BEARERS OF HOPE

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Each time I walk around our project sites, mostly those where we have partnered with the Church and people’s organizations, as well as with local governments, in building transition core houses after the destructive earthquake two years ago, I become convinced more and more that what we need in our province and the country as a whole is hope, huge chunks of it, served with prayers and large helpings of projects, not mere slogans or rhetoric.

I am convinced that the families we assisted with transition core houses to help get them out of tents deserve to be listened to and somehow engaged in something for the long term to further nourish their newly-found hope for the future, their families and local communities and the country eventually.

I believe that the assistance given to the earthquake victims, mostly in the form of cement, plywood, nails and other construction materials, were actually investments not only in the building of temporary or permanent shelter, but in a more meaningful sense, they were actually investments in building hope among those rendered hopeless by a natural calamity beyond the control of the government, the Church or any other entity.

Hope is almost always the first casualty in a disaster, whether man-made or not. If we see it this way, then it becomes easier for us to persevere in our task to help people rebuild their homes We will believe that in doing so, we are actually putting in place the building blocks of something that our country seems to be in short supply these days – hope.

These were the thoughts swirling in my head when I, along with three others from our NGO, had a surprise visit to Angilan, Antequera where we had partnered with families who sought refuge in a chapel after the earthquake. The chapel eventually gave way due to the series of aftershocks and the old women and children of 17 families found shelter in a waiting shed while the menfolk made do with tents they themselves fashioned out of used tarpaulin and other materials.

Their liberation from the crammed waiting shed and makeshift shelter was a high point in the race against time barely two months after the disaster. Now, two years after the quake, a community has risen and their hope for a better life is made evident by the following:

-All 11 children or young people from this project site are all in school: college, 4; high school, 

4; and elementary, 3.

-All 7 carpenters from 15 families living in the main area of the project site are all employed in either the town or Tagbilaran City;

-Piped water is available from the municipal system on certain hours for which each family member contributes Php 10 per month;

-Electricity has reached the community, each family paying from Php 97 to Php 100 depending on usage;

-UNICEF through Catholic Relief Services has provided a toilet to each house built based on agreement between the latter and our NGO, Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF);

-Each of the families has entered into agreement with the landowner that Php 50 be paid monthly as rental or as contribution to the tax of the property per month over an initial five-month period with ten percent increase annually after which the rate will be negotiated with the landowner(s);

-The “dajong” or mutual aid societies giving aid for burial services has been revived this time with an expanded membership of 25 due to admission of families from the nearby puroks;

-The “dajong” has added another service, that of being source of micro-loans to members;

-Two families are making doormats out of coconut coir provided by a party list group;

-Two families are raising a pig each at the backyard as source of income to pay for school fees and other expenses after three to four months of caring for them;

-A family has been allowed by the landowner to till 1/4 ha. as ricefield out of the 25-hectare estate with one-third of harvest as his share.

-All 15 families in the main project site have built all kinds of extensions, such as porches, expanded kitchens, dining areas, salas indicating new aspirations following relative land security due to agreement with the landowner(s);

-Homeowners put up curtains, plant ornamentals around the house, hang up family photos, all indicating they have found a place they can call their home.

-The lone sari-sari or convenience store provides basic necessities without the families going to the town to buy them.

During the consultation after the visit to the houses, the representatives of families present said they would need some help to expand their pig raising project. This visit confirms earlier observation that after the house build, efforts must be exerted by the proponent agency or the partner NGO to go back to the partner families and explore ways and means to help families identify livelihood opportunities.

Most likely, they have already identified these opportunities and are doing their best to create products or offer services which will result to some cash income for the family. It’s not necessary that we ourselves become the source of livelihood ideas. In the case of the project site in Angilan, they seem to know what they want to further build the community out of  hope, faith in themselves and the Great Unseen.

We were about to go to the other project site in Pangangan , but I was reminded I had to go to the chapel in Dampas for my first confession since I left the church when I was fourteen years old. I did return to the fold and attended, I recall, one spiritual one-on-one retreat with a Jesuit priest, Fr. Cavan, at their retreat house in Cebu in 1987.

