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Journal of Social Sciences

Publication Date

2015-01-01

Abstract

The increasing frequency of disaster risks due to natural hazards such as typhoons that hit the Philippines over the past years has become a major concern of disaster risk reduction managers especially in the Province of Albay - a typhoon highway of the country. Local and national legislations have begun to address this issue by means of capacitating the local government units (LGUs) so that communities can prepare, respond and recover (better) from the impact of disasters. The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of the government-led education program through the 'Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Training Institute', most commonly known as the 'Climate Change Academy', to the overall disaster risk reduction processes for community resilience building in Albay. To be able to substantiate the Academy's contribution, this paper used the socio-ecological model of change and organizational behavior concept to evaluate the factors that contribute to behavioral changes of the staff of LGUs who underwent the training as well as changes in their workplace policies and practices as a result of the training program. Following this, these changes were explained further by looking at how the concept of education for disaster risk reduction (EDRR) was carried out in the Academy's training program in order to help achieve the desired results in terms of building the capacities of the LGUs. For this paper, data was collected mainly through a tracer study of 11 former participants of a particular training activity and in-depth interviews with different individuals who are directly or indirectly related to the Academy. It was argued in this paper that capacities and skills were built and that positive changes in the participants' behavior were observed after undergoing the training in the Academy and that these changes have been helpful in reducing disaster risks in their respective communities, which in effect contributed to the community resilience building effort of the Province of Albay.

First Page

123

Last Page

147

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