United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

In the Philippine capital of Manila, the most densely populated city in the world, access to adequate housing and services is a primary challenge facing the urban poor. Since 1986, a federation of 33,000 low-income women known as DAMPA has focused on fighting the forced evictions of informal settlements and negotiating with local government for collaborative relocations. In addition, DAMPA has brought together 110 community organizations across Manila and the surrounding area to pool resources for land-acquisition projects and community mortgages, and to lobby government for expanding services to informal communities. These services range from doctors posts to sanitation. It seeks to achieve this goal thru organizing poor communities, building partnership with government, enhancing community based self-help initiatives and initiating pro-poor legislation both local and national government levels.
As one of its projects, DAMPA has supported the struggle of women leaders of the community of Parola in securing supply of clean potable water for an informal urban poor resettlement in the heart of the inner city of Manila.The land is occupied by around 500 families is a government property on where portion of the land was occupied by the Philippine coastguard. The first urban poor inhabitants in the area came from provinces to find better opportunities in Metro Manila primarily for livelihood. Being near the city’s port area, many different ways of earning a living were available, and people worked as pedicab drivers, stevedores, vendors, and store helpers. Due to the informal nature of the settlement, there were no legal sources of basic services such as water and electricity. Poor families were often forced to resort to illegal syndicates who charged high rates.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Women from the Parola community overcame difficulties related to securing legal water connections to an otherwise informal settlement with no land tenure security, complying with requirements of a private water company in ways that lead to a private sector group investing in an informal settlement, and negotiation for funding and right of way with the local government. The most important results of the initiatives by the organization are the following: • Setting up of water cooperative in the community. Four sources of water were installed that are being used in the distribution of water to the 500 household residents. • Reduced cost of accessing water (household budgets spent for water was cut in half), which led to generation of savings that can be used for other important needs. • Time of women to engage in production for family income augmentation. • Greater social cohesion among neighbors resulting from the experience of working together.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The major actors included the following; • The Parola Compound Neighborhood Association (PACOMNA) • Damayan ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api (DAMPA), a federation of poor urban community organizations in the greater Manila area. • Patricia Herrera – President of PACOMANA and Chairperson of the DAMPA Federation • The Philippine Coast Guard • The City of Manila Women community leaders of PACOMNA entered into a partnership with the office of the Congressman Angpin and PACOMNA came up with a proposal sealed by a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) supporting the project concept. Local residents of Parola where another major stakeholder group in the process and continue to be part of project implementation.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Prior to 1991, delivery of basic services was undertaken by different national agencies. The enactment of the LGC allowed LGUs to plan and develop its own basic services programs. The Code also created avenues for direct participation of organized groups in many governance functions, such as development planning, procurement of public goods and services, delivery of services, and even in disaster response planning. DAMPA has been navigating this new policy space and the benefits it creates for marginalized communities to enter into dialogue with local government. By organizing local residents and strengthening their networking and advocacy capacity community leaders were able to convince local government and a private that investing in expanding sanitation services to an informal community was not only necessary, but also an attainable and sustainable endeavor with benefits for all parties involved. Community leaders ensured that the conditions in the community were favorable to public and private investment, by building capacity among residents and collecting start-up capital for a water cooperative in the community and creating structures of support in the neighborhood that would make the project a sustainable endeavor

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
neighborhood and federation level, and later including local Manila government representatives.). Community mobilization and capacity building through information distribution and local lobbying was key to establish favorable conditions for a private-public partnership in this informal neighborhood, including mobilizing community funds and identifying support personnel within the community. Approaching local government in Manila and securing funds and other support from Congressman Angpin

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The key objective was to secure legal access to clean potable water supply to the Parola urban poor community. At the onset, the women leaders knew that attaining the objective would be difficult without first creating the conditions that would make it easy for the local authorities to provide the service to the community. For this reason, DAMPA and PACOMNA focused on overcoming the following obstacles: • Cooperation and supports of previous leaders of the organization, who are predominantly men. Women leaders had to assert their right to lead in the mobilization and activities and received recognition as the process progressed. • Convincing of LGU’s to partner with PACOMNA organization. DAMPA is key in this project as its standing with local government leverages goodwill and provides a safeguard to public and private partners. • Finances for the installation of water cooperative project. Savings mobilization within the community was an essential part for proving financial viability of the initiative, specifically around generating community partners for the project by convincing the community of the benefits of a water cooperative. • Ensuring community participation at large was an obstacle overcome through information and feed-back sessions. As neighborhood organization PACOMNA was uniquely qualified to reach out and engage the local residents in identifying problems and communal solutions that would involve and benefit the neighborhood residents in the implementation of the project and create a sense of ownership, while showing to local government and the private sector that a platform exists for undertaking a project in this area.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The resource generation which is around Php 1.7 Million mobilized from the office of Congressman Angpin, and from the community residents. Private, government and grassroots organization partnership, which is essential in terms of making the project a reality for the urban poor residents in Parola. In this case the government provided the budget for the construction of pipes, the Manila Water Sewerage System (MWSS) provided supply of water in the community, and the community organized the residents, mobilized community partners as well as management staff.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The development of water project into a water cooperative is innovative, as it promotes sense of ownership and ensures sustainability of the project within the community. Sustainability is further guaranteed by the fact that the income of the project pays for the maintenance of the four water tenders. Water cooperative concept itself can be replicated in urban poor communities and perhaps in other country. The project is basically a community owned and managed by the organization. The approaches used by the organization in developing and establishing private-public partnership for basic services delivery can likewise be replicated in other settings were decentralization policies exist, or where avenues for such partnership are available

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
• Application of decentralization policy, adapted to local situations, to secure direct benefits for the poor. • Developing public-private partnership engagements between the private sector, local governments, and grassroots organizations, around an MDG theme (water supply).


Institution Name:		Damayan ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api Inc. (DAMPA Inc.)
Institution Type:		Non-Governmental Organization
Contact Person:		Felomina H. (Femie) Duka
Title:		Secretary General
Telephone/ Fax:		Phone: 632 -9621296
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		femieduka@yahoo.com
Address:		Address: Blk 4 Lot 22 Gold St. Dona Helen
Postal Code:
City:		Subdivision , Camarin Caloocan City
State/Province:
Country:		Philippines

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information