As one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, the Philippines is handicapped by a chronic lack of resources, poor or non-existent infrastructure, and a far-flung archipelagic geography when dealing with the natural catastrophes that regularly afflict it.
But hard-won experience is also forcing Filipino government administrators and agencies, and their international collaborators, to examine and create new strategies for disaster preparedness, response and mitigation that have important potential applications in other parts of the world.
As the impact of climate change grows ever more marked, the ill-starred Philippines, lying prone and vulnerable at the windswept eastern end of the Pacific, is becoming a hothouse for developing new methods and systems in the growing business of disaster relief. But as super-typhoon Haiyan cruelly demonstrated, it still has a long way to go.
The Philippines averages about 20 typhoons a year, including three super-typhoons plus numerous incidents of flooding, drought, earthquakes and tremors and occasional volcanic eruptions, making it one of the most naturally disaster-prone countries in the world.