I recall I was not made to do any confession stuff. Instead, I was made to do the stations of the Cross alone on a hill and to say whatever I want to say at each stop  e.g. in anger, to question God, to shout or scream my heart out, whatever. For one hour, I took the journey and was astounded to find at the end of the last station, a trellis extending for almost fifteen meters full of bougainville flowers and I had to walk underneath it.

When I emerged, I remember being met by the glare of a bright sun at high noon. The Jesuit fathers must have planned it that way for me to realize hope awaits us at end of a bleak and chaotic journey of inner conflict and self-flagellation.

Along the way from the project visit in Angilan to observe the second anniversary of  the Magnitude 7.2 earthquake which hit our province two years ago to the confession and Mass in Dampas, I read again from my digital this advice from Pope Francis:

“To all of you, I repeat: Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! And not only that, but I say to us all: let us not rob others of hope, let us become bearers of hope!” #BLDFwarrior

NMP/16 Apr 2015/6.45 p.m. 

MUCH THANKS TO ALL FOR THIS RAPPLER AWARD

MUCH THANKS TO ALL FOR THIS RAPPLER AWARD

First, much thanks to Rappler for this 2015 Enterprise Mover Award which we regard as recognition of the work of our NGO, the Bohol Local Development Foundation in our efforts through the years to link households and communities that they may have better access to useful information and services from the Government and its development partners.

In a sense, it is also a recognition of our lifetime work with the country’s pioneers of community development and the fieldworkers and volunteers from younger generations who have aspired to replace them in the often difficult but ultimately rewarding task of helping the most disadvantaged of our people be part of mainstream development.

It is reaffirmation of our belief that in the final analysis, all development is local.

We believe that all global development agendas, the Millennium Development Goals and their successor, the Sustainable Development Goals, and all policies and programs promoted by international aid agencies are mere rhetoric if they are not translated into specific and concrete messages, tools and approaches, and more importantly, services that will help liberate the poor from the constraints brought about by deprivation and underdevelopment.

This award is a recognition that Rappler and those who support its meritorious advocacies for change share with our NGO the firm belief that those who have been disenfranchised by geographic isolation, as well as economic, cultural and religious biases, and by institutionalized corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, must be reached and engaged to participate meaningfully in a program of planned change.

On the matter of enterprise development among our people, we ourselves are not entrepreneurs, but development workers who believe that the marginalized among our people have skills and other assets which have made them survived all these years and that we can help them take advantage of opportunities for further growth and development.

We would like to believe this is the same task for which generations of development workers, extension workers, community organizers and mobilizers have dedicated their lives to since the initiation of professional community development in this country in the 1950s.

Through four decades of development work, mostly in the province of Bohol, we have seen the evolution of development fieldworkers assuming various roles: as links between service agencies and the villages; as trainers to community groups and their leaders; and, on the whole, as bearers of good hope to specific households and groups of people who have to be reached still by the benefits of committed democratic governance and global development.

As Rappler continues to advocate and demonstrate, tools developed during this digital age, which has given rise to the prominent role of social media in practically all aspects of our lives, we need to mobilize technology-savvy young people in their thousands to use their newly-acquired knowledge and tools in the service of the people in their respective localities. We must use these gadgets to reach communities, groups and individual households which may still be isolated and bounreached.

We share with Rappler and its supporters the vision to bring millions of our people to the mainstream of development, as both beneficiaries and participants in the pursuit of global and national development goals, which must be articulated either formally and informally in local community plans and family aspirations.

Much thanks to the votes cast in my favor during the public polling, the endorsements and votes from friends, relatives and colleagues from various networks; the campaigns waged by several close friends, associates and groups.

