25 April 2014- “Yolanda (Haiyan) has taught all of us valuable lessons.”

This is what Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, said during the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Meeting last April 16 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva which discussed Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and lessons for improving the response to large-scale, sudden onset natural disasters.

Members of the IASC acknowledged that it is the enabling environment created by the Philippine government which allowed the international humanitarian community to learn from their on-the-ground engagement, participation and response to a difficult and complex Level Three (3) emergency situation embodied by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). Lessons learned  from Typhoon Yolanda will allow them to improve systems in place, identify gaps on their response and build their capacity to address current and future similar crises situations.

Ambassador Rebong assured the IASC that the Philippines has a long-term strategy for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda, based on RAY, and that partners in the international community who are willing to assist in its implementation are welcome.

The IASC Meeting brought together international humanitarian actors in Geneva, and via phone patch, those in New York and Rome as well as the international donor community through the Humanitarian Liaison Working Group at the experts’ level.

IASC members who were present at the meeting were the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM),  International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC), International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Food Program (WFP) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Caritas International, Medecins Sans Frontieres, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and others. END