Sunday, January 31, 2010

UNIDA PRIMER (Second of a Series)

NO HOLDS BARRED (052) January 31, 2010
By Ike Señeres

UNIDA PRIMER (Second of a Series)

Q. What is the common denominator of all the UNIDA programs?

A. Infrastructure is the common denominator of all the UNIDA programs. In all project sites of the UNIDA, there will always be buildings and equipment to support the operation of the local projects.

Q. What is the UNIDA infrastructure for livelihood?

A. A network of buying stations is the UNIDA infrastructure for livelihood. The buying stations could be operated in tandem with commissary stores that will supply the basic needs of the local community.

Q. What is the UNIDA infrastructure for education?

A. A network of extension schools is the UNIDA infrastructure for education. The extension schools could be operated in tandem with public libraries that will supplement the learning needs of the local community.

Q. What is the UNIDA infrastructure for health?

A. A network of primary hospitals is the UNIDA infrastructure for health. The primary hospitals could be operated in tandem with pharmacy stores that will supply the medical needs of the local community.

Q. How will the buildings be built?

A. The buildings will be built using the Lawin system, a system of construction that was developed by Architect Resty Rosales, a member of the UNIDA. A prototype multi-purpose building was already built in Torrijos, Marinduque by the Lawin Club of Torrijos, under the leadership of Mr. Rosales.

Q. How will the multi-purpose buildings operate?

A. The multi-purpose buildings could jointly or individually house the buying stations, the extension schools and the primary hospitals, depending on the local space considerations. All of the buildings shall be owned and managed by local cooperatives.

Q. How does the Lawin system work?

A. Local Lawin Clubs, patterned after the mother club in Torrijos will be formed in each city and municipality. Club members will be the ones to gather the raw materials and will do the actual construction, as it was done in the Torrijos prototype.

Q. What is the UNIDA housing system?

A. Taken collectively, the UNIDA housing system is a network of medium rise condominiums and apartments, all built using the Lawin system, and all owned and operated by local cooperatives. This network shall be composed of individual UNIDA housing clusters.

Q. What is the objective of the UNIDA housing system?

A. The objective of the UNIDA housing system is to increase public access to affordable condominiums for sale and apartments for rent (rent-to-own). By reducing the costs of housing, UNIDA hopes to be able to increase the number of families that could afford the housing component in the imaginary basket of goods, thus making it a way of graduating people away from the poverty line.

Q. What are UNIDA housing clusters?

A. UNIDA housing clusters are composed of about 20 housing units in a four story building, designed for occupancy as condominiums and/or apartments. All clusters shall have their own provisions for common utilities, either to supplement or to improve upon the utilities that are available in the local communities.


Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

Sunday, January 24, 2010

UNIDA PRIMER (First of a Series)

NO HOLDS BARRED (051) January 25, 2010
By Ike Señeres

UNIDA PRIMER (First of a Series)

Q. What is the UNIDA?

A. UNIDA is short for United National Integrated Development Alliance. It is an alliance of individuals and organizations that are working towards the socio- economic development of the Philippines as a whole.

Q. What is the ideology of the UNIDA?

A. Competitiveness is the ideology of the UNIDA. We want to build a nation that is globally competitive, and is regionally a dominant economic power in South East Asia.

Q. What is the strategy of the UNIDA?

A. Convergence is the strategy of the UNIDA. We want to converge the delivery of public services to the local community levels, within the framework of Integrated Area Development (IAD).

Q. What is the methodology of the UNIDA?

A. Cooperation is the methodology of the UNIDA. We want the people at the local levels to cooperate so that they could lower the rates of poverty, illiteracy and mortality in their own communities, through the cooperatives.

Q. What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?

A. HDI is the framework adopted by the United Nations to measure the performance of member nations in lowering the rates of poverty, illiteracy and mortality, among other data.

Q. What is the UNIDA solution to the high poverty rate?

A. Livelihood is the UNIDA solution to the problem of poverty. We want each member of our society to be productive, so that he or she could graduate from the poverty line. We want each family to be able to afford or access the imaginary basket of goods, an economic tool that is used to measure the poverty rate at the local and the national levels.

Q. What is the UNIDA solution to high illiteracy rate?

A. Education is the UNIDA solution to the problem of illiteracy. We want each member of our society to not only graduate from primary education, but also from secondary education, as a preparation for moving up towards vocational and collegiate education.

Q. What is the UNIDA solution to the high mortality rate?

A. Health is the UNIDA solution to the problem of high mortality. We want each member of our society to have access not only to primary health care, but also to secondary and tertiary health care, using new technologies such as telemedicine and medical informatics.

Q. How can the UNIDA support livelihood?

A. Electronic Commerce (eCommerce) is the front end technology that the UNIDA will utilize to support livelihood. We want each enterprise to be able to sell their products and services locally and globally by using the Internet, backed up by strong production and product development at the backend.

Q. How can the UNIDA support education?

A. Electronic Learning (eLearning) is the front end technology that the UNIDA will utilize to support education. We want each student to be able to access all kinds of local and global educational content by using the Internet, backed up by good preparation and courseware development at the backend.

