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Duration:
Two years
Current
Donor Partner: The Magsaysay Foundation gave IIRR a grant of
US$ 10,000 for start-up activities
Additional
funds needed: US$ 15,000
Background
The
Bicol region of the Philippines is the second poorest in the
country. Persistent poverty among the region's rural communities
is aggravated and perpetuated by the degradation of the natural
resources. Because people are dependent on the natural resources
for their livelihood, only by addressing the interrelated causes
of resource degradation with the active participation of local
communities in Bicol can poverty be reduced effectively and in a
sustainable manner.
A
review of watershed management programs in the Philippines
(including the Bicol region) by DENR in 1998 in partnership with
the Danish Government stressed the need to broaden the
institutional base for the promotion and implementation of
watershed management programs. This involves devolving the rights
and responsibilities for management of specific watersheds or
parts of a watershed to concerned communities, local government
authorities and other suitable organizations. This “paradigm
shift” in watershed management strategy in the Philippines has
brought new challenges, especially building the capacities of
communities and local governments to manage development programs.
In
response to these challenges, IIRR has selected four watershed
areas in the Bicol region for its Learning Community Program in
the Philippines. Together with community groups, government and
nongovernmental stakeholders, IIRR identified 12 municipalities in
the four provinces of Albay,
Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, and Masbate.
Within
the broader context of the Learning Community Program in Bicol,
IIRR proposes local-level capacity building to enable communities
and local government units to plan, implement and monitor
watershed resource management programs in a participatory manner.
This capacity building project will target communities and local
government personnel in 12 municipalities in the four provinces (Albay,
Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, and Masbate) of the Bicol region covered
by IIRR’s Learning Community Program.
Project
objectives
To
promote participatory, community-based integrated watershed
management through the implementation of a medium-term education and training program that
will enhance the capacities of community leaders, local government
personnel, and other
stakeholders concerned with sustainable livelihood and
conservation of natural resources in the selected municipalities
in the Bicol region. Specifically, the training program aims:
a.
To identify the competency needs for participatory
watershed management among different levels of stakeholders, e.g.,
community, local government, NGO;
b.
To conduct needs-based training in order to strengthen the
skills and capacity of the participating stakeholders to
effectively plan and implement a sustainable participatory
community-based integrated watershed management program; and
c.
To assess the extent to which participants have acquired
core competencies toward learning outcomes through action planning
efforts.
Project
strategy : Interactive and hands-on
training
In
line with IIRR’s participatory and learning-by-doing philosophy,
these capacity building activities will be output-oriented,
focused on ‘practice’, and aimed to help community
representatives and local government personnel to jointly plan and
implement watershed management programs in a participatory manner.
The learning element will be in an ‘interactive mode’ - a
combination of classroom, workshop and practical field training
activities.
The
site of the field training will be a micro-watershed within each
of the four major sites identified. Communities, local government
officials, will select these micro-watershed sites together with
IIRR based on agreed criteria. These sites will serve as ‘starter projects’ upon which
the community will develop and implement a watershed management
program with the support of the local government, other partners
and IIRR. Therefore key outputs of these training activities will
be sets of proposals or action plans which will have the support
of the local communities to improve the natural resource situation
of the watersheds.
IIRR
has used this training methodological approach to community-based
watershed management in
more than 12 international, regional and national training cum field
projects conducted in the Philippines, Kenya, Ethiopia, Vietnam,
Laos, India and China with positive results.
Project
cost
The
estimated project cost for developing and implementing the
training activities is $25,000.
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