We thank the following close friends who worked day and night with their families to mobilize votes in my favor: Milwida Sevilla-Reyes, Quezon High Class 1958, based in Sydney; Isa Losloso-Rivera, based in Chicago, and Nini De Asis, both from the same Class 58; Dr. Mimosa Cortes, retired UPLB faculty and Sigma Delta head; Keats Yapchiongco, former Illustrious Fellow, Upsilon Sigma Phi; Corazon Lanuza, Dick Asi, and their Class 68 classmates; Gen. Charlemagne Alejandrino, MSEUF Vice Pres. Benilda Villenas, Jane Asensi Malaluan, and many others from QPHS Class 70; Norma Tulio, Cecilio Adorna, Richard Prado of UNICEF and Alcanz Consulting; Lillian Pestelos Cancino, Rhodora Pestelos Renacido; Mohamed Hilmy, Tarcissius Tara, Rex Horoi from the Maldives and the Pacific; Mabel Cuison and other friends from Habitat for Humanity; Gardy Labad and his Kasing-Sining group.

I thank Jason Tulio who nominated me whom I had not met before.

And many, many more I have to thank. I will find time to review my notes and thank everyone who has helped in this campaign. Pasensya na muna kung may nakalimutan. Mahina ang kalaban! We will go back to this list later.

We thank the Upsilon Sigma Phi and Sigma Delta Phi and those from other fraternities and sororities from UP Los Banos and other campuses; youth groups, women's groups, and senior citizens' associations in our project sites; high school and college classmates; DevCom group Grockers, Bohol Planning and Development Office (PPDO), and the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators of Bohol; project partners in the LGUs and national agencies in the province; friends and project partners from UNDP, UNICEF, AusAID, USAID, CIDA, ADB in the various countries where I was assigned; close friends from Christian, Muslim and Buddhist communities in which I did project work during the last forty years … to all of you, this Award I accept on your behalf for your being with us in this development journey with our people.

Each step of this journey I dedicate to the 33 friends I lost in that struggle for freedom of the 1970s. They might be victims of misleadership and a flawed ideology, but I respect their tenacity and sacrifices in reaching the poor “wherever they are to be found.”

Indeed, let’s move on. ‪#‎Pestelosrappleraward

TWO LONG BRIDGES OF HELPING HANDS

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

TWO LONG BRIDGES OF HELPING HANDS

The current week has been quite generous to us. Instead of one, two bridges of helping hands materialized to lead us to two fervently hoped-for milestones: a drug rehabilitation center in Bohol, and the possibility to win the Rappler.com award which can give a big boost to our usual advocacies on pro-poor development in our province.

On the first bridge, it came as a surprise. After six months of intensive consultations, internet-based research and actual visits to drug rehab centers in the Visayas and Mindanao, our trustees at the Bohol Local Development Foundation, decided in June, it was time to take a breather. After all, we provided all our findings and proposals, seven in all, to the Government and the Church, as well as key individuals and institutions, such as colleges and universities, especially those with psychology courses.

Our NGO decided we would just focus on what the program which replaced our post-quake house build project, the promotion of informal employment and sustainable employment among out-of-school youth and other marginalized groups. We were hoping that the Church and the Government which have relatively more resources would consider as top priority the establishment of a drug rehab center for a province with a population of 1.2 million and a growing army of drug abusers.

We resumed talk with potential partners when it became apparent neither institution was interested in building such facility. Meanwhile, more and more people are contacting us to inquire how we could help them put some family members on rehab. Each time we recommended to bring them to centers in Cebu or in Mindanao, there would be long silence or what seemed to us as gasping sound on the other end upon hearing about the fees required and other costs. The expenses would simply be beyond their reach.

The three-hour meeting last Wednesday that we had with officials of two rehab centers, one in Cebu, the FARM (Family and Recovery Management) Center and the other in Ozamis City, the It Works Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, achieved a breakthrough in this long, tedious journey to helping build such much-needed facility in Bohol.

BLDF brokered an agreement with the owners/managers of the two prestigious drug rehab centers to pool resources and help establish the first drug rehab center in the province. All the parties agreed that the main objective was to build such center to serve as hub for treatment and pre-treatment activities and that it should be run as business rather than as a charity project.

