On February 7, GGGI and Philippines’ Climate Change Commission co-organized a strategic planning workshop to strengthen and plan the 2018 activities for the operationalization of the People’s Survival Fund, a special fund in the Philippine National Treasury that finances climate change adaptation programs and projects.
In the strategic planning workshop, the Technical Evaluation Systems and Services of the CCC, which leads the capacity building initiatives relating the access to the PSF, enjoined all the other units of the Commission and its development partners, namely, GGGI, GIZ and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) to look back at the accomplishments and milestone work done in 2017, which later informed the direction and would-be PSF related activities this 2018.
Through the leadership of the CCC and its partnership with development partners, particularly GGGI, many accomplishments which include the development of the monitoring and evaluation system for proposals, capacity development plan for the PSF Unit, strategic roadmap, mechanisms on how civil society organizations can access the PSF, and IEC materials (“climate 101” and “how to access the PSF fund”) were done to inform better operationalization of the PSF. These also supported efforts to increase awareness and capacitate local government units and local community organizations to access the PSF.
More so, several project proposal writing workshops were also conducted in 2017. In these workshops, GGGI provided technical expertise in 12 coaching and mentoring training workshops on developing climate change adaptation projects fit for PSF covering roughly 120 LGUs. A training of trainers for selected academic institutions in the Mindanao region was also held through the partnership between GGGI, Environmental and Climate Change Research Institute of De La Salle Araneta University, and Mindanao Development Authority.
This year, the CCC envisions a more regional approach in conducting PSF related capacity development. It is also building strategic partnerships with the University of the Philippines (UP) Resilience Institute and other state universities and colleges through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) which shall enable academic institutions provide technical expertise, vis-à-vis the local context of communities in drafting LGU proposals. The CCC will also establish regional composite teams which will serve as pool of experts, which can be tapped by stakeholders in preparing PSF project proposals.
“In 2018, GGGI will continue its support to the Commission in strengthening its operationalization efforts of the PSF through the development of the PSF Financing Policy Framework, PSF resource mobilization strategy, and provide technical expertise in the upcoming trainings and proposal writing workshops,” said Marlene Vinluan, GGGI Project Lead – Support to the Operationalization of the People’s Survival Fund.
Other units in the CCC and development partners also reiterated their continued support. “The CCC values its partnership with development partners – GGGI, GIZ and ICSC. We look forward to the continued collaboration with our partners. Regardless of expertise and affiliation, we are all here to help address vulnerabilities of local communities,” said Commissioner Noel Gaerlan, Climate Change Commission.
About the Project
The Support to the Operationalization of the People’s Survival Fund Project provides support to (i) strengthen the Climate Change Commission as one of the PSF Board member in delivering its mandate and function to mainstream climate change policies in the national and local development plans and projects; (ii) capacitate decision makers to prioritize climate resilient programs for sustainable planning and investment decisions; and (iii) assist the LGUs in project identification and development, and in complying with the processing requirements of the PSF and other similar climate financing facilities, given that poorer LGUs are relatively behind in terms of capacity to satisfy the technical conditions and requirements of PSF.
The Project has three components: (a) Component 1: Institutional Strengthening; (b) Component 2: Project Development; and (c) Component 3: Resource Mobilization.