The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) of the Philippines awarded the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines the NextGen CapDev Accelerator Award in Local Governance at the Capacity Development Accelerator Awards 2021 held at the Manila Hotel. UNDP Philippines was nominated by the DILG’s Offices of Project Development Services and Planning Service and was included among the 8 final nominees.

The CapDev Accelerator Awards is a recognition program of the DILG, which acknowledges the valuable contributions of local governance partners and stakeholders in accelerating the realization of its goals and achieving excellence in local governance. The CapDev Accelerator Awards has 4 categories: i. CapDev Accelerator Award in Local Governance; ii. NextGen CapDev Accelerator Award in Local Governance; iii. NextGen Regional Accelerator in Local Governance Award; and iv. CapDev Game Changer Award.

The NextGen CapDev Accelerator Award in Local Governance is given to an existing partner of the DILG that currently implements a program or project (with duration of at least 2 years) that addresses the capacity needs of the LGUs under the full devolution setup. The award aims to recognize the potential of the partner to empower LGUs and accelerate excellence in local governance and to give recognition to the up-and-coming players that have the potential to foster innovation and excellence in local governance.

UNDP Philippines was recognized for its 2 projects - the Paving the Roads to the SDGs through Good Local Governance (Roads2SDGs) and Pintig Lab.

The Roads2SDGs project was launched in December 2017 to provide support on the quality assurance and governance reform components of the Conditional Matching Grants to Provinces (CMGP) program of DILG. The partnership includes the provision of capacity development activities and technical assistance to DILG, PLGUs and CSOs to strengthen good governance in local road management and public financial management. The project successfully provided capacity building support to 78 provinces in the areas of SDG planning for roads, procurement, road quality assurance, and asset management.

Pintig Lab is supporting the DILG, Department of Health (DOH), and the Ateneo de Manila University in their efforts to localize the FASSSTER (Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler) platform to more local government units. FASSSTER is the government’s official platform for disease modelling, being capable of analyzing COVID-19 cases in real time and projecting scenarios up to 3 months in advance. By also working with the DOH, LGUs like Pasig City and Valenzuela City are now adopting FASSSTER for data-driven COVID-19 response and management. LGUs are now able to detect and address COVID hotspots with anticipatory test and trace actions before they develop into a surge. Pintig Lab is also supporting the DILG Planning Service to improve its monitoring and evaluation systems in preparation for the implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling in 2022. These efforts will enable the DILG and both national and local government to have accurate and real-time data to support programming towards the SDGs.

On behalf of UNDP Philippines, the award was received by Deputy Resident Representative Edwine Carrie who expressed gratitude for the recognition and noted that true to its mandate to leave no one behind, UNDP will continue to work with both the national and local governments in responding to the development needs in the Philippines through inclusive innovation and fit-for-purpose programmes.

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