(Legazpi City, Bicol, Philippines)
Project Background
A post disaster sharing of initiatives and learning among local and national non-government organizations on implementing emergency response has been conducted both at the local and National level.
Focus has been given particularly in the Province of Albay, because of the concert of disasters that visited the Province in recent years. By virtue of the physical and geographical character of Albay, natural disaster is part of the daily lives of the Albayano. Impending threats are the Mt. Mayon, for volcanic eruption, storm surges, earthquakes, floods and super typhoons, coupled with double digit poverty incidence needless to say drives the Albayanos/bicolanos into further vulnerability.
Based on the series of consultation and discussion of COPE staff in consultation with Christian Aid, the target community of the proposed BDRC project is the COPE/Christian Aid permanent housing partner-beneficiaries from the barangays of Padang, San Roque, Bonot, Pawa, Bogtong, Arimbay and Rawis of Legazpi City and from the select communities in the Municipality of Daraga-specifically Brgy. Tagas and Binitayan which is considered as high risk areas based on the study of Manila Observatory (MO) conducted this year, devastated by super-typhoon Durian in November 2006.
Total number of target beneficiaries of this project is 450 families. It will be composed of 170 families from two resettlement sites (Taysan 110 and Anislag 60) and 280 families from Brgy. Tagas (110) and Binitayan (170) who opted to stay in the area despite the high risks and high degree of vulnerability situation of the place.
The reasons of prioritizing the targeted 4 pilot communities in the BDRC project are as follows:
1. the 280 families in the brgys. of Tagas and Binitayan are considered as one of the high risk areas in the Municipality of Daraga, which entails the high degree of vulnerability of the families who opted to still stay in the area for some various individual reasons
2. based from the series of consultation conducted in the resettlement site, there is more to be done in the site aside from disaster-resilient and permanent housing, particularly in terms of LIVELIHOOD and HEALTH/SANITATION as they explicitly stressed
3. the continuity of intervention to the site thru community organizing and linking DRR initiatives to development work
4. the site is in dire need of external developmental intervention and the most appropriate community to be considered as the pilot community for the implementation of BDRC project.
This pilot BDRC project will start its implementation on September 15, 2008 with expected impact after six (6) months (or until March 15, 2008) of implementation up to one (1) year of program implementation. It is collectively decided by the members of the learning circles that after two (2) months of implementation there will be a sharing of experiences and learning among CAID partners who implement the BDRC project in the Philippines, and after the 6 months implementation a documentation of the learning, strategies and initiatives, impacts of the projects and experiences will be conducted by UPCSWD.
Project Concept
Community organizing will play a major role for the accomplishment of this project. The principles of participation, collective decision-making and actions, empowerment and people-centered development, as well as methods of community analysis, community education, conscientization, community organization and participatory planning will be integrated in the disaster risk reduction processes.
The implementation of this project will be based from the following components;
1. Social Protection (Health and Well Being, Physical Protection, Livelihoods, Structural and Technical Measures)
(for Tagas and Binitayan)
Under this component, the proponent of the project will assist the 2 identified high risk communities (Tagas and Binitayan) to strengthen and organized community mechanisms that will eventually lead to risk reducing initiatives and strategies of the communities. Capacity building of the community is the most essential part of this component and community organizing work, which happen to be one of the field of specialization of the proponent. Major target output of this are, formation of active and operational QRT’s, familiarization of the communities to the basic DRR concepts, identification of vulnerable groups, setting-up early warning system (EWS), formulation of disaster preparedness plan and community drills are conducted that will heightened the vigilance of the target communities to be prepared and resilient to future disasters.
(for Anislag and Taysan)
Building up the capacities of the target-beneficiaries in the 2 resettlement sites (Taysan and Anislag) for addressing the need for social protection and implementation of sustainable livelihood. Active participation of the target groups will plays a major in this component thru participatory planning and community initiated risk reducing activities. Community DRR plans, developed and implementation of livelihoods managed by the community, acquired knowledge in health care and nutrition, trained and committed community health workers (CHW) and agreements with medical schools, churches, other NGO’s to build up and sustained technical and advocacy supports are among the major identified outputs that will addressed the vulnerability of the community in terms of health and sanitation, and sustainable livelihood.