Rene Francisco and Jimmy Clemente, heads of It Works and FARM, respectively, would jointly form a legal entity to sign the agreement with the Pestelos family on the use of Balay Kahayag facilities.

The Pestelos family would lease its property at affordable costs and not take part in management so that the new legal entity could exercise full control of the drug rehab facility. BLDF, for its part, could play a part in community development and livelihood activities to generate support to the Center from target communities and groups

In addition, taking into account its existing partnership with Gardy Labad’s Kasing-Sining, BLDF will continue to liaise with cultural groups which can play a part in social preparation as well as serve as part of therapy interventions for clients of the center.

The contract will be signed between the parties as early as next week and redesigning of the Balay Kahayag into a rehab center will start soonest. The journey that has brought us to this point has been made easier by a bridge of helping hands composed of the following:

-the staff of the two partner drug rehab centers who made available their time and accounts of their experiences dealing with both hard and easy cases of drug addiction among the poor and rich alike;

-the medical and administrative staff of the other centers visited (New Day Recovery Center, Davao City; Metro Psyche or Roads and Bridges for Recovery, Mandaue City; Misamis Occidental Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Oroquieta City; Lifeline Services, Tangub City; New Day Recovery Center, Davao City) who gave their time to tell us about their experiences in operating their rehab centers;

-the Holy Name University, its president and the faculty of the social science department who assured us support to the center in terms of assigning volunteers from their students once the center is established;

-the police officers, local officials and other authorities in the LGUs who answered with all candor and honesty about the extent of drug addiction in each barangay and the common problems met in implementing laws against illegal drug use;

-some priests we interviewed who talked openly about their constraints in participating in the activities of the drug rehab center without proper authorization from the Bishop or without affecting programs previously agreed with parishioners or the lay organizations;

-retired academicians such as Prof. Corazon Jamero Logarta who travelled all the way from Garcia Hernandez to convey to us personally her support to the NGO’s advocacy to build a drug rehab center in the province;

-the “wounded healers,” former center clients who now serve practically all the centers visited as program directors, facilitators/counsellors and case managers, who shared with us freely their experiences in the centers where they were treated and how these helped them in their professional jobs in a drug rehab center;

-wives and mothers who told us about their need to seek counselling for their wives and children but could not do so on account of what was termed “social stigma” attached to drug addiction;

-the vast army of cultural workers that Bohol has which can turn a cockpit into a theatre!

This long bridge of support has led to the successful negotiations between two well-known drug rehab centers and the Pestelos family to turn Balay Kahayag into Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation center o serve hundreds of drug abuse victims waiting to be rescued.

The second bridge of helping hands led to the phenomenal increase in votes cast in my favor for the prestigious Rappler award where yours truly is among fifteen (15) finalists out of a total of 250 nominees.

As background to the Rappler Award, here is part of the letter sent to me on 18 August by Krista Garcia, content producer of Rappler, Inc.:

“On behalf of Rappler.com, I am pleased to inform you that you have been shortlisted as an ENTERPRISE MOVER finalist for the 2015 Move Awards! You were nominated by Jason Tulio.

“From over 250 entries, our esteemed panel selected 15 individuals who encapsulate the Move Ideal of action for change. In 2 weeks, the public will vote for you and the other finalists to determine who the final Mover is. We will publicly announce all finalists on September 2 through a microsite with a voting platform.”

Additional details are in these excerpts from a press release:

Nestor Pestelos, president of Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF), was among 15 finalists for the 2015 Move Awards of Rappler, the country’s first social news website “where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fueled actions for social change.

The Move Awards is Rappler’s initiative “to celebrate outstanding Filipinos who don’t let reality get in the way of their dreams: they look at the status quo and inspire others to change it with them for the better.

The finalists were selected out of more than 250 nominees by a panel which includes: Cheche Lazaro, journalist; Nix Nolledo, technology entrepreneur; Brillante MendCommissioner-at-Large for the National Youth Commission as well as founder of the Yes Pinoy Foundation,oza, filmmaker; Maria Ressa, former CNN bureau chief for Manila and Jakarta who founded Rappler in 2011; and Dingdong Nantes, GMA 7 star and concurrently Commissioner-at-Large for the National Youth Commission as well as founder of the Yes Pinoy Foundation.

