Palawan Selected and Consulted for ULAP’s Project on Transparency in Extractive Industries
The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) met with Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez and his team on August 1, 2016 in consultation for the project Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries in the Sub-National Level Project. The project, which won during the Global Innovation Competition, is funded by Making All Voices Count (MAVC) and Hivos International. The province of Palawan is selected as an innovation site based on its performance on the following levels:
Compliance with the EITI and participation to the initiative’s last two country reports;
Receipt of shares from national wealth; and
Presence of indigenous communities that have been affected by EI operations.
The consultation meeting, which was headed by ULAP Executive Director Czarina Medina-Guce, aimed to vet the project and get buy-in and support from the provincial government of Palawan. More so, it gave the project team a sense of the interplay of relationships between and among extractive industries stakeholders. Governor Alvarez and his team also provided further linkages with local stakeholders.
The project, which runs from June 2016 to May 2017, is considered to be the first in the Philippines to explore an innovation approach in conducting extractive industry transparency initiatives at the local level that goes beyond the transparency all sectors, but also provides for an avenue for localization of the decision-making and agenda-setting in the project sites.
The key objective of the project is to facilitate the use of technology-based platforms to increase transparency in extractive industries and improve relationships among the local stakeholders for effective agenda-setting and decision-making at the local level. In particular, the project will:
Bring together all of the stakeholders through a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) for a collaborative effort to spearhead the innovation and yield context-based information on the industry and the issues at the local level.
Facilitate info-mediation both in the national and local levels through the innovative technology-based platforms that will be created to further promote transparency and accountability among local stakeholders.
Enhance citizen engagement and participation in agenda-setting and policy-making and in translating local government shares from EI to projects and programs that will address their perceived needs.
The Project Team will start meeting with local sector leaders and other potential members of the MSG this August 2016.
Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) Public Offering Courses 2016
The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) - Local Governance and Development Office (LGDO) will be offering training courses on various fields of local governance such as local legislation, updating of local revenue code, leadership excellence and development, public-private partnership (PPP), migration and local development, sustainable tourism planning, and child-rights responsive governance.
Target participants are the local government unit (LGU) officials particularly chief executives, legislators, managers, and technical staff.
Every course will feature lectures and discussions from resource persons who are experts in their own fields. Workshop exercises will also be conducted for the LGUs to be able to translate their knowledge into specific outputs required of the courses.
For interested participants, download the Enrollment form here.
ULAP Pioneers an Innovation Project on Sub-national Extractive Industries Governance
As part of its commitment as member of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee, and in support of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Union of Local Authorities (ULAP) is conducting a project in partnership with Making All Voices Count (MAVC) and Hivos International entitled “Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries in the Sub-National Level through the Use of Context Specific Technology-Based Platforms by Mutli-Stakeholder Groups”. This project, which will run from June 2016-May 2017, is a product of ULAP’s Gold Prize win during the Global Innovations Competition Week in Accra, Ghana in July 2016, besting 370 project ideas from Asian and African countries.
This is considered to be the first in the Philippines to implement extractive industry transparency initiatives at the sub-national level that goes beyond the transparency in datasets of all sectors, but provides for an avenue for localization of the decision-making and agenda-setting in the project sites.
ULAP has just completed its research in order to identify (3) partner provinces for the project. The Provincial Local Government Units (PLGUs) were shortlisted based on their (1) compliance with the EITI and participation to the initiative’s last two country reports, (2) receipt of shares from national wealth and (3) presence of indigenous communities that have been affected by EI operations.
The ULAP team is scheduled to have the first series of consultation meetings with the Local Chief Executives this July 2016.
MAVC Gathers ULAP Project Stories
A member of the Making All Voices Count (MAVC) Communications team in Netherlands, Ms. Anastasia Gavrili, visited the Philippines from July 4-8, 2016 with the objective of meeting previous and current MAVC grantees in an effort to gather stories, photos and/or videos that may be used to highlight the projects in the Philippines. The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) has just recently concluded its MAVC project entitled ““Developing technology-based innovation platforms at provincial level: Supporting Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB) projects for 2015 in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to identify context specific tech-based innovations to support with making the BuB reporting and monitoring more feasible and information accessible to civil society organizations, provincial government and communities at large” in April 2016.
