Located in the Philippines, and established in 2002, the People’s Initiative for Learning and Community Development (PILCD) is a non-profit organisation that contributes to the development and empowerment of marginalised communities and vulnerable groups through a continuing learning process that is holistic, inclusive, participatory, and empowering. PILCD utilises an education and learning approach that fosters critical thinking and reflection. It provides a process of building capacity, uplifting self-esteem, developing self-reliance and eventually empowering people to make informed decisions on issues affecting their lives.
PILCD Executive Director Ramon Mapa says the organisation’s work is anchored in their four development thrusts – the right to education, empowerment, inclusion, and sustainable development.
For the past three years (2021-2023) PILCD has been working on a project to strengthen community resilience and strengthen sustainable development by integrating risk management, social inclusion and socio-economic development into their disaster preparedness. The project is underway in Calbayog and Catbalogan in Samar province and La Trinidad municipality in Benguet (Philippines).
Key project goals include:
Risk Management: Capacity building for communitybased disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and climate smart livelihoods.
Social Inclusion: Building capacities of most vulnerable and marginalized sector for participation in governance and development
Socio-Economic Development: Reducing livelihood vulnerabilities by enhancing and diversifying livelihood skills.
“This project builds on a project conducted from 2016-18 in cooperation with the Arbeiter Samariter Bund (ASB) where we implemented a community-based education and capacity intervention that promoted disability inclusive community-based disaster preparedness and response. Through community education and the collaborative work of many stakeholders our project is addressing social, political and economic issues in the Samar province,” says Ramon.
The Samar province is very susceptible to typhoons and heavy rains that cause flooding and storm surges. Much of the population is coastal and low income. A large proportion of the population relies on fishing for survival and sustainability. The extreme weather events that have increased in intensity and regularity due to climate change are not only devastating from an environmental perspective, but in the longer term social, education and food security are all impacted. These longer-term issues are sometimes ignored once rebuilds are complete. This is where the PILCD project comes into play.
“The current project is holistic and captures almost all dimensions of sustainable development – from risk reduction, social inclusion, socio-economic development and climate change adaptation. It involves multi-stakeholder collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach about project implementation. And it emphasises inclusion particularly for women and persons with disabilities. We are all working together to help communities understand their risk and better manage their livelihoods to be resilient to disasters and adapt to the effects of climate change. A key part of this is also about the introduction of new technical skills for diversification of income generation. We are introducing new technology and learnings which will add value to fish products and there is also a focus on the introduction of new technologies in their current fishing and aquaculture practices to support livelihood resilience building and climate change adaptation,” says Ramon.
The collaborative and multi stakeholder approach has been crucial to success with a huge range of organisations involved from local governments units from the barangay (village), municipal up to provincial level, Persons with Disability Affairs Office and Social Welfare and Agriculture Office, national government agencies, academe, schools and People’s Organisations like Women’s Organisation, and Fisherfolk Organisation at the barangay (village)up to provincial and regional level.