The selection process features an interview and public voting via a microsite which started last September 2. The winners will be announced on September 26, after the Social Good Summit which will be held at the Newport Performing Arts Theater, Pasay City.

Rappler.com has this write-up about the nominee:

In October 2013, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Bohol, claiming billions of pesos in damage and displacing thousands of families. As the province struggled to rise from the rubble, non-governmental organizations such as the Bohol Local Development Foundation became crucial in expediting the process of rehabilitation and recovery. Led by its founding president Nestor Pestelos, BLDF implemented a community-based shelter assistance project to enable 150 families to build transitional core houses and move their vulnerable members to safer and more secure dwellings.

Since 2003, BLDF has been working hard to fulfill its mission of empowering local communities to be in control of their own development. Aside from providing funding channels for agricultural and social enterprise projects, Nestor has also helped establish ecotourism sites in deprived areas of Bohol, implemented a Literacy and Livelihood Project for Badjaos, and worked closely with the Bohol Provincial Planning and Development Office in developing a Poverty Database Monitoring System.

At 73, he shows no signs of slowing down. He aims to keep moving to translate his vision of a better world into concrete policies, plans and programs that will link local communities with the government and other institutions.

From a 3% score, while the first placer and second plaeer were scoring more than 50% and 40%, respectively, in the public poll a few days after the start on 02 September, our score soared to what it was this morning, at 40%, which equals the first placer, while the second placer is at 20%.

Undoubtedly there is a long, long bridge of support to achieve such phenomenal performance in the public poll for the Rapler.com award. The votes have been coming across countries, from my high school and college classmates, all forms of organizations I have been part of, local governments and international organizations, from relatives from various countries, from families of friends and those I have worked with in projects in more than a dozen countries.

It will be impossible for me to list all the names and thank everyone for this massive show of support. This award, a key milestone which may result from this long bridge of support, is actually related to the dream of having a drug rehabilitation center in Bohol.

These two long bridges of helping hands are actually proof that despite what the cynics and pessimists say, the men and women of goodwill of diverse cultures and beliefs will find a way to support a good cause and contribute their share towards building a better world for us all.

Note: Deadline for voting for the Rappler award is midnight of 20 September. To vote, click this link: http://www.rappler.com/move-candidates?campaign_id=1&category_id=4

#Votepestelosrappler

NMP/18 Sep 2015/4.48 p.m.

DECLUTTERING DEVELOPMENT

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Now that the world is about to embark on a journey to achieve milestones under the banner of Sustainable Development Goals, the question foremost in the minds of many people in Bohol is how do we best prepare for the new global agenda to get the most benefits from it. In our view, the first step is to declutter the development landscape and do away resolutely with slogans, frameworks and so-called empowerment tools which will weigh us down rather than help us pursue, say SDG No. 1 – End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

This begs the question that we know with a degree of accuracy which prescription or technical advice works and does not work to help us bring down poverty incidence in our province. Hence, we must first focus on our situation, get the lessons right from previous plans and projects and determine the approaches, strategies and tools that can best address local poverty and its attendant ills, malnutrition, infant mortality, illiteracy, unemployment, to name a few, with focus on the most marginalized and disadvantaged among the people,  in ways that also protect the environment, foster economic growth  and further enhance local culture and values.

 Quite a mouthful, doubtless an effect of donor-powered inputs, but is this not what sustainability mean in the end?

If we cut through the verbiage, the pursuit of the SDGs, as far as Goal No. 1 is concerned, will require that we know - pause for breath - who are the poor; what are their priority needs; where they are located; which services are already reaching them; what are their sources of livelihood; and how can we help them sustain and improve their income sources to enable them “to liberate themselves from the constraints of underdevelopment.”

