Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance, Balay Mindanaw and Tagum Cooperative Shine at the Galing Pook Awards Night
This year Galing Pook recognizes the initiatives of individuals and civil society organizations that continuously seek to provide a wealth of insights and innovative solutions to produce value for community development and to promote citizen engagement. The Galing Pook Citizenship Award complements Galing Pook Foundation’s efforts to promote good governance and encourage meaningful citizen participation.
Dr. Eddie Dorotan, executive director of Galing Pook said, “this year, our focus is on citizen engagement. Citizens are at the heart of good governance, and governments are genuinely more effective when they listen to and work with citizens, to solve developmental challenges especially in local governance.” Galing Pook is behind the pioneering Galing Pook Awards for Outstanding Local Governance Program, the annual nationwide search for the ten most innovative and excellent local governance programs.
The Galing Pook 1st Citizenship Award winners exhibit exceptional participation in promoting the results- oriented exercising of citizenship to engage the government and make it actually work specially at the local levels. Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. (BMFI) is among the civil society organizations that have been pursuing efforts to put an end to armed conflict through peace building and development programs. BMFI, believing in community-based, barangay focused approach, operates in more than 40 conflict-affected or disaster-affected communities throughout Mindanao and implements integrated and participatory programs at the barangay level. Because of BMFI’s efforts, communities and their leaders have shifted from thinking of peace as merely a security issue to peace as a development issue in which they have a role to play.
The community-based monitoring of government programs and services of the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government, Inc. (CCAGG) has continued to undertake constructive engagement with government to secure information that is essential to monitoring public works projects and pushing the needed reforms. Among the programs that CCAGG monitored is the Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCTP) or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P). Likewise, Tagum Cooperative through its educational and various community development, scholarships, nutrition and health programs, and a host of other supports services, including savings and insurance facilities.
The Awarding Ceremony was the culmination of the first ever Galing Pook Governance Fair dubbed as Mamamayan, Mamamayani!. The 3-day event, promoting good governance and citizenship, was made possible through the partnership of Galing Pook, the private sector, local and national government units and civil society organizations. “Our good governance campaign aims to instill in the hearts and minds of local chief executives, officers, and the general public the importance of shared responsibility and accountability toward achieving sustainable and inclusive development. Furthermore, it will inspire the local government units and its people to continuously think and create the best innovative reform agenda carrying out the values of transparency, accountability, participation and effective governance,” says Dr. Dorotan.
Partners and sponsors joining the governance fair believe that good governance is essential in fostering a conducive investment climate and creating much needed employment for the poor. Sustaining these practices is also seen to improve the delivery of basic social services to the public.
The 2015 Galing Pook Good Governance Fair is supported by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Local Government Academy (LGA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). This activity is also held in partnership with The World Bank, Government of Australia-Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Postal Corporation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), LGSP‐LED/Canada, UNICEF, SEAOIL Foundation, Microsoft, CODE-NGO, Synergeia Foundatio, and the ABS‐CBN News Channel (ANC).