The report “Faith & Resilience after Disaster” explores the role of faith in building resilience in the context of the response to Super Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda), which made landfall in the Philippines on 8 November 2013, affecting 14 million people, including over 6000 deaths and over 4 million displaced. The report is concerned with the experiences and perspectives of populations affected by the typhoon. The research findings reveal differences in local people’s perceptions of different types of humanitarian organisations. They also reveal some key learning from the faith-based approach to humanitarian relief that could enhance intervention methodologies of secular organisations working in post-disaster settings, particularly those working in contexts with largely religious populations.

Results show that people’s faith can be inextricably woven into their perceptions of resilience. The report focuses only on the Filipino case following Typhoon Haiyan. Its relevance, however, is broadened by discussion of the delineation between faith-based and secular humanitarianism and by the challenge it poses to a narrow, purely technological view of resilience. Resilience is not limited to material, technological and economic concerns, but also includes cultural and faith-based components. If organisations want resilience programmes to be truly relevant and appropriate to the local context, these issues should be taken into account.