This last phrase has been our favorite for decades. We have cited it in countless proposals as part of efforts to squeeze grants from external donors. Just an aside: we have been doing these proposals for more than half a lifetime along with other project planners the world over hoping we can contribute to pro-poor development on this our planet gradually being diminished by all kinds of violence, ecological abuse and on the whole, by bad governance in most nation-states. And yes, in most cases, we all end up a victim by projects badly planned and implemented.

In the final analysis, efforts to localize the SDGs and benefit local communities and households will be through projects expected to be relevant to the lives of the people. These projects are supposedly created by supportive policies and relevant plans resulting in adequate administrative and funding support that will make possible effective multi-level governance.

This collaborative process starts necessarily with a common database which functions as baseline to serve as initial basis for identifying policy gaps and prioritizing interventions to identified problems. Later, it serves to establish the impact of such interventions to the actual situation of households and local communities.

With 17 goals and 169 targets, and presumably hundreds of indicators for both progress and impact monitoring, the new global development agenda will run the risk of overwhelming local government units and their partner NGOs and People’s Organizations with requirements to conduct surveys at community and household levels for activities undertaken in support of each of the 17 SDGs. The world will do nothing but conduct surveys!

As early as this stage, technical inputs are needed from the National Government through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to provide timely guidelines on how to facilitate database building in support of the new development agenda which advocates for localization in the pursuit of each of the 17 SDGs.

Let me repeat here what localization means according to a UN Report on this issue:

“Localization refers to the process of defining, implementing and monitoring strategies at the local level for achieving global, national and subnational sustainable development goals and targets. This involves concrete mechanisms, tools, innovations, platforms and processes to effectively translate the development agenda into results at the local level.

“The concept should therefore be understood holistically, beyond the institutions

of local governments, to include all local actors through a territorial approach that includes civil

society, traditional leaders, religious organizations, academia, the private sector and others. We firmly believe, however, that a strong and capable local government provides the fundamental leadership role to bring local stakeholders together.”

As I noted in a previous column, lessons could be learned from localizing the MDGs done in Bohol where a project on localization was implemented in 2005 or five years after the launch of the MDGs. The project was carried out by the Action for Economic Reforms (AER) in partnership with PROCESS Bohol, the Provincial Government of Bohol, Social Watch, La Aldea, and Novib, a Dutch NGO.

European Union provided the funding, The project was implemented in the municipalities of Tubigon, Bilar and Jagna. NEDA Director Erlinda M. Capones said in her message published in the project report, Making a Difference, Localized Monitoring System on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), The Bohol Experience:

“The essence of localizing the MDGs is to build ownership and empower people to better articulate their local needs under the umbrella of an internationally agreed development agenda. Involving the local government, civil society organizations and donors provides a solid basis for sustainable dialogue and a broad-based ‘constituency of support’ for greater policy coherence, resource mobilization, and capacity building. This process of localization will respond to the inherent danger that even if the targets are achieved, the inequalities within a nation across people and places would still persist.”

Her idea reflects basically the same thought expressed by current advocates for the localization of the SDGs, the global agenda for the next 15 years starting in January, 2016:

“Building upon the successes of many localized sustainable development initiatives, the progress towards the MDGs will be determined first and foremost by progress at the local level. In this regard, local actors will need national and global support to develop and strengthen their capacities and generate resources to realizing the MDGs…”

The organizers of the activity hope that the Bohol experience, in localizing the MDGscould be replicated in Tagbilaran City and the other municipalities aside from Tubigon, Bilar and Jagna. For his part, AER Coordinator Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III says: “Our best hope, grand ambition it may be, is to see Bohol’s experience replicated across the country.”

Well, to our dismay probably, neither expectations happened. I believe that this non-event should be the starting point in devising strategies for the localization of the next global development agenda. I have proposed in a previous column that the academe in Bohol, take an active hand in reviewing previous experiences in localizing the MDGs and systematically draw lessons for doing the same for the SDGs.

One area of interest will be the use of several tools at local level to establish the MDG database: DevInfo, Bohol Info, Local Poverty Action Plan (LPRAP) or its advance version Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMS), MDG Planning Matrix Software, AER MDG Open Source GIS Toolkit.