2. Environmental Management (physical protection and technical measures)
(for Tagas/Binitayan and Taysan/Anislag) Target groups understanding on local and natural environmental and their potential risks will be heightened and strengthened thru FGD’s and any other form of info dissemination with regards on the results of the MO study on the high risks areas. Training on Weather Forecasting will be conducted to PO leaders as preparation for gathering relevant information on climatic and environmental conditions that will be disseminated to the target communities by the organized QRT’s and community disaster information teams (CDIT) (that will part of the QRT’s). Proper waste disposal are planned and implemented in the target communities.
3. Planning Regimes
(for Tagas/Binitayan and Taysan/Anislag)
Enhancing the participation of the PO leaders in tripartite mechanisms that will concretized the integration of DRR into local governance. Advocacy work and lobbying are the key activities of the target communities in order to attain the objective of this component. A passed resolution to the concerned LGU’s requesting an adequate relocation intended for the families who are willing to relocate from Tagas and Binitayan (without precluding the initiatives and advocacy agenda of the key stakeholders in the Province of Albay in developing options for safer settlements in the context of Disaster Risk Reduction), DRR-conscious CLUP and development plans presented to Barangay and municipal/city special bodies, are among the target output of this component.
LIVELIHOOD COMPONENT OF THE BDRC PROJECT (for Taysan and Anislag)
The project will also make use of the sustainable livelihood seed money in the form of a loan assistance at PHP 3,000.00 each for a total of target of 136 partner-beneficiaries. At Taysan, we had initially identified 46 potential beneficiaries. And Anislag has 60 initial target Beneficiaries for a total of 106 partner-families for two sites. These target beneficiaries will still be subject to validation based on the following criteria: a. should be a good payor; b. managing an existing small business; and c. an actual resident in the Resettlement Site.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT POLICIES: (Livelihood Component of the BDRC Project)
The funds intended for the livelihood component of the BDRC project will be deposited in a separate bank account number, but still in the name of COPE Foundation and it will be separate from the COPE general bank account. The reasons for this are the following;
1. for security and safety purposes of the funds
2. to ensure a sound financial management system of the livelihood funds
3. to ensure a proper and efficient financial monitoring and evaluation of the livelihood funds
The three (3) signatories when there is transaction in the bank will be our COPE-Bikol Regional Coordinator, the Assistant Regional Coordinator and Nardito Sayson (COPE Bikol Staff) as the one who will handle and supervised the livelihood component of the project.
As part of the financial management system to observed clearly during the implementation of the project, a capacity building on “Simple Bookkeeping and Recording” will be conducted to the concerned identified PO’s from both sites and CO’s to ensure a proper and efficient handling of the financial management system of the project. The proponent will identified from our local allied stakeholders who are experts in financial management system to assists us in the conduct of the said capacity building, plus the proponent will maximized its personnel in the finance to also assist in the activity.
As financial management policy of the project, all loans will be made through CHECKS-for safety and security reasons duly signed by three signatories , and to ensure that the loaned amount thru checks will be directly named to the legitimate recipient of the livelihood projects. And only the legitimate recipient will be authorized to en-cash the check. Also, on the matter of disbursement and any other related transaction with the same nature will be made thru checks.
All loans shall be collected/claimed from the bank by the legitimate recipient, so that the assigned CO’s don’t have to carry cash in the area.
A receipt will be issued by the collector to the recipient during collection of payment of the loaned amount. And to ensure good payment turn-out, good standing payor will be rewarded an incentives by way of not paying his/her last day of payment.
Scheme of Loan Payment and Process:
Loan amount is P3,000.00 per beneficiary at 2%/ payable within 6 mos. The 2% of the loan [P60.00] shall be deducted from the loan able amount thus the net pay to the loaner shall be P2,940.00]. Part of the 2% shall be allocated for incidental expenses [receipts, cash book, journal, etc.] Another part of the 2% shall be allocated for transportation and honorarium of the collector and another for capital infusion as savings of the association or members.
The P2,940.00 shall be paid by the borrower in accordance with the policies as stated below:
1. The loan shall be paid within P120 days [excluding Fridays and Saturdays] at P25.00 daily.
2. No collection on Fridays and Saturdays to avoid collector from holding the collected amount because the Bank is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
3. The collected amount will be deposited to the bank the next day of collection, hence, collection on Fridays and Saturdays could not be deposited because the bank is closed.
4. The amount collected on Sundays will be deposited on Monday.
5. A collector from each relocation site {Anislag and Taysan] will be chosen by the group to go around the area everyday to collect payment and record it in his/her cash book, which he will remit to the bank on the next banking day.
