Butuan City, Philippines – The Annual National Convention of the League of Local Planning and Development Coordinators was held on June 18-22 at Butuan City, Philippines. With the theme, “Strengthening Capabilities and Alliances of Planning Practitioners for Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Development,” the five-day convention was attended by about 900 local planners and development coordinators from all over the Philippines. Topics focused on the enhancement of the local planning processes to be responsive to current development directions and challenges related to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and inclusiveness and economic sustainability.
Technical experts from government agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Climate Change Commission (CCC), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), among other line agencies, and planning offices of the local government units shared experiences, strategies, models and practices in development planning and governance on the said focus areas during the convention. Notably, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) was the only non-government agency invited to take part in the national convention.
Maricor Muzones, Project Lead of the “Mainstreaming Green Growth in Development Planning Project” implemented by GGGI in coordination with NEDA, was invited to serve as a resource speaker on mainstreaming green growth in local development planning. During her presentation, she shared the opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned in mainstreaming green growth in local development planning as informed by the pilot testing of a Green Growth Planning Toolkit in the two partner provinces of Bataan and Dinagat Islands and in the localization of the MSMED Plan with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). At the end of her presentation, planners and development coordinators from various local planning offices expressed appreciation and interest in replicating the project in their respective provinces and municipalities.
Building on existing government guidelines like the Provincial/ Local Planning and Expenditure Management Guidelines, the Green Growth Planning Toolkit presents information on green growth concepts, approach and outcomes; features some good practices in the areas of energy, tourism and MSME development. It also provides a step-by-step approach to how green growth is mainstreamed at various entry points along the planning stage with focus on energy planning for the Province of Bataan and tourism planning for the Province of Dinagat Islands. Training modules were developed to implement the mainstreaming process following the green growth approach embodied in the Green Growth Planning Toolkit.
About the Project
The Mainstreaming Green Growth in Development Planning Project provides support to NEDA, as the lead planning agency in the localization of the Long Term Vision 2040 by mainstreaming green growth in national and local development plans, and enhancing the capacity of LGUs in development planning using green growth lens. The overall objective is to promote climate resilience and inclusive growth through the institutionalization of green growth tools and guidelines in the national and local development planning processes of the country.