Questions and Anwers on Poverty Alleviation Efforts
1. How do local government units (LGUs) prepare and implement
their local poverty reduction plans, and how are these integrated into their
respective Comprehensive Development Plans (CDPs)?
In our experience, the creation of Bayambang's local poverty
reduction plan was the result of heated discussions in one meeting involving
the Local Poverty Reduction Action Team, a special body (meaning, it's a body
composed of LGU people, national agency reps, and private sector reps) tasked
with initiating meaningful poverty-alleviation drives.
It so happened that our mayor, Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao, is
one very passionate man when it comes to poverty alleviation. He is passionate
about the subject that, one fine day, on a National Heroes' Day in 2017, he
dramatically declared a Rebolusyon Laban sa Kahirapan for the whole
municipality.
Then in succeeding days, upon our mayor's order, we found
ourselves making a series of initiatives toward this purpose. The Mayor wanted
us to craft the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Action Plan 2018-2028, a ten-year
plan, to state the obvious.
It was a tall order. It was so stressful to even begin to
think about the enormity of what it entailed. Even though I came from NAPC, I
was the first one to admit that I didn't know everything on the subject of
poverty, much less how to combat it on the municipal level.
As the administrator, I knew we had to strategize. The first
thing we did is to hold a series of consultation with various sectors of
society through various summits. We had a Farmers Summit, Negosyante Summit,
Youth Summit, and so on, and then we also gathered all basic sectors into one
whole-day affair filled with dialogues and discussions. We needed inputs from
those who were actually affected.
Of course, we had to invite over NAPC to teach us how to go
about this business of making such a plan.
We also had to hire a technical consultant from outside, a
veteran in developmental work, to coach us through a writing workshop.
All departments worked hard on their assigned parts until
little by little we were able to actually come up with an entire plan in book
form. We published that book, BPRP 2018-2028, and gave all LGU departments and
various sectors a copy.
Now we have a solid blueprint or 'bible' from which to base
our PPAs focused on poverty reduction/alleviation/elimination.
Since then, we have updated our 'bible' twice in response to
the covid-19 pandemic and the new socio-economic realities ("new
normal" and the inflation brought about the the Ukraine-Russia war) after
that.
As for integrating BPRP into CDP, I am thankful that we have
competent technical people from the DILG to guide us also, so we were sure we
were doing it right. We saw to it that BPRP 2018-2028 and our updated CDP
matched. This meant another round of trainings and workshops.
2. How do LGUs enhance the participation of basic sectors in
policymaking and governance?
Like I have said, we promoted ownership of the plan at the
outset by making sure they were there in the crafting process since Day One. We
made sure the inputs are their own inputs plus our inputs from the LGU. It's a
collection of ideas from all sectors. I am personally proud of the outcome and
I am happy that we were able to do it at all, considering everything.
I guess the trick lies in convincing all sectors that the
issue of poverty is worth sitting down for for one whole day and beyond. We
knew how impatient a lot of people can get, but to ensure that they'd attend,
we had this crazy idea of having a raffle draw all throughout the sessions
throughout the day, and with attractive prizes too.
It so happened that we were so lucky to have a wealthy and
generous mayor supporting us every step of the way, oftentimes with his own
funds.
I guess our people sensed the importance of our grand
project, and maybe -- and I am now speculating -- they were able to discern our
sincerity, that what we were spouting were not just words of grandstanding or
political glittering generalities that are long on promise but short on
output...
Plus of course there was the novelty of it all. I mean, we
had no template to work on, for we haven't heard of any LGU or municipality
having done before or doing what we were doing at the time -- Anti-Poverty
Summit, Poverty Reduction Plan, and all that. I believe the novelty of the
effort also attracted our target participants.
3. What strategies do LGUs employ to effectively implement
poverty alleviation at the local level?
I am glad you asked the question. Making a tangible plan is
one thing; actually implementing such a plan is quite another.
In our case, I think the biggest factor is our leadership. We
had a very successful businessman and philanthropist as mayor -- as
unconventional as it gets. If you knew Cezar Quiambao, he's a technical guy, a
very smart accountant/CPA. You don't mess with such a no-nonsense character,
you know what I mean?
Quiambao was pretty dead serious, so we all have to work
ourselves off until the job gets done. He just won't stop until he sees
results, and as his admin, I have imbibed that impatience with coming up with
results. Monitoring, updating, evaluation -- these should be regular, in fact
done quarterly, or else nothing gets done. We owe it also to the public to
ensure that the ideas they have contributed get done in the end, so they won't
feel betrayed.
Non-performing or under-performing departments or heads get a
dressing down, if not the axe if they dont deliver.
4. What recommendations can ensure alignment and convergence
between national development plans and local initiatives led by LGUs?
Like I said, we invited officers from the DILG to guide us
with making use that there was indeed convergence between BPRP and other
mandated plans, not just CDP, but also our ELA, AIP, CLUP, and even SDG and
MDG. This way, we make sure that our plans do not contradict other mandated
plans.
We also have a very active and knowledgeable planning officer
and planning department to check for any inconsistencies.
We allocated resources for these endeavors, just so we will
achieve alignment among all these mandated plans with out anti-poverty plan.
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