Philippines

David Manalo's organization wants to distribute unique floating generators to provide electricity to people in a remote part of the Philippines.

The theme of this year’s global Development Marketplace – a competitive grant program created by the World Bank – seems particularly relevant to an issue that is all too familiar to developing countries in the East Asia and Pacific region: adaptation to climate change. More than 1,700 submissions were received for the 2009 competition, vying for 25 grants of up to $200,000 each and proposing innovative ways to protect the poor, who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This week, 100 finalists are visiting the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to share their ideas during the cleverly named event: “100 Ideas to Save the Planet.”

I spent some time yesterday walking around the marketplace and meeting a few of the 20 or so finalists representing East Asian and Pacific countries. (The grant winners will be announced Friday. Visit the DM blog for more coverage of this year’s event.) The people I talked to were passionate and eager to share their projects, which are focused on helping people deal with extreme weather that may be caused or worsened by climate change.

Flood affected areas in Metro Manila Region and Rizal Province, Philippines. Hi-res version. Canadian Space Agency Image processing, map created 29/09/2009 by UNITAR/UNOSAT.

Saturday morning, September 26, in Washington, DC: I am driving my daughter to class. I check my Blackberry and see an urgent email from Mukami, our Disaster Management team member in Manila, asking me to call her. (I need to stop reading emails at red lights. It’s probably against the law and it’s certainly obsessive).

I call Mukami on her cell-phone. She says that Manila has seen some of the worst flooding in its history after Typhoon Kestana dumped 16.7 inches of rain in just 12 hours on Saturday. The Government is immediately looking for satellite images to help in the search and rescue efforts. Some World Bank staff were still unaccounted for. She also asks about what other assistance the Bank can offer the Government in the aftermath of this disaster.

Earlier today, the World Bank released its annual Doing Business report, which tracks business regulation reforms and ranks emerging economies on the “ease of doing business.” In East Asia and Pacific, 71 percent of the countries have undertaken at least one positive reform – with Indonesia being the region’s most active reformer, according to the report (pdf). Among other things, Indonesia cut the time required to start a business and the number of days to transfer a property.

A few weeks ago, the World Bank’s migration and remittances team released its latest forecast of global remittance flows, indicating that even fewer migrants from developing East Asian and Pacific countries may be sending home money this year than they predicted in an earlier report. Remittances flowing to countries in the region are now forecast to fall by 5.7-8.8 percent in 2009, according to the report (pdf). Revised 2008 data show China, the Philippines and Vietnam are in the top 10 recipients of remittances among developing countries.

Interestingly, despite indicating falling remittance flows to the East Asia and Pacific region, the outlook states that South and East Asian countries have been relatively strong. There is, of course, a risk of a further slowing down. For example, remittance money flowing to the Philippines appears to still be growing this year. But such positive flows went from 14 percent year-on-year growth in 2007-08 to just 3 percent growth so far in 2009, according to the report.

The report’s authors write that there may be key risks that further threatening global remittance flows to developing countries – including a longer-than-projected financial crisis threatening jobs and income for immigrants in developed countries. However, they write, recovery may come by next year: “We expect that remittance flows to developing countries could decline by 7-10 percent in 2009, with a possible recovery in 2010 and 2011.”

What’s the significance of remittances? One notable example came from blogger Eric Le Borgne last April. Eric pointed out that remittances are a key factor to the economic health of the Philippines, as well as the country’s resilience so far during the global financial crisis.