Enabling Human Rights-Centered Approach in Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction in Tacloban City, Philippines

Small Research Grant – 250,000 THB (1 year)University Affiliation: University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College

Research objectives

1. To identify how human-rights based approaches are integrated in post-disaster housing reconstruction by different actors (NGO, State and Private Sector) in Tacloban City, Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.
2. To identify the factors that facilitate and/or impede the application of a human -rights based appraoch in post-disaster reconstruction practices in Tacloban City, Philippines.
3. To understand how the integration (or lack thereof) of HRBA affect the gender rights of women in post-disaster housing sites.

 Significance of research

This research project aims to uncover how human rights-based approaches to post-disaster housing reconstruction is practiced in Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines. This is an important human rights issue since the context of disaster risk management is dominated by top-down approaches that privileges technocratic and expert solutions. There is a tendency during the different phases of disaster risk management to marginalize voices and solutions emanating from the people on the ground, thereby constituting serious violations to the right to participation in the project design of resettlement and housing projects at all phases. There is also a pragmatic objective in enacting a human-rights based approach since the incorporation of community participation centered on the upholding of the human rights of disaster affected persons can increase the viability and sustainability of post-disaster resettlement projects.Personal bio Mr. Dakila Kim P. Yee is an Instructor of Sociology affiliated with the Division of Social Sciences, the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. He is also a Master of Arts in Sociology student at the Department of Sociology, University of the Philippines Diliman. In 2016, he was selected as Asian Graduate Student Fellow (2016) at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore. His current thesis research analyses the production of neoliberal spaces and subjectivities in Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. He has published in international and Philippines-based publications on the issues of land use politics, environmental sociology, and the sociology of disaster. Some of his recent articles will appear on the journal Critical Asian Studies and an edited volume on Disaster Justice in Anthropocene Asia published by MIT Press.