Manila is also the center of the ongoing collaboration between private Dutch company Deltares and the Filipino government on the ₱250 million Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan (Dutch institute Deltares to lead crafting of Manila Bay blueprint - Document - Gale General OneFile n.d.). As a vehicle for consolidating the many sustainable development initiatives throughout the city, the Project identifies its goals as follows: 1. Improve water quality; 2. Protect the ecosystem and environmental services; 3. Transition informal settlements to formal housing; 4. Reduce disaster risk and become climate adaptive; and 5. Achieve these goals equitably (Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan n.d.). Its ability to achieve its initiatives is largely dependent upon the existing stakeholder relationships within the city and the ways in which Deltares encourage or exacerbate ongoing collaborations and conflicts.
        Flood management and climate resilience in Manila and in the Philippines at large has been heavily shaped by Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship (1975 to 1986). His approach to severe flood risk throughout the region emphasized the utility of modern weather monitoring technology but failed to address flood preparedness, aggravating the socio-political conditions that worsened the impact felt during flooding disasters (Doberstein, Tadgell, and Rutledge 2020; Hornidge et al. 2020; Warren n.d.). Instead, Marcos historically relied on foreign perspectives (Hornidge et al. 2020; Warren n.d.) and infrastructural projects (T. A. O. Esteban and Edelenbos 2023; Hornidge et al. 2020; Warren n.d.). It is this strategy that informs the country’s recent collaborative efforts with Deltares (Hornidge et al. 2020). 
        Marcos utilized disaster risk management policy as a means to accumulating wealth and establishing political control (Esteban and Edelenbos 2023; Warren n.d.; Hornidge et al. 2020), as illustrated in the creation of Imelda Marcos’ 1975 Metropolitan Manila Commission. The Commission was known for its investment in costly infrastructure projects that fed Marcos’ propaganda campaign in a strategy known as the “edifice complex” (T. A. O. Esteban and Edelenbos 2023; Martial Law Museum n.d.; Villa 2017). The edifice complex is illustrated within the construction of three major flood infrastructure projects in 1984: the Napindan Hydraulic Control Structure, the Parañaque Spillway, and the Manggahan Floodway (T. A. O. Esteban and Edelenbos 2023). Despite major investment and budget expansions of all three projects, two were subject to delays and one was never completed (T. A. O. Esteban and Edelenbos 2023).  
        Marcos’ strategy ultimately forced the task of resilience building to the community level as opposed to applying effective country-wide resilience strategies that bridge the gap between the government and private sectors (T. A. O. Esteban and Edelenbos 2023; Hornidge et al. 2020). The enduring chasm between government and non-government entities is representative of the ways in which flood risk management has been applied throughout the country. This historical recollection is suggestive of Deltares’ role as an illusion of effective policy making as opposed to the real thing (Hornidge et al. 2020). Indeed, as of 2019 a report of stakeholder feedback to the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan suggests the Project’s failure to deliver on its promises for effective collaboration with community members (Lopez n.d.).
Alongside the necessity to engage in equitable collaboration through reciprocal and symmetrical lines of communication (Hasan et al. 2021) is the even more fundamental obligation to consider one’s place within the receiving country’s existing political environment. Deltares’ intervention in the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan exemplifies the inadequacies of international cooperation for climate adaptation when the nature of partnership runs contrary to the patterns of resilience building within the country. As climate change poses new and uncertain challenges to flood risk management and the necessity for international collaboration grows more urgent, it is imperative that nations observe the resilience profiles of receiving countries and consider their role within it.