The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) is not all about building infrastructures and setting up enterprises. This special project of the Department of Agriculture also serves as a platform for science-based tools and approaches that aim to improve effectiveness and efficiency in providing interventions to the agri-fishery sector.

These key messages, among other relevant information about the Project, will now have a wider reach in South Luzon, since the cluster has established its core of multi-stakeholder communicator-advocates.

On July 26–28, the PRDP South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) gathered its counterparts at the Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCOs) and local government units (LGUs) for the cluster’s first Communication Resources Management Workshop.

The activity was generally aimed at establishing partnership between the PRDP’s Information, Advocacy, Communication, and Education (InfoACE) Unit and the designated focal persons at the LGUs with ongoing PRDP subprojects. In addition, the activity sought to fine-tune and expand the Project’s information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and advocacy work, particularly at the grassroots level.

Communicating PRDP by understanding its components and units

PSO Procurement Unit Head Michael Gregory Vargas set the context of the PRDP in South Luzon and the important role of LGUs. He discussed some of the basic yet significant information about the Project such as its key processes and documentary requirements.

Representatives of the PSO components and units, particularly the local and national level planning (I-PLAN), infrastructure development (I-BUILD), enterprise development (I-REAP), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Geomapping and Governance Unit (GGU), and Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES), also served as resource speakers during the workshop.

Each component and unit presented a brief background about their objectives, activities, and innovative tools for mainstreaming. They have also identified IEC materials and activities that can be developed by the InfoACE team and disseminated to the LGUs and communities.

PRDP National Office Communication Specialist Jan Dacumos, on the other hand, discussed the InfoACE Unit’s conceptual framework, communication goals, and strategic direction to orient the LGU focal persons about the unit that they will be working with.

Identifying communication strategies

With the guidance of the Mindanao PSO InfoACE Unit Head and workshop resource speaker, Sherwin Manual, the RPCOs and the LGU focal persons performed their respective communications audit or the analysis of their offices’ communication resources and practices.

Mindanao PSO InfoACE Unit Head and workshop resource speaker, Sherwin Manual, gives his comments on the communications audit presented by the LGU focal persons.

Each region also drafted their regional communication plans, wherein the RPCOs and LGUs have identified points of collaboration and strategies of mainstreaming the PRDP tools and innovations and of engaging their communities in rural development discourse and activities.

The LGU focal persons showed their support to the PRDP, especially to the Project’s IEC and advocacy work, by reciting and signing the InfoACE Unit’s Advocacy Covenant.

Part of the covenant states, “We commit ourselves to reinforce the message of promoting good governance in the agriculture and fisheries sector, thus, becoming partners for change.” ### (Gumamela Celes Bejarin, DA-PRDP South Luzon PSO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP South Luzon’s rural development communicators and advocates pose for a picture with the workshop resource speaker, PRDP Mindanao InfoACE Unit Head Sherwin Manual (3rd from left, top row), and PRDP South Luzon Project Director Shandy Hubilla (7th from left, top row). (Photo by Alwyn Rosel)