New ways of making services work for the poor

Our country is plagued with many problems, aggravated by numerous other issues related to the forthcoming May 10 elections. To us Filipinos, it is easier to fret and just complain about our quandaries and not think of doing something about them, or much more so, do organized planning and implementation of programs that can make basic services work for the poor. Many of us are asking: Is there hope for the Philippines? Should we actively pursue our immigration applications to some foreign territories? Who will bring us out of the trenches, and lead us to a brighter pathway?

The answers to these queries are in our hands. Let us stop looking for superheroes that can lead us out of the darkness. We should not look for leadership elsewhere but in ourselves. We should not get sidetracked by the fierce and puzzling political fight going on at the national or even local level. We should search for ways that can improve our communities, for more often than not it is there where we can find solutions to our problems. As former Philippine President Corazon Aquino emphasized, "It is the gesture of kindness and compassion from the most minute and seemingly irrelevant segments of our society where hope is truly lodged. It is the aspiration for a better life that is deep within our hearts that will propel us to our desired future as a nation."

Broad improvements in the welfare of the Filipinos will not occur unless our poor people receive wider access to affordable, quality services in education, health, water, sanitation, environment care and protection, power and electricity. Without such advancements in services, freedom from illness, and deliverance from illiteracy – two of the most vital ways marginalized people can escape poverty – will remain elusive to many.

Services work when people are mobilized to action – when children are encouraged to go to school, when community members are empowered to earn their own money through livelihood projects, when health-based projects are effected to enrich life and people, when the whole barangay takes charge of its own sanitation. Citizens of communities will work to their fullest potential when a comprehensive view of development is taken – acknowledging that a mother’s education will help her baby’s health and overall well-being, that building a road or a bridge will enable children to go to school, opening doors to a brighter future.

This Development Marketplace (DM) backdrop emboldened World Bank Philippines to sponsor the First Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace, a timely event dubbed Panibagong Paraan. It is a pioneering competition among civil society organizations that awards start up grants to projects that implement innovative ideas that can make services work for the poor. DM, a World Bank Group (WBG) initiative, turns ideas into action. It promotes novel development ideas through early stage seed funding. It links social entrepreneurs with poverty fighting concepts to partners with resources to operationalize their vision. Since ‘98, the DM has awarded more than $22 million to over 370 groundbreaking projects such as "Global Competitions" and "Country Innovation Days."

Consider these ideas: 1) coconut-based livelihood generation using renewable energy; 2) "Let there be light (and water)" through improved play pump for rural barangays; 3) poverty alleviation via aquaculture; 4) strengthening of access to justice systems and community development; 5) Bantay kalusugan sa paaralan; 6) entrepreneurship for the masses; 7) computer education on wheels; 8) promoting children as zones of peace; 9) biodiversity and eco-tourism and; 10) culinary training program. Inarguably, these concepts can make a difference in communities. Perhaps, not enough to grab the more dramatic headlines that we read everyday, but enough to start the fight against the fangs of hunger, the dangers of uncared-for environment, the perils of ignorance, and the risks of poor health and sanitation.

Locally, a total of 59 winners got funding for their innovative development ideas. More than P67 million or about $1.2 million in prizes were awarded to the winners during the closing and awarding ceremonies held recently at the SM Megatrade Hall 3 of the SM Megamall. Almost 1,800 entries were submitted when the competition was announced in September 2003. Out of these, a total of 121 finalists from Abra to Tawi-Tawi were selected based on the stringent criteria of innovativeness, partnership, impact and cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and replicability.

In her keynote address, Mrs. Aquino said, "Right here in this very hall is a marvelous collection of great work that creates hope in every person that these organizations help on a daily basis. Theirs is about more work and less talk, more of finding solutions together than just shouting slogans. Each and everyone of them, as well as others like them in other parts of our country deserve to be awarded for these groups did not wait for anyone to lead them."

Through partnerships with the donor community and grant-giving non-government organizations (NGOs), the award fund for Panibagong Paraan has more than tripled the original award funds from the WBG, making it possible to reward more winners than originally planned. The involvement of the government and other civil society groups in the advisory and technical working groups also contributed to the success of the event. The jury team was a distinguished multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder group composed of current and former government officials, members of the academic, civil society, media, business and donor community.

Robert Vance Pulley, World Bank Philippines country director, remarked, "In the fight against poverty, no single institution can do it alone. We must continue to nurture old partnerships and build new ones if we want to make a dent on the poverty situation of the country." In support of this statement, Mrs. Aquino added, "Multi-stakeholder partnerships are the building blocks of national development. They ensure sustainability of projects because the ownership is shared among many parties. This is a remarkable initiative of the WBG and all the other partners in development who have led and supported this partnership."

Director Chris Hoban, WB Philippines acting-country director, also stressed, "Panibagong Paraan is most of all, a good beginning for community-based groups in far-flung islands who were given the opportunities and the exposure to establish linkages and communications with their prospective partners in the capital and other parts of the country."

Fifteen of the 59 are special category winners. They got funding from specific donor agencies like the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). On top of the 50 awards, also given was the People’s Choice Award, where finalists voted for the winner themselves. It was bestowed to the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) with the project "WMSU-COPBA Extension Services Floating School." It won two scholarship grants from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) courtesy of AIM and the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF).

Panibagong Paraan was made possible through the WBG, in partnership with the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), Consuelo Foundation, Inc., League of Corporate Foundations (LCF), Makati Business Club (MBC), and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). It was funded by the following agencies: Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Embassy of Japan (EOJ), Fluor Daniel, Inc.—Philippines, Mirant Foundation, Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD), The Asia Foundation (TAF), United Nations Development Programme/GEF/Netherlands, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the WBG.

Panibagong Paraan is all about people power – getting ourselves organized and starting to do something positive. Let us stop lamenting and agonizing. Let us take responsibility for our families and communities. As Mrs. Aquino summoned, "Spend our precious time to care for the sick and the abused, pull our resources together so we can raise capital to give others livelihood, place duty to country and people ahead of our personal interests, and set aside politics for the higher goal of national unity and progress."

Tall orders indeed, but when done together, these can provide the spark, inspire, uplift, teach and transform our ailing society.

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Thank you for your letters. Continue to e-mail me at bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net.