Lessons From Typhoon Haiyan: Supporting Shelter Self-Recovery in The Philippines

On 8 November 2013 super typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) devastated the central regions of the Philippines. More than 6,000 people lost their lives, 14 million were affected and approximately four million displaced. A total of 1,012,790 houses were damaged or destroyed by the super typhoon.

The humanitarian response to super typhoon Haiyan was significant, and represents the first deliberate and large-scale prioritisation of 'support to self-recovery' in a major shelter response, with the Shelter Cluster's Strategic Operational Framework identifying 'support for household self-recovery' as one of its three strategic objectives.

Over four years after super typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, this briefing summarises the findings from a study of the shelter recovery programmes of six agencies, and goes on to make recommendations, summarised below, for the shelter sector and its agencies about how they can build on these lessons from typhoon Haiyan. Collectively the six programmes included in this study supported 76,407 households or around one-third of the 240,000 households assisted by agencies reporting to the Shelter Cluster during the response to super typhoon Haiyan.