Later, outside this localization project, DILG promoted the use of the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) while DSWD had its National Household Targeting System (NHTS) both used to establish poverty databases at municipal and local community levels.

I recommend that the academe in Bohol take an active part in this proposed assessment of database tools used at local levels as initial activity for the localization of the SDGs. Of all the institutions here in Bohol, these universities and colleges have the potential to be objective (read: politically neutral) in doing the review of the poverty planning and monitoring tools. They can eventually assume the role of overseeing how the harmonized tools can be used by the Local Government Units, CSOs and all those involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring the SDGs.

The academe can collectively establish an Institute of Governance, Development and Culture to ensure periodic and systematic decluttering of development advocacies and tools and thus achieve the often elusive continuity of policies, plans and programs in support of an international development agenda. Then we can proceed to build a case to get a significant share from the UN allocations if we succeed to show that the project concept will be pertinent to Bohol and other provinces in the country.

This idea was first thought of years ago upon the retirement of Atty. Nitz Cambangay from PPDO. He was serving concurrently as BLDF Vice Chair and shared our vision to establish an entity that could address the lack of sustainability in plans and programs for which vast resources are spent by the Government and its development partners from year to year, from one development decade to another.

When he passed away, the dream vanished with him. Let’s see if we can get support to revive the idea in this era of the SDGs. For comments, email: npestelos@gmail.com  #SDGsbohol

NMP/02 Sep 2015/7.36 p.m.  

SURVIVING DEVELOPMENT

For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey - for 23 August 2015 issue
NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

The other day I received a text message or SMS informing me that on 25 September, a Tuesday, the new global development agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SGS), would be launched in the country. I figured that would be less than two weeks after its official declaration by the UN General Assembly in New York. 

,
I was specifically requested to inform the sender, nameless and only a number, on how we intend to launch the SGS in “your municipalities or cities.”

The request made me think that some official or unofficial groups must have been formed some time back to drum up involvement in this new global agenda. This way of announcing a major event is quite a departure from the usual procedure adopted by the UN or the national government. Usually arrangements for such big events is done through planning bodies such as the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and its counterpart bodies such as the planning and development offices at provincial and municipal levels.

I decided to ignore the request and wait for more details about the source of the message, the event that was announced in so informal and unorthodox way and to focus more on the purpose of this week’s column to continue to orient readers on the new global development agenda coming their way. I am doing this not in any official capacity with the Government but as a development worker with a development NGO.

The reader will recall that so far I have discussed in the two previous columns the basics about the 17 SDGs and the focus on Localizing SDGs, as well as the implications of the global agenda to our development work here in Bohol.

On the eve of the international community’s adoption of a new development agenda, it is important to pause, review what have gone before and understand precisely how do we relate to the new global development agenda which emphasizes local action and commitment more than in previous advocacies.

To be sure, the past four decades or so has been an exhilarating ride for those in the emerging development industry, the planners, implementers, evaluators, and consultants, mostly paid for by international donors. It is not yet a thrilling ride yet for the millions who have yet to be brought to the mainstream of global development and partake of the services, benefits and entitlements under a global partnership.

With this in mind, let’s take a quick look at this journey taken in efforts towards achieving global development during the previous decades -
In the 1950s , the UN recognized that the emphasis on economic growth was misplaced, that there should be practical measures adopted to address poverty other than to increase the Gross National Product (GNP). Consequently, during the First UN Development Decade (1960-70), the conversations were mostly about economic growth and its integration with social development.

The UN realized that development focused almost exclusively on economic growth “leaves behind, or in some ways, even creates, large areas of poverty, stagnation, marginality and actual exclusion from social and economic progress …,” as stated in the UN Report of the 1969 Meeting of Experts on Social Policy and Planning.

