of crops were affected and 80 municipalities are still experiencing power outages or disruptions.

The typhoon hit the Philippines following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic which had already heightened the vulnerability of many communities.

The revised HNP will address needs in Caraga and Southern Leyte as well as in two additional areas of Region VII: Bohol and Cebu.  The top response priorities for the six-months plan are shelter, food security and agriculture, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), protection and early recovery. Support for education is also prominent. 

Overview

Making its first landfall in the afternoon of 16 December 2021, Typhoon Rai, locally known as Odette, brought torrential rains, violent winds, mudslides, floods and storm surges to central-southern Philippines, specifically the Visayas and Mindanao Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 195km/h and gustiness of 260km/h. Typhoon Rai rapidly intensified from a Category 2 typhoon to a Category 5 in less than 12 hours before landfall, and 16 million of people were affected and 2.4 million people were in need of assistance.

It has been over 100 days since Typhoon Rai pummeled coastal communities across 11 out of 17 regions of the Philippines. The typhoon damaged over 2 million houses destroying 424,000 altogether, affected 533,000 farmers and fisherfolk by destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of coconut trees and crops, and damaging 8,000 fishing boats.

In support of the government-led response, the Philippines Humanitarian Country Team developed a Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan to meet the needs of the affected population in CARAGA, Southern Leyte, Bohol, Cebu and with specific Cash Voucher Assistance (CVA) component in Palawan. Response and recovery efforts are ongoing.

The entire humanitarian community has made great efforts to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people. As recently stated by the Government, the response phase is now over, and the early recovery phase has begun. Some of the response activities will continue until the end of June with the aim of addressing residual needs and ensuring a smooth transition and sustainable solutions.

Several challenges and best practices have been identified. However, it is necessary to continue strengthening the humanitarian model through advocacy, participation and localization of our actions. Climate change increases the risk in the country, accentuating the levels of vulnerability to the continuous occurrence of disasters, such as the recent impact of Tropical Storm Agaton in the areas recently affected by Typhoon Odette.

For the development of resilient communities, it is necessary to generate a risk culture with the awareness and participation of all stakeholders. Art as a form of expression is a means of communicating to the general public how and why humanitarian actors and development agencies do what we do.

Objective

Organize a photography exhibition covering the six months of the typhoon’s impact, highlights the whole-of-society humanitarian response, and features the stories of affected people getting on with rebuilding their lives.

Support the nexus between humanitarian action and early recovery as part of development, increasing the visibility, accountability of all response interventions of humanitarian partners in support of the Government, as well as mobilizing resources for the challenges already identified to ensure sustainability in our actions.

Expected outcomes

• Commemorate the humanitarian community's six months of support to the government in the areas affected by Typhoon Odette, as part of the activities linked to theWorld Humanitarian Day.

• Promote accountability for the response actions taken by humanitarian actors to the Odette response.

• Promote awareness among the population about the risk and impact of typhoons in the country.

• Providing accountability in an innovative way that helps to bring the work of the humanitarian community closer to the general population.

• Mobilize resources from the international community to strengthen the nexus and sustainable actions for the most vulnerable people. 

Venue

The photo exhibition is hosted by the Spanish Embassy, the Cervantes Institute and AECID and coordinated by OCHA on behalf of the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) and theHumanitarian Country Team (HCT). 

It will take place at the Cervantes Institute “La Casa Azul” in Intramuros(Plaza Sans Luis complex, General Luna St, Intramuros).

The premiere will take place on 12 July (Odette's six-months on), and the exhibition will be open to the public until 19 August (World Humanitarian Day).

Open call for submissions for the photo exhibition

From 30 May to 10 June COB will be open the deadline for sending photos. The following are invited to participate:

• Local NGOs, CSOs, INGOs, UN agencies, Private Sector involved in the response. 

• Photos that are not submitted through an organization will be excluded from the selection process.

Photo selection methodology

The photo exhibition seeks to show the trace of the typhoon’s impact to the current situation, six months later, with the achievements and challenges that the affected areas and communities face.

The photo exhibition seeks to show the trace of the typhoon’s impact to the current situation, six months later, with the achievements and challenges that the affected areas and communities face.

The exhibition will showcase 4 moments, or categories composed of 3 subcategories aligned with the 2030 Agenda (social, economic, environmental):

1. Aftermath of the typhoon

2. The humanitarian response (first response)

3. Impact of the humanitarian response (6 months on - nexus)

4. Challenges and gaps that remain among affected communities

Each organization/agency may upload a maximum of twelve (12) photos only - 3 photos per category representing social, economic and environmental areas.

Technical information

• Photos must be in color and can be shot using any mobile device or camera.

• Photo manipulation to add or remove content is not permitted. However, cropping photos is allowed.

• Photos should not contain watermarks, any identifying marks, or additional texts.

• The longest side of the photo must be at least 1000 px and preferably 300dpi.Photos must be submitted in JPEG or similar image file types. Participants are encouraged to submit photos in the highest resolution possible (the Google Form accepts image files with a size limit of 100 MB per upload).

• Photo filename must include [Organization name]_[Category number]_[Photo number]

• Photos must include a photo caption and information about the photographer (name and home/commissioning organization). The photo caption must be in English and should contain: (a) description of who is in the photo and what is happening within the photo; (b) location information of where the photo was taken; and (c) description why the photo is significant, which may include a quote, name, and backstory from the subjects in the photo.

• Organizations attest to have consent of photo subjects clearly depicted in the photos submitted.

Platform for photo submission

The Google Form platform will be used to submit the photo(s). Find the access link below:

Odette six months on: open call for submissions

A Google Mail account is required to log in. In case you do not have one, we ask that you manually fill out Annex 1 with the specific information for each photo, and send the information by email to Almudena Montoliú (almudena.montoliu@un.org) and Althea Gonzales (althea.gonzales@un.org).

Photo selection

An impartial panel will review all photos based on the above categories and criteria (relevance to the chosen category, creativity and uniqueness, visual quality, overall impact).

A maximum of 48 photos will be selected for the exhibition. Prints will be made in two sizes, in order to facilitate maximum printing quality. Once the selection process has been completed, we will contact organizations whose submissions were selected.