Aside from promoting the cause for democracy and reforms under difficult times, donors are actually better known for supporting initiatives that may still be outside the immediate concern of government. It takes quite a bit of time for government to initiate pioneering efforts. Most of the time, external donors come up with innovative ideas and sell these to government as pilot projects, to test their possible suitability to local-level planning and implementation. In some rare instances, it can be the other way round, the government having some concept that requires foreign funding to transform into a pilot project.
Let me list here those projects I have been involved in that without donor support might not have seen the light of day because local governments were still too short-sighted to appreciate their possible significance and impact:
-Local Resource Management Project. Funded by USAID in the late 70s and implemented in several provinces. A systematic approach was undertaken to find out what local resources existed in a locality and how community groups could be assisted to turn these into livelihood. As early at that time, there was the concern about how to link local production to market. Good experience. Sometimes our NGO ended up buying the brooms that women groups in Virac made because they could not be sold in Catanduanes. Our training director, Ike Tolentino, would bring hundreds of these brooms to Manila to sell them to office mates and in neighboring establishments.
-Child Survival and Development Project. Funded by UNICEF in the early 80s. For the first time, a project focused on the poorest provinces. The project was carried out in 8 poorest provinces in the country. The project was able to make the technical staff appreciate the relationship between poverty and armed insurgency while exerting efforts to make child-based services available to remote villages.
-Agro-Marine Project. Funded by USAID in the 80s. It demonstrated that interventions are needed both in the uplands and in lowlands and coastal areas to be able to create impact in environmental interventions.
-Remote Islands Development Project. Funded by USAID in the 80s. It drew attention to the development needs of the 50 or so small islands around the main island of Bohol. LGUs and NGOs
were able to appreciate the constraints met in making delivery of services more systematic to these outer islands.
-Peace and Development Project. Funded by EU for several provinces in Mindanao torn by conflict. Implemented by Habitat for Humanity Philippines in 2007. The project involved the integration of Muslim returnees in predominantly Christian villages facilitated through participatory local planning with the use of the Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMS) survey methodology and software.
Outside the country, we were involved in donor-assisted projects which were equally innovative as those in the Philippines:
-Integrated Atoll Development Project. Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Implemented in 8 atoll countries in the South Pacific and in the Maldives from 1989 to 1995. For the first time, the specific needs of small atoll countries were systematically addressed.
-Equitable and Sustainable Human Development Project. Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Implemented in the rest of the Pacific countries from 1996 to 2001 with focus on providing livelihood support to the most disadvantaged sectors of the population such as women and those who lived in remote villages.
-Solomon Islands Development Administration and Participatory Planning Project . Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Imelemented in the Solomon Islands from 1997 to 2001. The project sought to enhance local government capacities in carrying out participatory planning and project development with focus on the involvement of disadvantaged groups.
These innovative projects would not have been possible without the technical and funding support of external donors.
Let me list here those projects I have been involved in that without donor support might not have seen the light of day because local governments were still too short-sighted to appreciate their possible significance and impact:
-Local Resource Management Project. Funded by USAID in the late 70s and implemented in several provinces. A systematic approach was undertaken to find out what local resources existed in a locality and how community groups could be assisted to turn these into livelihood. As early at that time, there was the concern about how to link local production to market. Good experience. Sometimes our NGO ended up buying the brooms that women groups in Virac made because they could not be sold in Catanduanes. Our training director, Ike Tolentino, would bring hundreds of these brooms to Manila to sell them to office mates and in neighboring establishments.
-Child Survival and Development Project. Funded by UNICEF in the early 80s. For the first time, a project focused on the poorest provinces. The project was carried out in 8 poorest provinces in the country. The project was able to make the technical staff appreciate the relationship between poverty and armed insurgency while exerting efforts to make child-based services available to remote villages.
-Agro-Marine Project. Funded by USAID in the 80s. It demonstrated that interventions are needed both in the uplands and in lowlands and coastal areas to be able to create impact in environmental interventions.
-Remote Islands Development Project. Funded by USAID in the 80s. It drew attention to the development needs of the 50 or so small islands around the main island of Bohol. LGUs and NGOs
were able to appreciate the constraints met in making delivery of services more systematic to these outer islands.
-Peace and Development Project. Funded by EU for several provinces in Mindanao torn by conflict. Implemented by Habitat for Humanity Philippines in 2007. The project involved the integration of Muslim returnees in predominantly Christian villages facilitated through participatory local planning with the use of the Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMS) survey methodology and software.
Outside the country, we were involved in donor-assisted projects which were equally innovative as those in the Philippines:
-Integrated Atoll Development Project. Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Implemented in 8 atoll countries in the South Pacific and in the Maldives from 1989 to 1995. For the first time, the specific needs of small atoll countries were systematically addressed.
-Equitable and Sustainable Human Development Project. Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Implemented in the rest of the Pacific countries from 1996 to 2001 with focus on providing livelihood support to the most disadvantaged sectors of the population such as women and those who lived in remote villages.
-Solomon Islands Development Administration and Participatory Planning Project . Funded by UNDP and executed through UNOPS. Imelemented in the Solomon Islands from 1997 to 2001. The project sought to enhance local government capacities in carrying out participatory planning and project development with focus on the involvement of disadvantaged groups.
These innovative projects would not have been possible without the technical and funding support of external donors.
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