Strengthening Democratic Processes for Bangsamoro Government in Lanao Lake Watershed Reservation in the Philippines

The methodology of this evaluation (remotely, through the collection of evaluation data by a team of investigators provided by the grantee and instructed by the evaluator), in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic was very beneficial in terms of the involvement of the grantee in information gathering and ownership of the evaluation process.

The measures taken by the project in order to adapt to the COVID 19 pandemic (which included the development of COVID-related awareness campaigns, the implementation of concrete measures to avoid the spread of COVID during the implementation of project activities and the necessary budgetary reallocations to accommodate for the purchase of sanitary protection material) were also key to ensuring the success of the project.

The establishment of an institutional consultation strategy between the project and institutional, social and international actors has emerged as one of the keys for optimizing resources and avoiding duplication and strengthening coordination.

The choice of grantees, with a “niche” contribution in complex contexts and with a high capacity for access seems key for any other initiative supported by UNDEF. In this, the choice of the grantee as a partner in setting up the project was the main reason for the success of this project; their knowledge of the geographical area covered by the project, their deep, longstanding relation with the institutional and civil society actors, their outreach to actors located in the most remote areas and their sound financial and technical skills were indeed factors leading to a successful implementation of the project, maximising its impact.

According to implementing partners and beneficiaries, one of the main reasons for the project’s limited effectiveness was that the project missed a fully empowered local manager and/or coordinator, in order to allow for swift integration with the local population, adjustment with local customs, and acknowledgment of highly sensitive social and political-religious sensibilities in the target area.

The fact that the grantee and its implementing partner failed to devise a strategy to secure additional resources for the capacity building of those barangay officials not covered by the project, has left the Institute for Environmental Governance (IEG) without a clear work plan and direction. Mindanao State University has yet to fully integrate IEG in its strategic planning; and to raise IEG’s planning capacity to enable it to elaborate annual work plans, which are backed by a permanent donor screening activity that identifies potential sources of funding to support its training programme for those barangays not yet covered by the project. It is necessary to integrate previous and future trainees, to ensure the continued participatory development, implementation, and actual monitoring of the region’s local and area-wide environmental action plans.

Although the youth responded strongly to the project’s capacity building offer, acceptance was less pronounced among local government officials at the barangay level, as well as among traditional/religious leaders. Only 58% of the targeted barangay officials and 71% of the targeted religious/traditional leaders attended the grantee’s training. Leaders expressed to evaluators their frustration about the spill-over effects of environmental degradation originating from neighbouring barangays that were remiss on environmental protection.

While the project recognized the rich cultural traditions of the people of the Lake, the grantee underestimated the time and resources needed to overcome the challenges and divisions, which characterize the political and societal context. This is why in some areas the project fell short of its objectives.

The youngest beneficiaries trained by the project have shown their ability to organize themselves as an environmental youth organization (RYTK), in order to network with other partners, and to increase membership to support their activities (such as clean up drives, environmental leadership seminars, and environmental youth summits). While this is a promising starting the leaders and members of RYTK are too young and too inexperienced to be the sole carriers of such a responsibility.

The capacity building programme successfully increased the’ levels of environmental awareness and stewardship, as evidenced by a municipality being awarded as the cleanest in Lanao del Sur, and the creation of a dynamic and vibrant environmental youth organization.