By Jamie Kemsey

On Nov. 8 in 2013, one of the strongest storms on record swept through the Pacific, leaving a broad scar of untold devastation in its wake. Supertyphoon Yolanda battered the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam, damaging more than 280,000 homes and leaving 1.9 million people homeless. The Philippines bore the brunt of the superstorm, with 6,300 people dead and destruction totaling $14 billion. And in the direct path of Yolanda was Tacloban, in Leyte, Eastern Visayas, which was almost entirely flattened.

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As Tacloban rebuilds, there are greater challenges and uncertainties yet to come. The effects of climate change are here: The last five years have been the warmest on record, and hotter days, higher seas and heightened disasters will become the norm in the years to come. The Paris Climate Agreement, the international community’s response to climate change, is a beacon of hope, but cannot be counted on to filter down to Tacloban and other urban and rural areas in danger.

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The unpredictability of the climate, and related disasters, clearly demand an urgent response from communities from Miami to Mumbai, including Tacloban and the whole archipelago. However, the Stockholm Environment Institute’s initiative on Transforming Development and Disaster Risk has concluded that the rush to “build back better” from climate-related disasters often falls prey to current dominant development models that focus on short-term economic growth, in addition to short-term relief, at the expense of long-term resilience and adaptation that will help communities better face disasters and reduce their future risks. Short-sighted development projects can, in many cases, act as the root cause of disasters.

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This transformation will require challenging existing structures, power relations, vested interests and dominant narratives that not only profit from “business as usual,” but can also perpetuate poverty, inequality and marginalization. In Tacloban, coastal communities were resettled in sites constructed by the government and other donors in Tacloban North, after the government’s decision to establish no-build zones in the city’s coastal areas post-Yolanda. While the strategy may have succeeded in moving people out of harm’s way, the resettlements also displaced many of North Tacloban’s farmers, in some cases leading to their eviction. Some of the farmers have been evicted two or three times, the displacements thus creating more instability for land rights that were already insecure prior to the typhoon.

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