The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), in partnership with Making All Voice Count (MAVC) and HIVOS International, conducted a Design Thinking Workshop and Consultation on October 12-13,2015 at the Provincial Capitol of Abra.
A courtesy call with Abra Governor Hon. Eustaquio Bersamin was conducted before the workshop started on October 12, 2015. Governor Bersamin was oriented on what will happen during the workshop and the support needed from the province in order to follow through with the workshop outputs.
The first day started with Technical Officer Norbert Peter Indunan welcoming 30 participants from the municipalities of San Isidro and Langiden as well as some representatives from the province.
The workshop utilized the design thinking process to develop technology-based platforms at the provincial level to improve relationships and increase opportunities for feedback loops between citizens and governments, with the OpenBuB portal as the basis for reporting, monitoring, and feedback of local BuB implementers and partners.
The Design Thinking Process requires participants to empathize with the beneficiaries, define the problem, ideate solutions, prototype projects/programs and test the prototypes.
The first day of the workshop was designed for the first two steps. The participants were requested to share experiences of what worked and what did not work in the BuB reporting process. Grounded by their experiences, they were then asked to define the problem through an idea/problem map to identify the root causes of the problem.
Day 2 was focused on seeking innovative solutions and developing prototypes to solve identified problems. The participants had the opportunity to give feedback and improve their ideas during the workshop. It ended with a presentation of 2 proposed solutions, one for BuB planning and implementation and another one for BuB reporting.