ACTIVITY 4: CONJUNCTION LOCATOR:
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A series on localization: How the Philippines is quietly implementing a more localized COVID-19 humanitarian response.

Considering the limitations in resources and capacities to sustain the provision of COVID-19 humanitarian assistance to the affected population in the Central Visayas Region, a convergence of Cebu City-based local non-government and civil society organizations (LNG/CSOs) is seeking urgent financial support from the United Nations (UN), International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs), donors and other Humanitarian Funding Groups and Networks (HFGNs) present in the country.

Hence, more than four months since the declaration of the lockdown and enhanced community quarantine last March 2020, the Zero Extreme Poverty (ZEP) 2030 Cebu Convergence of LNGOs/CSOs warned that COVID-19 exacerbated existing vulnerabilities of affected communities, which are receiving but minimum support and, in most cases, have received nothing at all. Furthermore, if this situation continues in the next coming months, ZEP said in a joint statement, there will be a humanitarian crisis across hard lockdown areas in Central Visayas.

Pertinently, As of 04 August 2020, there are 16, 145 confirmed cases in the entire Central Visayas, with Cebu City alone recording 9, 075. Thus, the spike in numbers puts Cebu City and other at-risk areas in Central Visayas as a new hotspot of COVID-19 cases in the country. Cebu City now has more cases than Manila's largest city, Quezon City, which has about 6, 880. It is also outpacing other cities in terms of the number of cases according to the Department of Health (DOH). Since July, the DOH, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), is sending more doctors and other resources to Cebu City as many patients are on waiting lists, considering all major hospitals are close to reaching full capacity. Even big hospitals in Cebu City that handle coronavirus cases are now facing challenges in managing the surge of local transmission cases. In the last week of June, Cebu City, with a population of nearly 1 million, was placed again under strict stay-at-home orders.

However, the dwindling provision of lifesaving aid, limited access to financial support and other livelihood opportunities prompted seven LNGOs/CSOs and one private organization under the ZEP Convergence to call for action to support as they struggled to supplement local government’s response and recovery interventions to support isolated and affected families. The said convergence is comprised of the following organizations: Central Visayas Network of NGOs (CENVISNET), Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors, Inc. (FORGE), A2D Project-Research Group for Alternatives to Development, Impact, Coalition for Better Education, Inc. (CBE), Cebu University of Southern Philippines Foundation - Community Extension Services (USPF-CES), FundLife Philippines and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI).

With a development goal of uplifting one million Filipino families from extreme poverty, the ZEP Convergence was established in Cebu last August 2019. However, early this year, the priority of the most of the LNGOs and CSOs members has dramatically shifted to the immediate provision of emergency support to the COVID-19 severely affected communities in the Metro Cebu and other urban cities in Central Visayas.