Concepcion 2005 - LGRC DILG 10

Securing The Future: Making Concepcion, Iloilo Child-Friendly
History: Shifting paradigms to address poverty
When Mayor Raul Banias was elected to his first term in Concepcion, his first
act was to conduct a participatory, multisectoral process of crafting a Vision
for the local government unit (LGU). With the assistance of a native
Concepcionanon with the Gerry Roxas Foundation, an NGO engaged in
governance and social development in Western Visayas, the LGU crafted a
vision of eradicating poverty in the municipality by 2020, with the LGU as a
main agent for change, and civil society as main partner.
Mayor Banias then proceeded to re-define the
thrust of the LGU. He stressed that the best
resource to decisively address poverty issues
was not financial logistics but the LGU
personnel who must undergo a paradigm shift
in providing public service to make them
more responsive to constituents’ needs.
One major strategy identified by Banias’
administration in eradicating poverty was to
focus on children, converging various anti-poverty and children’s programs and
enacting child-friendly policies pursuant to the international Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Concepcion recognized that children’s
issues were cross-cutting concerns that affected, and were important to,
almost all sectors.
Mayor Banias, therefore, called for several consultations with various heads of
LGU departments, as well as non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s
organizations, business organizations and members of the academe. During
these consultations, he lobbied for a comprehensive program to address
children’s inadequate access to various services.
His efforts paid off as various sectors gave their support to the initiative. Soon
after, a Municipal Inter-agency Committee was formed, composed of various
sectors within and outside the LGU, which then conceptualized a Child-Friendly
Program Convergence Framework.
With a framework in hand, Concepcion then created a Municipal Council for the
Welfare of Children which took the lead in operationalizing the framework,
putting systems and structures in place at the municipal and barangay levels
and generally guided program implementation.
November 2005 4