QUEZON CITY, Mar. 5 -- The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), in partnership with the World Bank (WB) launched the Ready to Rebuild program today, 4 March 2021 live through the ZOOM platform and joined by representatives from local chief executives across the country, NDRRMC member-agencies, representatives from the pirvate sector and media partners. “The Ready to Rebuild Program is the perfect opportunity for us to capacitate ourselves more to better serve our constituencies, empower our communities against the calamities and disasters, and enable ourselves to save lives and livelihoods,” said National Defense Secretary and NDRRMC Chairman Delfin Lorenzana. The Ready to Rebuild Program, developed by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) with support from the World Bank, aims to increase the capacity of local government units (LGUs) and their technical staff in post-disaster recovery. This includes developing local pre-disaster baseline data needed for rehabilitation and recovery planning, local disaster risk financing strategy to guide the financing of recovery, and draft local rehabilitation and recovery program which can be updated by LGUs based on the impacts of disasters.