Sustainable housing and renewable energy”
>> Monday, June 20, 2011
BANTAY GOBYERNO
Ramon ‘Ike’ Villareal Señeres
(Third part of a series)
In the world of modern technologies, connectivity is usually symbolized by the “blue” light that usually means that signals are available and are accessible. Perhaps not by coincidence, “blue” is also the color of the renewable energies that are derived from non-fossil sources such as solar cells. This is the reason why I am promoting the convergence of the “green” advocacies and the “blue” advocacies, into a new fusion that I have temporarily termed as the “green and blue” convergence. Hopefully, this idea of a fusion will gain wider acceptance, so that now and in the future, all “green” homes will also become “blue” homes, and vice versa.
Looking back to my past years at the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), I remember that the government at that time implemented the “Shelter cum Livelihood” strategy, born of the understanding that the housing beneficiaries actually needed livelihood projects that would enable them to generate the income that they need in order to pay for their housing loan installments. It was relatively easy for the government at that time to build the houses, but the government soon realized that providing livelihood was a much greater challenge. Later on, when the livelihood projects were already established, the government realized that the marketing of products from the livelihood projects was the greatest challenge of all.
I was recruited by the Bliss Marketing Corporation (BMC), a subsidiary of MHS, to become the Group Product Manager, leading a team of Product Managers who were all recruited from the private sector. Our mission was to market the products coming from the livelihood projects, with the expectation that not unless we could market these products, the housing beneficiaries will fail to pay for their housing loans, and the overall housing program of the government could also fail. It was at the MHS and the BMC where I learned all the lessons about what to do and what not to do when it comes to social housing and livelihood marketing, the latter in support of the former.
In the process of implementing the “Shelter cum Livelihood” strategy, the government at that time realized that livelihood training was an equally important component in the joint strategy, and this led to the creation of the University of Life (UL), yet another subsidiary of the MHS. Later on, I was assigned as a Senior Fellow to the UL, and my work shifted from livelihood marketing to livelihood training, the latter still in support of social housing. All told, these three components should really work together seamlessly.
Also at that time, the government implemented the “Basic Needs Strategy”, an approach that promoted the integration of the delivery of eleven basic needs at the local community level. Electricity was among these basic needs that were listed, along with communications. The other basic needs listed were food, clothing, shelter, water, transportation, health, education, environment and recreation. It therefore appears that one way or the other, the government already had an earlier awareness of the “blue” advocacy, as well as the “green” advocacy, even if “green” was not really the “in” thing at that time.
During the Marcos Era, there was apparently a general impression that the human settlements approach was “invented” by the former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and this impression seems to have lingered even up to now. The truth is, Mrs. Marcos (now Congresswoman Marcos) simply adopted an economic development concept that was already popularly used all over the world at that time, and was in fact already accepted and popularized by the United Nations. As faith would have it, the MHS was abolished, along with everything that had any connection with the human settlements approach, except the MHS housing projects that are still standing up to now.
Setting aside economic development from national politics, I see the need for the revival of the basic needs approach in relation to sustainable housing and renewable energy (SHARE) even if the technical term “human settlements” will no longer be used. Fortunately, the spirit and mission of the MHS still lives on in the present day Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the lead agency now for everything that has to do with the concept of “human settlements” as we knew it then.
Looking back to my past years at the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), I remember that the government at that time implemented the “Shelter cum Livelihood” strategy, born of the understanding that the housing beneficiaries actually needed livelihood projects that would enable them to generate the income that they need in order to pay for their housing loan installments. It was relatively easy for the government at that time to build the houses, but the government soon realized that providing livelihood was a much greater challenge. Later on, when the livelihood projects were already established, the government realized that the marketing of products from the livelihood projects was the greatest challenge of all.
I was recruited by the Bliss Marketing Corporation (BMC), a subsidiary of MHS, to become the Group Product Manager, leading a team of Product Managers who were all recruited from the private sector. Our mission was to market the products coming from the livelihood projects, with the expectation that not unless we could market these products, the housing beneficiaries will fail to pay for their housing loans, and the overall housing program of the government could also fail. It was at the MHS and the BMC where I learned all the lessons about what to do and what not to do when it comes to social housing and livelihood marketing, the latter in support of the former.
In the process of implementing the “Shelter cum Livelihood” strategy, the government at that time realized that livelihood training was an equally important component in the joint strategy, and this led to the creation of the University of Life (UL), yet another subsidiary of the MHS. Later on, I was assigned as a Senior Fellow to the UL, and my work shifted from livelihood marketing to livelihood training, the latter still in support of social housing. All told, these three components should really work together seamlessly.
Also at that time, the government implemented the “Basic Needs Strategy”, an approach that promoted the integration of the delivery of eleven basic needs at the local community level. Electricity was among these basic needs that were listed, along with communications. The other basic needs listed were food, clothing, shelter, water, transportation, health, education, environment and recreation. It therefore appears that one way or the other, the government already had an earlier awareness of the “blue” advocacy, as well as the “green” advocacy, even if “green” was not really the “in” thing at that time.
During the Marcos Era, there was apparently a general impression that the human settlements approach was “invented” by the former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and this impression seems to have lingered even up to now. The truth is, Mrs. Marcos (now Congresswoman Marcos) simply adopted an economic development concept that was already popularly used all over the world at that time, and was in fact already accepted and popularized by the United Nations. As faith would have it, the MHS was abolished, along with everything that had any connection with the human settlements approach, except the MHS housing projects that are still standing up to now.
Setting aside economic development from national politics, I see the need for the revival of the basic needs approach in relation to sustainable housing and renewable energy (SHARE) even if the technical term “human settlements” will no longer be used. Fortunately, the spirit and mission of the MHS still lives on in the present day Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the lead agency now for everything that has to do with the concept of “human settlements” as we knew it then.
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