CEBU, Philippines - To develop and enhance the capabilities of the local officials as managers for local development, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will train the incoming set of newly-elected officials.
According to DILG Secretary Ronaldo V. Puno, the Newly Elected Officials (NEO) program is a comprehensive training program that aims to prepare the newly-elected local officials when they assume their duties and responsibilities as leaders in their respective communities.
He added that the program was initiated by the DILG through the Local Government Academy and other development partners.
“We are ready to help and assist our incoming local officials to enable them to confront and overcome challenges in local governance,” Puno said.
Moreover, the NEO program has four major components which are ensuring smooth transition, laying the foundation, building alliances and sharpening the saw.
The first component which is ensuring smooth transition aims to facilitate smooth transition of powers and authorities from the outgoing to the incoming local officials through the creation of transition teams in each LGU.
While laying the foundation shall be implemented in two tracks: Track 1-A (My First 100 Days in Office), a rundown on the critical steps of the first 100 days in office of the local chief executives, especially for the first timers in the position.
Adding to that, Track 1-B (Knowing my LGU), a presentation of the state of local governance report, state of development report and financial capacity in their respective LGUs.
Furthermore, Track 2 (Fine Tuning My Competencies) is a venue for peer-based sharing of innovative ways of performing the duties and responsibilities of local officials.
In addition to that, building alliances is the output which shall be a Provincial Development Roadmap which identifies the common points of collaboration and cooperation of the cities and municipalities to bring about development in the province.
Lastly, sharpening the saw is a demand-driven program where LGUs match their requirements with the existing capacity development services and training packages.
“Through this program, DILG hopes to bring about a cadre of development-oriented local officials who will be able to translate their local development roadmaps to promote local economic development in their communities,” DILG-7 Pedro A. Noval said. — Chessa Elaine Antipuesto and Abigail Libo-on, NORSU Interns/WAB