6. The collector from each site will remit the money to the assigned CO for deposit to the bank.
Other financial scheme will be formulated together with the partner-beneficiaries to claim ownership in the formulation of the financial management system by the PO members.
COPE-Bikol Foundation, specifically the BDRC Team (2 CO’s assigned in Taysan and Anislag) will be assisting to manage the seed fund together with the officer and members of both housing sites. The PO’s will be tasked to assists in the collection of daily payment, in which a scheme will be formulated collectively by the partner-beneficiaries and our institution in order not to burden morethe members who are identified recipient of the said loan assistance. Aside from that, the PO’s will also be assigned to assists in the monitoring of the whole BDRC project to ensure their active participation and to build-up their sense of ownership to the project.
To ensure that the livelihood funds are revolving, we planning to stick to our initial identified recipient of the loan assistance, re; A) a good payor; B) managing an existing small business; and C) an actual resident in the Resettlement Site. But this is not to say we are closing some potential options to the most vulnerable groups in the communities. The most vulnerable groups who are identified in both sites will also be a priority of the loan assistance project, they will be assisted first by the assigned CO’s (plus we will tap the expertise of our local allied here in Legazpi City, who are expert in livelihood identification and management-which hopefully give their assistance for free) in identifying their livelihood opportunities focusing on the local potential resources and livelihood options inside the sites. After the identification of the potential livelihood opportunities of the most vulnerable groups, they will also be consulted on the interest rate of the loan assistance and their loan will be released.
The principle of gender equality in the implementation of the livelihood project will be emphasized thoroughly during the conduct of livelihood identification, livelihood management, series of PO meetings, decision-making, FGD-to ensure the gender friendly environment of this project.
Project Objectives
The General Objectives of the project is to strengthen the capacities of target communities in Binitayan, Tagas, Anislag and Taysan to prepare for and reduce risks of future disasters through community mechanisms for social protection and sustainable livelihoods.
The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
To assist target groups in Binitayan and Tagas organize and strengthen community mechanisms for disaster risk reduction
To build up the capacities of target groups in Anislag and Taysan for social protection and sustainable livelihoods
To strengthen the target groups understanding of local natural environment and their potential risks
To enhance participation of PO leaders in tripartite mechanisms towards DRR integration in Local governance
Focus has been given particularly in the Province of Albay, because of the concert of disasters that visited the Province in recent years. By virtue of the physical and geographical character of Albay, natural disaster is part of the daily lives of the Albayano. Impending threats are the Mt. Mayon, for volcanic eruption, storm surges, earthquakes, floods and super typhoons, coupled with double digit poverty incidence needless to say drives the Albayanos/bicolanos into further vulnerability.
Based on the series of consultation and discussion of COPE staff in consultation with Christian Aid, the target community of the proposed BDRC project is the COPE/Christian Aid permanent housing partner-beneficiaries from the barangays of Padang, San Roque, Bonot, Pawa, Bogtong, Arimbay and Rawis of Legazpi City and from the select communities in the Municipality of Daraga-specifically Brgy. Tagas and Binitayan which is considered as high risk areas based on the study of Manila Observatory (MO) conducted this year, devastated by super-typhoon Durian in November 2006.
Total number of target beneficiaries of this project is 450 families. It will be composed of 170 families from two resettlement sites (Taysan 110 and Anislag 60) and 280 families from Brgy. Tagas (110) and Binitayan (170) who opted to stay in the area despite the high risks and high degree of vulnerability situation of the place.
The reasons of prioritizing the targeted 4 pilot communities in the BDRC project are as follows:
1. the 280 families in the brgys. of Tagas and Binitayan are considered as one of the high risk areas in the Municipality of Daraga, which entails the high degree of vulnerability of the families who opted to still stay in the area for some various individual reasons
2. based from the series of consultation conducted in the resettlement site, there is more to be done in the site aside from disaster-resilient and permanent housing, particularly in terms of LIVELIHOOD and HEALTH/SANITATION as they explicitly stressed
3. the continuity of intervention to the site thru community organizing and linking DRR initiatives to development work
4. the site is in dire need of external developmental intervention and the most appropriate community to be considered as the pilot community for the implementation of BDRC project.