Q. How can the UNIDA support health?

A. Electronic Health (eHealth) is the front end technology that the UNIDA will utilize to support health. We want each patient to be able to access all kinds of local and global medical assistance by using the Internet, backed up by volunteer and professional health providers at the backend.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

Sunday, January 17, 2010

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

NO HOLDS BARRED (050) January 18, 2010
By Ike Señeres

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

Haiti’s hit by a strong earthquake and issues about disaster preparation and disaster mitigation are now hot.
***
Does the government even know the technical differences between the two? I hope so, because the difference could spell life or death for many.
***
How true is it that Senator Loren Legarda was placed on the spot in a New York TV show when she argued for disaster mitigation rather than disaster preparation? She was said to be citing theories, while her adversary was citing statistics. Is this a reflection of our present government thinking wherein theories are given more attention rather than statistics?
***
The Americans beat the Canadians in responding to the Haitian disaster, even if the Canadian Governor General is of Haitian origin. The race between them should have started years ago, to help the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere that is practically in their own backyard.
***
Haitians are mad about aid not coming in as fast, but who are they mad at? They could be mad at Haitian President Rene Preval, but he himself is a victim too, becoming homeless after his palace collapsed. Perhaps they should be mad at their former colonizer France, for being slower than America and Canada in sending help.
***
Preval seems to have a nice excuse for not being able to do much, since he is a victim himself. Is this an acceptable excuse from an elected head of state? We do not want to hear this kind of excuse in the event that it happens here, when the governors and mayors become victims themselves.
***
Actually the correct technical term for disaster preparation is disaster risk reduction (DRR), a term that is usually used now in tandem with climate change adaptation (CCA). There is not much that we could do to reduce the risk of earthquakes however, except perhaps to make sure that all buildings are compliant with building safety codes.
***
I remember that during the Ruby Tower disaster, corruption became an issue as it was discovered that substandard steel bars were used by contractors who were trying to cut down on costs. This could have been discovered by building inspectors, but of course that is another corruption issue by itself.
***
Let us not joke about the fact that high rise buildings are being built now all over the Philippines, without anyone paying attention to their capability to survive strong earthquakes. I do not know who built the Haitian presidential palace, but if the French built it, it would appear that the Spanish are better builders than them, as evidenced by the survival of the main UST building up to now. It swings with the quakes, they say.
***
Who could be held responsible in the event that high rise buildings will fall during an earthquake? Since the building safety officials are under the cities and municipalities, could we fault the mayors just in case? Where will the buck stop? Could we fault the DILG since it is the oversight of all local governments? Could we fault the boss of the DILG Secretary?
***
Another disaster is bound to happen if there is a failure of automation in the coming election, and people could die too if there will be riots and runaway killings. I am officially predicting by way of this column that the COMELEC will not be able to meet the deadline for putting the system in place, machines and ballots included.
***
It took me more than a year to deploy about a thousand machines for a nationwide computer system, after about six months of testing and acceptance procedures. It took the banks about 30 years to deploy about 20,000 ATMs. The COMELEC thinks it can deploy 82,000 machines in less than a year! The machines could be hack-free as Chairman Jose Melo says, but are they fault-free? Why does he not accept my challenge to hack it?
***
Only about 30% of the initial batch of about 8,000 machines (less than 10% of the total) passed the testing and acceptance procedures. After lowering the threshold, all of the machines passed 100%. Critics are saying that the COMELEC is bending over too much. Dangerously, I should add.
***
Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

Sunday, January 10, 2010

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE NETWORK

NO HOLDS BARRED (049) January 10, 2010
By Ike Señeres

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE NETWORK

I like 3-in-1 combinations, and this is the reason why I was so thrilled to come across a technology that would not only provide affordable housing, it would also clean the environment and create livelihood. Architect Resty Rosales is not yet a CNN hero, but I think he is close to that already, after the government of Equatorial Guinea has asked him to bring his invention to that African country.

When I met Resty, it did not take me too long to realize that his technology is the missing link that I have been looking for, the “killer app” that could speed up the local implementation of Human Development Index (HDI) programs pertaining to the reduction of poverty, illiteracy and mortality. That’s right, it does not only have 3-in-1 benefits--the invention could also potentially address the three HDI challenges in one swoop.

Resty’s invention utilizes a commercially available fiber cement board, but that is not where his genius lies. To cut a long story short, he has developed a method of mixing shredded recycled plastic with cement, in effect using this mix as fillers in between the cement boards. As a result, the finished walls or panels are sturdier, due perhaps to the fibrous nature of the plastic.

Proving himself to be a good organizer as well, Resty has mobilized the young people from his hometown in Marinduque to go around once a week in motorcycles to do clean up drives, picking up waste plastic, in effect making it a way to collect materials for low cost community oriented construction projects such as a school building and a health center.

By his own estimate, Resty says that he could build houses at half the price of commercially built designs, using community labor to assemble his projects. Yes, his houses are designed like Lego blocks, easy enough to be assembled by anyone in the community who is willing to help.

