Integrating social development

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

MANILA -- The Copenhagen summit for global warming and climate change might have failed, but that is only as far as the national governments are concerned. As we wait for the next summit in Mexico , we should not pin our hopes in that future date and instead we should act now, in the level of our own local governments.

It will perhaps take a long time before the national governments could come to terms when it comes to global warming, because the prescribed solutions could possibly threaten the economic survival of the industrialized nations. On the other hand, the lack of solutions is also a threat to the ecologic survival of the industrializing nations. This is essentially where the conflict lies.

Back at the level of the local governments, the conflict is between the interests of the industrialized companies and their host communities. By this, I do not just mean local manufacturing waste, but also post-consumer waste in the form of non-biodegradable packaging and run-off materials. The problems are humungous, but solutions could be found if cooperation is put into place.

Long before global warming entered the vocabulary, the concept of integrated area development (IAD) was already a buzz word in the development circles. Unfortunately, IAD was dismissed along with Martial Law, perhaps because of the mistaken notion that it was an invention of the Marcos government.

The same is true in the case of the human settlements concept. It was also dismissed along with Martial Law, having been identified with the Marcos government. The sad thing is, the succeeding governments did not have anything to replace the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), and have not done anything about IAD either.

On top of the apparent failures of the Regional Development Councils (RDCs), the government is now gearing up to convene the Local Development Councils (LDCs), appearing to be the same banana with another name. Just as the RDCs have ignored the IAD concept, there is little hope that it will get the attention of the LDCs.

Going straight to the point before I run out of space, it should be made a policy that the RDCs or the LDCs as the case may be should have a direct hand in the utilization of both the internal revenue allocations (IRAs) and the countryside development funds (CDF). This is just common sense, because with no money to boot, these local councils could hardly do anything.

Last week, I attended a forum where two British Members of Parliament (MPs) spoke about the status of their politics and governance. In the course of the discussion, they mentioned the British system of having a shadow government, which in a way serves as a watchdog to the party in power. This is a good practice that should also be implemented here.

Considering the possibility that the local governments here could fail in the politics and governance of climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR), I think that the private sector should put up their own shadow government to watchdog the local parties in power, and throw in as well the IAD concept into the agenda.

In pursuit of the local watchdog concept, I am offering the resources of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) as the national secretariat or coordinator as the case may be. Conceptually, UNIDA is an alliance of organizations that are supporting IAD in general, and human development index (HDI) in particular.

Looking at the overall picture, CCA and DRR are directly connected to IAD and HDI, because the environment affects the expansion of the economy in the larger scale, and the reduction of poverty in the smaller scale. In line with HDI, the environment also affects reductions in illiteracy and mortality.

In connection with these initiatives, I am now inviting all international and local organizations development organizations to join UNIDA in organizing local committees that would take on the role of shadowing the local governments in implementing their CCA, DRR, IAD and HDI tasks.

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