This pilot BDRC project will start its implementation on September 15, 2008 with expected impact after six (6) months (or until March 15, 2008) of implementation up to one (1) year of program implementation. It is collectively decided by the members of the learning circles that after two (2) months of implementation there will be a sharing of experiences and learning among CAID partners who implement the BDRC project in the Philippines, and after the 6 months implementation a documentation of the learning, strategies and initiatives, impacts of the projects and experiences will be conducted by UPCSWD.
Project Concept
Community organizing will play a major role for the accomplishment of this project. The principles of participation, collective decision-making and actions, empowerment and people-centered development, as well as methods of community analysis, community education, conscientization, community organization and participatory planning will be integrated in the disaster risk reduction processes.
The implementation of this project will be based from the following components;
1. Social Protection (Health and Well Being, Physical Protection, Livelihoods, Structural and Technical Measures)
(for Tagas and Binitayan)
Under this component, the proponent of the project will assist the 2 identified high risk communities (Tagas and Binitayan) to strengthen and organized community mechanisms that will eventually lead to risk reducing initiatives and strategies of the communities. Capacity building of the community is the most essential part of this component and community organizing work, which happen to be one of the field of specialization of the proponent. Major target output of this are, formation of active and operational QRT’s, familiarization of the communities to the basic DRR concepts, identification of vulnerable groups, setting-up early warning system (EWS), formulation of disaster preparedness plan and community drills are conducted that will heightened the vigilance of the target communities to be prepared and resilient to future disasters.
(for Anislag and Taysan)
Building up the capacities of the target-beneficiaries in the 2 resettlement sites (Taysan and Anislag) for addressing the need for social protection and implementation of sustainable livelihood. Active participation of the target groups will plays a major in this component thru participatory planning and community initiated risk reducing activities. Community DRR plans, developed and implementation of livelihoods managed by the community, acquired knowledge in health care and nutrition, trained and committed community health workers (CHW) and agreements with medical schools, churches, other NGO’s to build up and sustained technical and advocacy supports are among the major identified outputs that will addressed the vulnerability of the community in terms of health and sanitation, and sustainable livelihood.
2. Environmental Management (physical protection and technical measures)
(for Tagas/Binitayan and Taysan/Anislag) Target groups understanding on local and natural environmental and their potential risks will be heightened and strengthened thru FGD’s and any other form of info dissemination with regards on the results of the MO study on the high risks areas. Training on Weather Forecasting will be conducted to PO leaders as preparation for gathering relevant information on climatic and environmental conditions that will be disseminated to the target communities by the organized QRT’s and community disaster information teams (CDIT) (that will part of the QRT’s). Proper waste disposal are planned and implemented in the target communities.
3. Planning Regimes
(for Tagas/Binitayan and Taysan/Anislag)
Enhancing the participation of the PO leaders in tripartite mechanisms that will concretized the integration of DRR into local governance. Advocacy work and lobbying are the key activities of the target communities in order to attain the objective of this component. A passed resolution to the concerned LGU’s requesting an adequate relocation intended for the families who are willing to relocate from Tagas and Binitayan (without precluding the initiatives and advocacy agenda of the key stakeholders in the Province of Albay in developing options for safer settlements in the context of Disaster Risk Reduction), DRR-conscious CLUP and development plans presented to Barangay and municipal/city special bodies, are among the target output of this component.
LIVELIHOOD COMPONENT OF THE BDRC PROJECT (for Taysan and Anislag)
The project will also make use of the sustainable livelihood seed money in the form of a loan assistance at PHP 3,000.00 each for a total of target of 136 partner-beneficiaries. At Taysan, we had initially identified 46 potential beneficiaries. And Anislag has 60 initial target Beneficiaries for a total of 106 partner-families for two sites. These target beneficiaries will still be subject to validation based on the following criteria: a. should be a good payor; b. managing an existing small business; and c. an actual resident in the Resettlement Site.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT POLICIES: (Livelihood Component of the BDRC Project)
The funds intended for the livelihood component of the BDRC project will be deposited in a separate bank account number, but still in the name of COPE Foundation and it will be separate from the COPE general bank account. The reasons for this are the following;
1. for security and safety purposes of the funds
2. to ensure a sound financial management system of the livelihood funds
3. to ensure a proper and efficient financial monitoring and evaluation of the livelihood funds
The three (3) signatories when there is transaction in the bank will be our COPE-Bikol Regional Coordinator, the Assistant Regional Coordinator and Nardito Sayson (COPE Bikol Staff) as the one who will handle and supervised the livelihood component of the project.
