PHILSSA - The PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project Launch

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THE PHILSSA-DFID GTF PROJECT LAUNCH

Building, Strengthening, Institutionalizing Effective Partnerships.This theme was echoed throughout the launch of the project Institutionalising Local and National Partnerships to Address Urban Poverty and Homelessness in the Philippines (PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project) last 21 April 2009, at the Ruby Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila. Attended by over a hundred individuals, the event gathered together PHILSSA’s board of trustees and member-NGOs throughout the country and their partners from the local and national government units, people’s organizations and federations, and other nongovernment institutions.

Ms. Sarah Redoblado, PHILSSA’s chair, welcomed the participants to the launch, and to the project’s next three years of more challenges and partnerships.

The keynote messages were given by Vice President Noli de Castro, who is also the chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), and Mr. Colin Wynn Crorkin, Deputy Head of Mission of the United Kingdom Embassy in Manila.

Emphasizing the importance of effective states and better governance in the fight against poverty, Mr. Colin noted that good governance requires capable government organizations that are committed to providing effective services and are accountable and responsive to the needs of the citizens. It also requires citizens to articulate their needs and exercise their rights to hold governments to account.

In his keynote address, Vice President de Castro highlighted the role of the government in the housing and development sector, and shared the different partnership mechanisms between the national and local governments, together with stakeholders and beneficiaries, in the provision of housing and secure tenure.

The PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project
Mr. Benedict Balderrama, PHILSSA’s national coordinator, briefed the participants about the PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project, which is funded under the Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF) of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the Government of the United Kingdom. PHILSSA is among 38 institutions worldwide who had been awarded a grant under the GTF, and the only one from Southeast Asia.

The project aims to develop and implement partnership models to help improve the urban poor’s access to housing and community services. At the local level, the project is being implemented in 14 cities across the country: Quezon City, Malabon, Manila, Legazpi, Naga, Tabaco, Mandaue, Cebu, Toledo, Davao, General Santos, Iligan, and Zamboanga, and the municipality of Montalban, Rizal. At the same time, regional and national-level multistakeholder partnerships are being formed and/or strengthened to also help address the problems of the urban poor particularly in tenure security, housing, and access to basic services.

In his talk, Mr. Balderrama also emphasized three points about the partnership that the PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project is hoping to institutionalize: partnerships that are multistakeholder, inclusive, and participatory; partnerships that are dialogical and based on mutual respect; and partnerships where the urban poor are seen not as problems, but as parts of and partners in the solution.

Brought Together by a Common Desire
Representatives from the project’s partner NGOs (Mr. Paul Rojas of FORGE and Ms. Myrna Abella-Llanes of COPE), local governments (Mr. Edgardo Sanchez of Mandaue City and Engr. Joseph Esplana of Legazpi City), and people’s organizations (Mr. Ping Fampulme of NABIGLAPO HOA, UP-ALL, and Luzon CMP PO Network) gave their responses, affirming their full support to the project and acceptance of the challenges the project poses to them. The shared sentiment of the project’s partners, and of PHILSSA as it immerses itself in this project, may have best been captured by Mr. Rojas: “… we are brought together in this project not merely by fate but by our deepest desires to contribute to social change.”

The launch was hosted by Ms. Anna Maria Gonzales, a consultant of PHILSSA in its Urban Partnerships for Sustainable Upliftment, Renewal, Governance and Empowerment (UPSURGE) Project. Creative performances were given by the SIKAP Youth Group, composed of young citizens from five partner communities of the Institutional Network for Social Action (INSA) of Miriam College, also a member of the PHILSSA network.

Working Together for Urban Development
Over the years, PHILSSA has been involved in different projects, advocacies, and researches on urban development and urban poor issues. It has formulated its Urbanization Framework and Strategy (the 10-3-3 Approach) to guide its work toward an urbanization process that is inclusive, gender-sensitive, transformative, and sustainable, and with preferential bias for poor and marginalized communities.

Guided by the network’s urbanization framework and strategy, the PHILSSA-DFID GTF Project is an affirmation of the network, its members, and its partners’ commitment to urban development and work with the urban poor, as well as its faith on multistakeholder partnerships in achieving progress and sustaining gains.

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