Written by: Leanne Marie L. Palencia

On the 15^th of December, 2023 at Del Francis Hills, Barangay Badiang, New Lucena, Iloilo, the Solution Ecosystems Activator (SEA), Inc. facilitated a Year-end Evaluation of the Integrated Participatory Accountability and Transparency towards Sustainable Integrated Area Development (IPAT-SIAD) program together with the members of the Collective IPAT-SIAD Team (CIT) Members, Municipal and Barangay LGU partners and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) representatives. The activity was facilitated to assess the Strategic plan they formulated in 2021 and sum up the IPAT-SIAD activities from August to December year 2023.

“It is good that there is SEA and through IPAT-SIAD program, we are very fortunate that they had chosen us and help develop our municipality. Let us take this opportunity for all of us to be one in this Accountability and transparency. Let us help each other hand in hand and hopefully we will achieve the development that we have always dreamed of.“

CIT Chairperson, Mr. Willy Labaro

SB member Hon. Jocelyn Espia invited everyone to participate in the evaluation since this a venue for everyone where they can raise their concerns and a way of finding out what are the possible answers to their concerns that will be a basis of LGU for the development of the community.

During the evaluation, one of the concerns being raised was they are lacking of volunteers for gardening, and the problems of finding future farmers in New Lucena.

Nowadays, the youth are most likely discouraged in joining agriculture which results to a bad stereotype to the industry. Since agriculture is frequently perceived as a labor-intensive industry with low rewards, the majority of agricultural workers nowadays dissuade their children from following in their footsteps. Because of this, the Philippines’ agricultural labor force is declining at an unexpected rate. The suggestion given to this concern is to break the stereotype on the agricultural industry. According to Ms. Genalyn Fernandez, it is better to encourage and inspire our younger generations that there is a bright future in joining agricultural industry. Hon. Jocelyn Espia then added that there are future and ongoing projects that will benefit the future of the agriculture industry in New Lucena.

One thing that makes a group strong, is through teamwork. After the evaluation, the representatives of each barangay were able to join the team building activity facilitated by SEA team. In the activity, the participants were able to show their skills in team work. We cannot achieve development in our community without the participation of the people within. We can only achieve development if we all help each other as one.

All partners were glad having participated in this activity for they were able to know the status of the program, they were able to raise their concerns to improve the LGUs initiatives, and to build teamwork among the group members.