De La Salle University - Manila

SDRC Sponsors Capacity Building Workshops for DILG

The Social Development Research Center is currently sponsoring a series of capacity building workshops on LGU MDG data processing, analysis, and utilization" for regional and provincial mobile teams and national representatives of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The capacity building activities are being conducted as part of the SDRC's UNDP-NEDA funded project entitled "Complementing DILG Assessment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Localization Efforts: Cross-checking LGU Data and Capacity Building on Data Analysis and Utilization." The multidisciplinary project team is composed of SDRC Research Fellows and Associates: Ms. Ma. Angeles Lapeña of the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Psychology Department, Ms. Cristina Rodriguez and Dr. Jesusa Marco of the CLA Behavioral Sciences Department, and Dr. Benito Teehankee of the DLS Professional Schools Human Resources Department.

The project is being undertaken to complement DILG's tracking of LGU initiatives and progress toward the achievement of MDGs. Through the project, SDRC's technical expertise is provided to DILG regional and provincial focal persons on the analysis of MDG-related data generated by the LGUs, as well as, on data management and utilization. The capacity building activities have been designed to focus on collaborative and evidence-based problem solving strategies, guided by the quality assurance principles of continuous process improvement, management by fact, and standards in local governance. The capacity building workshop participants from DILG are expected to provide technical assistance in turn to LGUs on the processing, analysis, and utilization of their MDG tracking data.

Five capacity building workshops, primarily aimed at ensuring sustainability in the implementation of the MDGs through a regular or institutional use of DILG MDG tracking data and statistics for program evaluation, are being held with two clusters each for Luzon and Mindanao, and one for the Visayas. An estimated total of 200 participants are expected to attend the capacity building sessions. The workshops began on November 14-16 at the DLSU campus with 39 participants from Luzon (Regions IVA, IVB, V, and NCR); 2 other workshops were held on November 19-20 at the Pearlmont Inn in Cagayan de Oro with 59 participants attending the two Mindanao cluster workshopss (one for participants from Regions X and XI, and the other for Regions IX, XII, and XIII). The remaining capacity building will be ongoing until first week of December.