As part of the financial management system to observed clearly during the implementation of the project, a capacity building on “Simple Bookkeeping and Recording” will be conducted to the concerned identified PO’s from both sites and CO’s to ensure a proper and efficient handling of the financial management system of the project. The proponent will identified from our local allied stakeholders who are experts in financial management system to assists us in the conduct of the said capacity building, plus the proponent will maximized its personnel in the finance to also assist in the activity.
As financial management policy of the project, all loans will be made through CHECKS-for safety and security reasons duly signed by three signatories , and to ensure that the loaned amount thru checks will be directly named to the legitimate recipient of the livelihood projects. And only the legitimate recipient will be authorized to en-cash the check. Also, on the matter of disbursement and any other related transaction with the same nature will be made thru checks.
All loans shall be collected/claimed from the bank by the legitimate recipient, so that the assigned CO’s don’t have to carry cash in the area.
A receipt will be issued by the collector to the recipient during collection of payment of the loaned amount. And to ensure good payment turn-out, good standing payor will be rewarded an incentives by way of not paying his/her last day of payment.
Scheme of Loan Payment and Process:
Loan amount is P3,000.00 per beneficiary at 2%/ payable within 6 mos. The 2% of the loan [P60.00] shall be deducted from the loan able amount thus the net pay to the loaner shall be P2,940.00]. Part of the 2% shall be allocated for incidental expenses [receipts, cash book, journal, etc.] Another part of the 2% shall be allocated for transportation and honorarium of the collector and another for capital infusion as savings of the association or members.
The P2,940.00 shall be paid by the borrower in accordance with the policies as stated below:
1. The loan shall be paid within P120 days [excluding Fridays and Saturdays] at P25.00 daily.
2. No collection on Fridays and Saturdays to avoid collector from holding the collected amount because the Bank is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
3. The collected amount will be deposited to the bank the next day of collection, hence, collection on Fridays and Saturdays could not be deposited because the bank is closed.
4. The amount collected on Sundays will be deposited on Monday.
5. A collector from each relocation site {Anislag and Taysan] will be chosen by the group to go around the area everyday to collect payment and record it in his/her cash book, which he will remit to the bank on the next banking day.
6. The collector from each site will remit the money to the assigned CO for deposit to the bank.
Other financial scheme will be formulated together with the partner-beneficiaries to claim ownership in the formulation of the financial management system by the PO members.
COPE-Bikol Foundation, specifically the BDRC Team (2 CO’s assigned in Taysan and Anislag) will be assisting to manage the seed fund together with the officer and members of both housing sites. The PO’s will be tasked to assists in the collection of daily payment, in which a scheme will be formulated collectively by the partner-beneficiaries and our institution in order not to burden morethe members who are identified recipient of the said loan assistance. Aside from that, the PO’s will also be assigned to assists in the monitoring of the whole BDRC project to ensure their active participation and to build-up their sense of ownership to the project.
To ensure that the livelihood funds are revolving, we planning to stick to our initial identified recipient of the loan assistance, re; A) a good payor; B) managing an existing small business; and C) an actual resident in the Resettlement Site. But this is not to say we are closing some potential options to the most vulnerable groups in the communities. The most vulnerable groups who are identified in both sites will also be a priority of the loan assistance project, they will be assisted first by the assigned CO’s (plus we will tap the expertise of our local allied here in Legazpi City, who are expert in livelihood identification and management-which hopefully give their assistance for free) in identifying their livelihood opportunities focusing on the local potential resources and livelihood options inside the sites. After the identification of the potential livelihood opportunities of the most vulnerable groups, they will also be consulted on the interest rate of the loan assistance and their loan will be released.
The principle of gender equality in the implementation of the livelihood project will be emphasized thoroughly during the conduct of livelihood identification, livelihood management, series of PO meetings, decision-making, FGD-to ensure the gender friendly environment of this project.
Project Objectives
The General Objectives of the project is to strengthen the capacities of target communities in Binitayan, Tagas, Anislag and Taysan to prepare for and reduce risks of future disasters through community mechanisms for social protection and sustainable livelihoods.
The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
To assist target groups in Binitayan and Tagas organize and strengthen community mechanisms for disaster risk reduction
To build up the capacities of target groups in Anislag and Taysan for social protection and sustainable livelihoods
To strengthen the target groups understanding of local natural environment and their potential risks
To enhance participation of PO leaders in tripartite mechanisms towards DRR integration in Local governance
No comments:
Post a Comment