True to its commitment of engaging local actors in every stage of the project, the City Government of Makati and EMI enjoined various stakeholders of BarangayRizal in a visioning and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis workshop held last December 11, 2008 at the Rizal Elementary School.
Participatory visioning process
These multi-stakeholder groups included local officials, zone leaders, kagawad, peoples’ organizations, homeowners’ and business associations, religious groups and schools, and members of the project implementation team from the units and departments of the City Government and EMI.
The workshop aimed at situating the redevelopment planning project within the overall development goals of Brgy. Rizal. Results of the SWOT Analysis, on the other hand, serve as input to the development offramework plan for the barangay.
The participants revisited the barangay’s existing vision, mission, and strategies. Through open dialogue and meta-planning exercises, they asserted the new vision of a “peaceful, drug-free, safe, clean and green, God-loving, and a healthy barangay, with basic services, good quality of community life and a productive, responsible, competent, self-reliant, and self-actualizing citizens.”
Community strengths, issues and challenges
In the second half of the workshop, the participants reflected on the inherent strengths of their barangay as well as opportunities that would help them drive the project forward. They also threshed out perceived weaknesses of the barangay that could pose threats to the successful implementation of the redevelopment planning project.
At the end of the workshop, the participants felt accountable and responsible in turning the visions they set into a reality. By engaging various stakeholders in the visioning and SWOT analysis exercise, the project took a big leap in advocating the redevelopment planning project to various sectors of society.
By January 2009, the Community Preparation Cluster will organize a training called “Champions Development” that will enhance the capacities of zone leaders and barangay officials in the field of disaster risk management.
