Updates

Mar Patalinghug, BLDF member and loyal contributor to the poverty cafe website, has reminded us our website needs updating. We have explained to him we do not have a full-time webmaster. The site is maintained by the Seloterio brothers, Arnold and Ryan, on a part-time basis. They have other tasks to do and they are not paid market rates due to our current financial difficulties.

I have noticed that my last entry was on 31 Jan yet. Quite a long time ago. What I will do is just to convert this blog into a journal of sort so that we can dispense with the news section later. Looks like it's hard to supply the section with fresh materials regularly.

I will just have the updates here in my blog. Later, I will request Arnold or Ryan to put my blog where there is this news about Loon. It has been there for months, and Mar is justified in complaining about it.

Here go some updates:

INTERN FROM BOSTON COLLEGE:

Erin Hoffman, a social work graduate student from Boston College, has been on internship with BLDF since 11 January. She will work with the BLDF field support team for 8 weeks, which means her internship will be until April.

She has done quite a bit of work since her arrival. Erin has visited several municipalities and villages where the Foundation has some projects. She has been involved developing the survey methodology and questionnaire for ABCD or Assets Based Community Development, which we hope to put on wide-scale replication after the pilot phase in several villages.

Based on the initial piloting in San Isidro and Anda, she has drafted an Operations Handbook which we hope to use in a cluster of barangays or villages to demonstrate the methodology and, hopefully, develop in the process a software that will facilitate the use of assets in local-level development planning.

Tony Irving, our British IT consultant, and Rodrigo Ocarol, field operations chief, have been busy negotiating with municipalities on the replication of ABCD methodology. It is hoped that eventually we can link up the ABCD software to the PDMS (Poverty Database Monitoring Software), which was developed by BLDF based on basic needs approach.

Linking ABCD to PDMS will be quite a milestone in our quest for an effective approach to finding a tool for pro-poor targeting, as well as assets mapping, to ensure that local communities and householdds need not wait for external donors to be able to start something that will help them improve their development status.

Erin will make a profound contribution to the achievement of this milestone with her hard work on the ABCD methodology.

Habitat for Humanity Malaysia in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia is interested to use the ABCD methodology in partnership with University of Malaysia Sabah. Negotiations are underway to make the partnership possible.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PROJECT GETS NOD FROM EVALUATORS

The Sustainable Agriculture Project that BLDF implements with AusAID funding in San Isidro and Sagbayan has been cited for outstanding work with Local Government Units (LGUs). The evaluation was done by the PACAP (Philippine Australia Community Assistance Program) Secretariat.

The project team is composed of Yollie Albuladora, project coordinator, and two community organizers, Dodong Formentera and Moises Alfuerto.

BLDF PROJECT SEMI-FINALIST WORLD BANK'S PANIBAGONG PARAAN CONTEST

The Sagbayan Social Enterprise Development Project (SSEDP) has been selected as one of the semi-finalist in its Panibagong Paraan Contest.

The project seeks to match idle youth in the municipality of Sagbayan with idle land. BLDF will serve as broker to bring together the LGU and its development partners so that unemployed can be trained on sustainable agriculture and be allocated the use of idle land to implement organic agriculture projects.

Arnold Seloterio, BLDF Database Administrator, says the project will have as partners the following: the Central Visayas College of Agricultures, Forestry and Trade (CVSCAFT), the Bohol Association of Hotels and Resorts (BAHR), the Bohol Initiators for Sustainable Agricultural Develolpment (BISAD), and the Association of Concerned Landlords (ACL).

Final selection of winners will be done this April.

PDMS NEW SURVEY IN DEMAND

Updated surveys for the Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMS) using the revised questionnaire and the latest version of the software (Version 2.1) is on the increase.

Rodrigo Ocarol, field operations chief, says that after Loon and Maribojoc, BLDF has been invited to discuss how to proceed with PDMS resurveys in Pilar, Duero and Tagbilaran. Other municipalities may soon follow.

All 47 municipalities and 1 city in Bohol province has completed PDMS surveys using earlier versions of the questionnaire and software covering more than 150,000 households.

Finally, thanks to Mar for the reminder.