Sharing Knowledge and Best Practices Day 1 | (August 4, 2021) PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office 9 (RPCO9) headed by Regional Executive Director Rad Donn L. Cedeño kicked-off the first day of the Knowledge Management Writeshop which would run from August 4-5. The fourth leg of the Knowledge Management initiative would also be the one with the most participants with more than sixty participants coming from the Municipality of RT Lim, Olutanga & Kalawit, and the Provinces of  Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga City. Add to that the representatives from RPCO 9’s I-BUILD, I-PLAN, I-REAP, and I-SUPPORT components. The activity was spearheaded by the RPCO 9 InfoAce Team in partnership with PSO Mindanao.

In her opening message, Information Division Chief of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 9 Maria Melba G. Wee emphasized the importance of the KM Writeshop when it comes to sharing best practices and experiences on fields with the Project’s clients.

“We will be uniting the faces behind figures, not only of the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project but also of your projects as well in the provinces. If we put a human face vis-à-vis the figures, projects, and programs, they come alive. They become real. They become tangible,” said Wee.

The morning session focused on the introduction and discussion of what a Knowledge Management (KM) System is by PSO Mindanao Deputy Project Director Noel T. Provido. He also discussed the importance of having a KM system when it comes to archiving important data, information, and learnings from a particular project or office practices. He also presented the Knowledge Management Framework, well as the important things that needed to be prepared when starting a KM system.

In the afternoon, PSO Mindanao’s Information and Advocacy Specialist Joseph John A. Palarca talked about the process of how to identify and classify these lessons learned, and good practices in order to come up with a good practice note that can be packaged later as learning materials.

The participants were given time to meet with their teams to discuss the things they can now consider as best practices in their respective offices with the opportunity to present their team output on the second day of the writeshop. 

 Day 2 | (August 5, 2021) It was a productive conclusion to the two-day Knowledge Management Writeshop where participating Local Government Units from Region 9, Proponent Groups, and representatives from the Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) 9 presented their respective workshop outputs for critiquing and review. 

Participants gave a warm reception to the knowledge management activity as evidenced by their group outputs, engagement in the discussion, and active participation during the entire two-day activity.  

Presentations were given by groups from the Municipality of RT Lim, and Olutanga, Proponent Groups from Saluf Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SAFAMCO) and Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries of Marcelo Cooperative (ARBEMCO), and the Provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga City. Also joining them in the blended activity were representatives from RPCO 9’s I-BUILD, I-PLAN, I-REAP components, Finance, Procurement, M & E, GGU, and SES Units.

Many PRDP tools were identified and presented by the participants. Examples were the use of Grievance Redress Mechanism, Business Plan, DED, Project Monitoring, and Central Disbursement and Statement of Report and Disbursement. They also presented the lessons learned both arising from positive and negative experiences they encountered in the field and in implementing DA-PRDP subprojects.

PSO Mindanao Information and Advocacy Specialist Joseph John A. Palarca provided comments on the output of the participants such as specifying some of the procedures they cited so that it can also be replicated by other partner agencies.

Taking time from his busy schedule, Regional Executive Director Rad Donn L. Cedeño graced the KM activity and emphasized in his message the importance of knowledge management to capture good practices and better understand the condition for replication of success of PRDP. 

“As we know it, there is knowledge management when there is knowledge, and how can we use it for the betterment, and how can we use it as a springboard of our next move,” said Cedeño. “We have to understand that in every terrain, in every project, in every situation of the different interventions that we have in RPCO 9, I believe that this is unique and different to the situations throughout the PRDP in the country. When there is knowledge, there is power. We hope that we can use this power in good management in order for this to be converted into success as we continue to serve our farmers and fisherfolks”.

The final output from the participating groups will be used in order to package some of the best practices and knowledge products of DA-PRDP. 

In her closing message, Assistant Regional Director and InfoACE Head Melba G. Wee said, “Knowledge, information is really power. This power is all about motivating, influencing people so that it’s going to be translated to the kind of success we want – the kind of success that will really involve touching the lives of people. In all of this, it’s really the faces behind figures. This boils down to the people that we will be touching their lives and the kind of success we have”. (Joy M. Montecalvo | PSO Min)