Scene at Scenes: 3rd City to City Exchange LCP UN HABITAT UNICEF

Pasay City is set to test a newly developed poverty monitoring tool to better provide its informal settler families (ISFs) strategic programs to make them resilient and safe from disasters and crime and violence. This initiative was the highlight of the 3rd City to City Exchange of the LCP UN HABITAT UNICEF Safe and Resilience Cities Project on May 18-20, 2015 at Midas Hotel, Pasay City.

Pasay City Mayor Antonino Calixto welcomed the initiative and underscored the importance of using technology as tool to enhance poverty targeting. This despite the budget constraints cities face and the massive investments it requires. This will help cities share knowledge and information, “we are able to gain insights on the successful as well as the not so successful projects,” he added.

The ISF survey database, co-developed by UN HABITAT and UNICEF, presents an alternative tool to better respond service delivery for ISFs. Chris Rollo, UN HABITAT Country Program Manager, said the tool had been tested in Tacloban, Guiuan, and Ormoc local governments in Region VIII to help them in their recovery and rehabilitation efforts from Typhoon Yolanda/ Haiyan.

Through the city exchange program, NCR cities learn how the Visayas-based LGUs used the database in enriching their poverty data. ‘We hope we can build on in terms of enhancing of what has been seen as an effective tool used in Tacloban, Ormoc and Guiuan in terms of understanding the situation and deciding specific interventions,” Rollo added.

The three-day training program features hands-on training on the ISF database using a geo-tag system. Participants also include technical personnel from Mandaluyong and Quezon City. During the training, they were required to bring an android tablet to download the survey tool and simulate the questionnaires. They also revised the survey questions to make it applicable in their own urban context.

Pasay City Administrator Dennis Acorda said that with the ISF database tool, it becomes easier for Pasay City to mine data as bases for a more informed policy decisions. ‘Technology is available and we appreciate its advantages. I believe in gathering data as a basis of policy and programs and that is how governance should be and that is how should government decide,’ he added.

Currently, Pasay City uses Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) as a poverty monitoring tool. ‘The ISF database is expected to provide support to the data to be gathered from the CBMS. It will build on the CBMS information. But this is a focused instrument on ISFs and vulnerability to disasters,’ Mr. Rollo emphasized.

Rommel Martinez, UNICEF Coordinator, said the ISF survey database is benefiting the project’s pilot LGUs in ensuring women and children’s issues are addressed as they become the most vulnerable in informal settlements. ‘The City to City Exchange is a mechanism in the Safe and Resilience Cities Program. I hope the tool will be shared not only in the six LGUs but also in cities across the country,” he added.

The 3rd City to City Exchange caps off the Safe and Resilience Project that LCP has implemented with support from the UN HABITAT and UNICEF. The six-month project organized series of learning exchanges and mentoring program among pilot LGUs to draw out local practices in the aspect of improving local capacities for safety and resilience. The pilot LGUs are Pasay, Mandaluyong, and Quezon cities (in NCR) and Tacloban, Ormoc, and Guiuan (in Region VIII).

During the 1st exchange, NCR cities presented some of their local programs to Tacloban, Guiuan, and Ormoc participants for possible replication as these would form part in their rehabilitation period.

In the 2nd exchange, NCR cities mentored Tacloban, Ormoc, and Guiuan in the initiation of its possible replication of their chosen programs like the Mandaluyong’s Welfareville Commission, a local initiative focusing on the concerns and issues in the Metro Manila’s biggest informal settlement; Garden City of Life, a one-stop shop local columbarium and city cemetery (Mandaluyong City); Bistekville Program, an award-winning low-cost socialized housing, and the Community Mortgage Program in Quezon City, and Pasay City’s values-based livelihood programs like the FACES, FEDROW, and Rainwater Harvesting Project. The Visayas-based local governments also showcased their programs and shared their implementation strategies in the rehabilitation and recovery programs since Typhoon Haiyan struck their area barely two year ago.

Th 3rd exchange enabled NCR cities to appreciate the process in developing an ISF database tool within the context of safety and resilience as this has been tried and tested in Tacloban, Ormoc, and Guiuan. Pasay City committed to pilot test the ISF database tool under the guidance of UN HABITAT and LCP. (by Paulie Mora)