DFID Project: Institutionalizing Local and National Partnerships to Address Urban Poverty and Homelessness in the Philippines
Project Goals, Purpose and Expected Outputs:
Project Goal and Purpose:
The project’s goal is to provide improved access to housing and community services for the urban poor in the country.
Towards this goal, the purpose of the project is to develop and implement partnership models for the improvement of access to housing and community services for the urban poor in 4 regions in the Philippines and for wider dissemination and replication.
Expected Outputs:
1.Organised federations of urban poor groups in the city and national level with strengthened capacity to demand rights of access to housing and community services
2.Effective consultation and coordination mechanisms between urban poor groups and government authorities at city/ metropolitan and national level
3.Evidence-based and need-oriented housing and community development strategies developed (based on analysis of local assets and understanding of key institutional/ legal constraints)
4.2000 households benefiting from implementation of pilot projects for improving security of tenure and/or access to community services
5.Experiences and learning from the project shared with other urban poor groups and government authorities on metropolitan/city and national levels
Project Strategies:
1.Organizing, Consensus- Building and Empowerment of the Urban Poor
The project will organize the urban poor sector to give them a voice in the discourse on urban poverty and homelessness. It will equip them with proper knowledge, skills and attitudes for effective engagement with government to advocate their housing rights and demand government responsibility to help the poor to have access to land and housing. It will strengthen consensus-building processes and structures among them, not just on the community level, but also on the levels of city, region and nation. The emergence of women leaders will also be encouraged across all UP-ALL structures. Assistance will focus on Organizational Development, Gender Mainstreaming, Capacity-Building and Process Support.
The project will support, establish and/or strengthen 14 city-based UP-ALL formations (4 pilot cities and 10 partner cities) and the UP-ALL National Federation.
2.Social Research and Monitoring
The project will conduct relevant researches, both local and national, to have a common and baseline data as basis for a common understanding of the urban problems, assessing programme impacts, as well as the monitoring of Philippine achievements on the MDG, especially Goal 7, Target 11.
In the City Level, there will be city profiling and baselining in the first year and city monitoring and updating in the last year to measure the effect of the project in the city.
In the National Level, other researches will be undertaken in support of the Local Planning and Advocacy.
These will help in the analysis of the issues or urban poverty and homelessness and in the strategizing and planning for urban development and housing
3.Policy Advocacy and Dialogue
Public advocacy, dialogue and networking will be done in city, regional and national level to address poverty and housing issues such as evictions and resettlements, land use planning, social housing planning and finance, social service for the poor, among others.
The main activity and mechanism for policy and multi-stakeholder dialogue are:
Urban Development and Housing Dialogues:
•City Urban Development and Housing Summit
•Regional Urban Development and Housing Forum
•National Urban Development and Housing Summit.
These will be the venue for levelling-off on data and analysis or urban poverty and homelessness, strategizing and planning of interventions, as well as participatory reporting on the activities, outputs and commitments of the various project partners/ stakeholders.
The following advocacy activities will also be undertaken:
•UDHA Compliance/ Eviction Watch
•Policy Watch/ Advocacy for UP-ALL Agenda
•Budget Watch- Advocacy for Social Housing Budget
4.Modelling of Integrated Urban Development Approaches/ Strategies
The project will promote access to tenurial security and social housing, as well as modelling and piloting of technical and social innovations. These will be done both on the local and national levels.
There will be four main forms of assistance:
•Legal and Policy Assistance Funds
•Local Innovation and Leveraging Fund
•Capacity-Building and Partnership Fund
•Small-grants
Target direct beneficiaries will be at least 2000 households
5.International Partnerships for Learning and Solidarity
The project will also seek to develop partnerships with networks, programmes and projects in other countries to maximize opportunities to harness their experiences and learnings, as well as share our own experiences and learnings in the project as we conduct meaningful dialogue for mutual learning, empowerment, cooperation and solidarity. This may include international area visits and dialogues and participation in conferences and seminars.
6.Programme Learning and Knowledge Management Structures
The project will ensure that project experiences and learnings will be documented and synthesized, not just for the programme partners, but also for those interested in addressing urban poverty and homelessness in other countries.
A good project monitoring and evaluation system will be installed through project reporting, area monitoring visits, participatory assessment and planning sessions and a good programme-end evaluation.
There will be an appropriate process and video documentation system. There will also be programme publications. These will help to disseminate relevant information to specific stakeholders and sectors, and the general public, to enhance public awareness and generate programme support and participation.