Taking off from another angle, Rotarian Ronald Yap of Quezon City is refurbishing used shipping containers into homes and offices that are very reasonably priced. Although his buildings are meant to be for temporary use, these are built to last for a long time.

Businessman Ed Manuel is in the business of building yachts and luxury boats, but his enterprising spirit has recently taken him in the direction of building floating homes. His designs like houses, but are fully functional as boats. One prototype model is already on display near the Yacht Club.

Dr. Hernando Delizo is both a medical doctor and a businessman. Armed with an MD and an MBA, he has built a conglomerate of health oriented businesses, all of which are bound by the common objective of providing access to affordable health care.

Resty, Ronald, Ed and Hernando are the first four businessmen who have responded to my invitation to form a Social Enterprise Network (SEN), a consortium of service providers who all have their own missions in corporate social responsibility (CSR). All have agreed to make their products and services more affordable, in order to help in increasing access to public services in line with the HDI goals.

The products of Ronald and Ed are good for quick deployment. Upon receipt of an order, they could right away deploy mobile (Ronald) and floating (Ed) structures that could immediately be used as classrooms or clinics as the case may be. While these temporary structures are being used, Resty could already start building the permanent structures. Once the fixed structures are done, the mobile and floating units could already be pulled out.

As his contribution to this joint effort, Hernando has agreed to provide the management of the health clinics, always making it affordable for the patients from the local communities. He happens to be the principal owner of Clinica Manila and Perpetual Help Hospital Manila, among others.

Social entrepreneurs are still in the business of making money, but they believe that as they do that, they could help by going out of their way to make local communities gain easier and faster access to their products and services, often by way of extending easier credit or more discounted terms. This is the essence of SEN, and I hope to invite more socially conscious businessmen to join the network in the coming months.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

Sunday, January 03, 2010

ACCESS TO MEASURABLE PUBLIC SERVICES

NO HOLDS BARRED (048) January 03, 2010
By Ike Señeres

ACCESS TO MEASURABLE PUBLIC SERVICES

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Human Development Index (HDI) are both United Nations initiatives. Comparing the two, it is obvious that HDI will outlast the MDGs, because the goals have 2015 as a deadline, whereas HDI appears to be open-ended. Comparing the two again, I see three common denominators, and I am referring to the measures pertaining to poverty reduction vis-à-vis per capita income, public health vis-à-vis the mortality rate, and general education vis-à-vis the literacy rate.

Analyzing these comparisons, I see yet another common denominator, and that is the degree of access that people have to the relevant public services, and I am referring to access to employment services in order to lower poverty, access to health services in order to lower mortality, and access to education services in order to lower illiteracy.

I mentioned employment services only as a minimum requirement, because on top of that, I think that local governments should also provide entrepreneurship services. That means local governments should also give their citizens access to capital and technology in relation to their income generation goals.

Looking at the positive side, local governments should aim to increase prosperity by reducing poverty, increase longevity by reducing mortality and increase literacy by reducing illiteracy. To do that, they should know their benchmark data as their starting point, and that means knowing the exact poverty rate, mortality rate and illiteracy rates in their own jurisdictions.

How many officials in the local governments actually know their benchmark data? How many of them would actually know the difference between poverty reduction and poverty alleviation? The latter does not amount to anything, because it is like reducing the pain without really curing the ailment. Much more than that, how many of them are actually gathering and reporting the MDG data that are needed by the national government to submit to the UN? I even suspect that the national government is simply fabricating the data that it is reporting to the UN, given the fact that there is hardly any data that is coming from below.

As local administrations come and go, how would the local citizens know if their elected officials were able to deliver the needed public services or not? How would we know the extent of their achievements if there is no common or standard method of rating them or comparing them with each other? Of course, there is more to local public administration than reducing poverty, mortality and illiteracy, but these are the core problems that are considered to be more important even by the UN.

Time and again, the local administrations that are coming and going would always cite the lack of budgets as the main reason for not being able to deliver the public services as they have promised. We have gone through this routine too many times, and we are about to go through it again as we elect or re-elect the incoming local officials. When is this vicious cycle ever going to end?

After more than one hundred years of being supposedly an independent republic, we should already realize by now that our local governments are partially incapable of delivering the critical public services on their own, without the assistance of the rest of the citizenry. Many local governments have failed, and many are yet to fail, but we hardly know the extent of their failure, because we are not applying standards to measure their performance.

In fairness to the local civic groups, many of them are doing their part here and there, but since their efforts are largely disconcerted, many of them are not hitting the real targets of reducing poverty, mortality and illiteracy. Is it not time to converge the efforts of the citizenry in combating these three mortal enemies, in tandem with the local governments?

Towards this goal of convergence, I think that the best way to do it is to form local advisory councils in each locality, composed or representatives from the civic groups, including the non-government organizations (NGOs). I am looking for a locality where this approach could be piloted, and I am going to cover its evolution and progress in my daily business show in nationwide TV. I am fortunate to get the support of the network management in this regard, another sign that this is a good direction to take.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com
Philippines Best of Blogs Link With Us - Web Directory OnlineWide Web Directory