SORSOGON CITY, Bicol – The Data-Driven Development in the Philippines (PH3D) project conducted the first capacity development workshop for the Provincial Government of Sorsogon (PGS) last January 19, 2022. This is a two-part workshop and the first in a series of capacity development sessions under the Policy and Research Institute for Development (PRIDE) program of Action for Economic Reforms (AER).
The primary objectives of the workshop were improved capacity on data driven approaches in the context of health, and a shared understanding of the data-driven governance approach.
The first batch was geared towards non-health participants and presented an overview of the principles of data-driven governance. The workshop was moderated by PH3D’s local coordinator, the Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan (LIKAS), and attended by key PGS offices led by Dr. Ed Garcia of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Office, the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO), Provincial Budget Office, and Provincial Accounting Office.
In his opening message, Dr. Garcia reiterated the importance of the PH3D project: “I hope with this project magkaroon tayo ng (we gain) full knowledge, especially when it comes to data and how to use it and analyze it to our mandates.”
“We are all accountable to the constituents we serve so it is very important that we should be able to face them confidently with our decisions. This project will help us better appreciate the importance of data in decision-making, and to be more confident and proactive in our decisions in the future,” Dr. Garcia added.
The workshop for PGS featured a special discussion by Dr. Antonio Dans, PH3D health consultant and head of the Philippine Primary Care Studies (PPCS). He discussed the need for having an inter-operable health information system across health units from the national level down to the barangay level. This was identified in one of their studies as a key factor in addressing service delivery efficiency and governance issues.
Dr. Dans also discussed governance issues surrounding the UHC’s implementation. These include workforce development, healthcare provider network, financing, health information systems, community engagement, and performance measures.
The second batch of workshops for health frontliners is set for January 26 to 27, 2022 and will seek to include participants from the Provincial Health Office, the Sorsogon Provincial Hospital, Medicare and District Hospitals, and Rural Health Units.
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Action for Economic Reforms (AER) was established in 1996 and is a policy research, advocacy, and action group by publicly-engaged political economists with focus on various sectors from fiscal policy, food and agriculture, industrial policy, governance, interface, and data-driven development.
PH3D, a component of AER’s data-driven development focus and co-funded by the European Union (EU), helps Local Government Units (LGU) deliver their priority projects using data and technology, and community alliances. Using this framework, LGUs will have access to actionable evidence that will empower them to view macro and micro data, prioritize programs, manage resources, enhance capacity, and get support from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
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