The Department of Social Welfare and Development on Friday said its field offices (FOs) are eyeing more formal agreements and partnerships with local government units (LGUs) to continuously improve disaster response and the prepositioning of relief supplies.

At the DSWD’s Thursday Media Forum on 29 August, resource persons Director Michael Joseph Lorico of DSWD National Capital Region and Regional Director Venus Rebuldela of DSWD Central Luzon field office 3 both recognized the importance of forging partnerships with LGUs to speed up the delivery of relief supplies during disasters.

“To amplify our disaster response, what we are doing is strengthening our partnership with local government units. In fact, we will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the Navotas LGU. We forwarded the MoU so we could start the process of prepositioning,” Lorico said during the forum held at the DSWD Central Office’s new press center in Quezon City.

According to Lorico, the MoU with Navotas will allow the NCR field office to preposition relief goods in a storage facility in the city. Navotas was among the areas that was hard to reach at the height of the recent typhoon “Carina.”

“We are now processing and coordinating MoUs and memorandums of agreement for the prepositioning of food packs and non-food items with other LGUs. During the southwest monsoon and typhoon Carina, one of our biggest challenges was the isolation of certain areas,” Lorico explained.