On 24 October 1970, the UN called for the need to formulate an International Development Strategy and launched a project to identify a unified approach to development and planning “which would fully integrate the economic and social components in the formulation of policies and programmes.” The concern for a unified approach among the countries resulted in a grand disarray with each key problem being identified as candidate for integration: environment, population, hunger, women, habitat or employment.

Subsequently efforts failed to produce simple universal strategies which would make possible integration among key problems and within each defined problem area. Those involved in this exercise were “constantly in dispute arising from the old controversy over priorities and the day-to-day disputes among bureaucratic bodies for survival and allocation of resources.”
Although disappointing, this initial search for a unified approach to development was able to characterize the components needed to bring about such sought-after integration.

The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), organized in 1963, cited the need for components designed:

1. To leave no sector of the population outside the scope of change and development;
2. To effect structural change which favors national development and to activate all sectors of the population;
3. To aim at social equity, including the achievement of an equitable distribution of income and wealth in the nation;
4. To give high priority to the development of human potentials … the provision of employment opportunities and meeting the needs of children.

These key ideas have been reflected in succeeding efforts to focus development on people, that the purpose of development “should not be to develop things but to develop man.”

In June 1976, ILO organized the Conference on Employment, Income Distribution and Social Progress which resulted in the popular Basic Needs Approach, “aiming at the achievement of a certain specific minimum standard of living before the end of the century.” The World Bank adopted it as an approach because it could serve as sequel to a strategy it started in 1973 which focused on the rural poor and small farmers. The approach was also promoted by many governments and experts from various international organizations.

The Basic Needs Approach deals directly with the needs of specific target groups rather than meet these needs as a result of a generalized and long-winded development process. It satisfied the need for an approach that can be universally applied and country-specific at the same time.

During the same period, UNESCO advocated the concept of endogenous development. It arose from an analysis that development could not proceed as imitation of the industrial growth model but instead it must take into account the particularities of each country. At a later stage, it was observed that such a model could lead to the “dissolution of the very notion of development, after realizing the impossibility of imposing a single cultural model for the whole world.”

For the 1980s, known as the lost decade for development, adjustments were made in many countries to dismantle previous accomplishments to cope wth massive problems brought about upheavals in the world economy. During this decade, however, UNICEF launched globally its basic services strategy which aimed to deliver integrated services for children in relatively remote and disadvantaged communities.

By the 1990s, among the rich and industrialized countries, the so-called structural adjustments of the previous decade led to reassessment of achievements in the economy and socio-political reforms, as well as use of technologies which posed a threat to the environment. For the poor countries, the decade saw the “last and definitive assault against organized resistance to development and the economy.”

During this decade the phrase “Sustainable Development” became current as strategy or goal for what was called by the Bruntland Commission a “common future” for humankind. This concept provided a perspective for looking at development in a new light, in the context of economic, social and environmental factors which need to be harnessed for international peace, survival and progress.

In 1990, UNDP published the first Human Development Report which defines human development as both a process of expanding options for relevant human choices and as a level of achievement which compares improvements in human development among countries through the Human Development Index, combining indicators in life expectancy, literacy and income. Through the HDI, countries can be compared as to their performance in achieving human development from year to year.

From 2000 to 2015, the whole world pursued what have been known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) consisting of 8 goals and 21 targets. Now by next month, a new global development agenda will be unfurled termed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
It will consist of 17 goals and 169 targets which will be pursued from September 2015 to September 2030.

All these global development agendas from the First Development Decade (1960s to 1970s) to the MDGs (2000 to 2015) have influenced in some ways development planning and implementation in Bohol. Now that a new development agenda is about to be launched next month, it is best to review previous experiences and formulate a strategy on how best to move the process forward through involvement of local government units, civil society organizations and local communities in translating a global development agenda into actual plans and programs.

Indeed localizing SDGs must result in actual and measurable benefits to specific poverty groups and communities in the province. Otherwise, we will just be surviving development agendas with their avalanche of consultations, workshops and assessments with no significant projects on the ground to benefit the poor . ‪#‎Sustainabledevelopmentgoals‬

NMP/19 Aug 2015/ 6.40 p.m.