Ms. Gavrili interviewed ULAP Executive Director Czarina Medina-Guce, Programs, Plans and Policy (PPP) Director Genixon David and PPP Manager Crystal Eunice Dela Cruz at Café Breton, UP Technohub, Quezon City on July 5, 2016. Moreover, Ms. Dela Cruz facilitated and accompanied Ms. Gavrili and MAVC Philippines Country Engagement Developer Vivien Suerte-Cortez in a learning visit and focus group discussion with key project stakeholders in Surigao del Norte in the afternoon of July 8, 2016.
The Surigao del Norte project stakeholders were participated by representatives from the provincial government planning and development office, and the municipalities of Malimono and San Isidro, Siargao. They shared stories of how the project inspired Governor Sol Matugas to release an Executive Order creating the Provincial BuB Implementing Unit, which focuses on gathering, troubleshooting and reporting issues on the ground. More so, they shared that the capacity building component of the project has helped them better communicate, negotiate and utilize data in their work. Lastly, despite the break caused by the last elections, the province has reported that the provincial BuB hotline, with telephone and mobile as modes of communication, has been successfully set-up and functional. They expressed that they have yet to expand and improve with regards to the hotline and the unit, but are proud that they have taken the first steps through the project.
National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) 2016 Event
Calling all local government units to participate!
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will hold the National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) 2016 to highlight the contribution of science and technology (S&T) to national development. With the overall theme “Juan Science. One Nation,” NSTW will also give recognition and appreciation to outstanding accomplishments and personalities in S&T.
As part of the celebration, the Metro Manila Science Community composed of DOST attached agencies namely the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), in partnership with the Metro Manila Health Research and Development Consortium (MMHRDC), will showcase the Department’s breakthrough projects, technologies, and services in healthcare through an Open House Exhibit on 25-29 July 2016 at SM Mall of Asia Main Atrium, Pasay City.
Aside from the exhibit, activities such as the Natural Products Forum, Nutrition Survey Forum, Health Webinar, Traditional Medicine Forum, Forum on Road Injuries, Forum on Nutrigenomics, Biobank and Lay Forum on Cancers, and Trailblazers in Science: National Scientists Lecture Series, will also be held.
Should you need more information regarding this event, and to confirm your attendance, please contact Ms. Hannah Elaine Ortiz at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you may call at these contact numbers (02)837-7534, (02) 837-0031. Kindly confirm your attendance on or before 22 July 2016. Or you may want also to register now at http://bit.ly/29iSQCT.
For more details about NSTW and other activities in stored, go to this link http://nstw.dost.gov.ph/
ULAP Shares Experience on Civic Engagement, Accountability and Open Governance in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Photo credits to: LOGIN Asia.
Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) Executive Director Ms. Czarina Medina-Guce was invited as new member of the Local Governance Initiative and Network (LOGIN)-Asia, and participated in the June 29-July 1, 2016 workshop on Civic Engagement, Accountability and Open Governance in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The workshop was organized by the Local Governance Initiative and Network (LOGIN) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
The workshop aimed to bring together members of LOGIN, an initiative that brings together actors from different stakeholders in the field of decentralization and local governance from different countries for knowledge sharing and network building. The content of the workshop focused on the following themes:
Promoting citizen-led accountability in local governance and service delivery: concepts, examples, good practices and lessons learned from past experience.
Understanding the motivations, opportunities, and challenges of civic engagement, particularly with a focus on issues of representation and collective action.
Understanding the concepts surrounding transparency, open government, open data and a more inclusive approach to governance in the context of the increasing relevance of ICTs to such processes.
The program flow utilized combined facilitated inputs and seminars by resource persons in the mornings, with structured sharing and analysis of participants’ experiences in the afternoon. IDS experts facilitated the learning throughout the workshop duration by sharing conceptual frameworks, presenting case studies and practices from other countries. More so, IDS experts collaborated with LOGIN and selected workshop participants in learning, research and documenting their experiences for wider sharing to LOGIN members.
LOGIN-Asia and ULAP are seeking to the expand the network to the Philippines, which presents an opportunity for learning and policy development for local governance in time for the 25th anniversary of the Local Government Code, and the moves towards shifting to federalism.
