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Government Watch (G-Watch) completed its series of PRO-Health briefing-orientation seminars on August 13-14 in Naga City, concluding its eighth and last seminar that trained 277 volunteer-monitors, most of whom currently on the field monitoring health services in their localities.
The seminars that started in late April were co-conducted with G-Watch partners for Promoting Rights Organizing for Health (PRO-Health) in the following localities:
The seminar oriented volunteer-monitors on the G-Watch accountability approach, how to use the monitoring tools, and engaging government. It also facilitated a national situation analysis and a planning session where the monitoring teams prepared their plans, anticipating challenges and identifying ways to address risks and issues.
Re-energizing the rural base
The seminar with volunteer-monitors of G-Watch San Miguel, Bohol was held on July 29-30, in Tagbilaran, Bohol.
PRO-Health in San Miguel, Bohol builds on the groundbreaking monitoring of rice subsidy of G-Watch Bohol from 2010-2013 called Bulhon sa Pagnguma [Monitoring of Agriculture]. San Miguel, Bohol is an agricultural municipality. Its involvement in PRO-Health is expected to deepen G-Watch’s grasp of the unique health situation of rural areas in the country.
Manang Lita, the oldest core group member of G-Watch in the entire the country, is from San Miguel, Bohol. She is a former teacher who, since her recruitment into G-Watch in 2011, has remained an active volunteer-monitor, even at the age of 71, Manang Lita regularly monitors DepEd procurement and is still involved in the agriculture and water monitoring of G-Watch San Miguel, Bohol and in most of the key activities of G-Watch national.
In her presentation of monitoring plans prepared in a planning workshop during the PRO-Health briefing-orientation seminar, Manang Lita shared that time and energy is a challenge, especially for senior citizens like her, which she said can be addressed by good planning and coordination that should include rest and adjustments whenever necessary.
The original “island for good governance”
In Naga, Ms. Joy Macaraig of the City Population and Nutrition Office and Ms. Margarita Barrion of the City Health Office presented the reproductive, maternal, neonatal, childhood and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services of the Naga City government.
Naga’s City Population and Nutrition Office is a best practice. Naga is the only country with a separate office for reproductive health and nutrition with its own set of volunteers called Barangay Service Point Officers (BSPOs).
Naga City is known for many best practices in local governance in the Philippines, including the establishment of the Naga City People’s Council (NCPC) that institutionalizes people’s participation with direct support from the local government, showcasing Naga’s different leadership in state-society synergy. NCPC is one of the partner organizations of PRO-Health.
Watering the seed of accountability in Lanao
G-Watch Lanao del Sur is one of the strongest and active local sites of G-Watch. Despite the difficult context that G-Watch Lanao del Sur volunteer-monitors are in, they continue to advance the transparency, participation and accountability agenda in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) since 2019, when G-Watch was introduced to young Moro leaders.
One of the most recent significant progress in G-Watch Lanao Del Sur that got announced in the PRO-Health Briefing-Orientation Seminar in Cagayan de Oro last July 15-16 is the expansion of its base to Marantao, a municipality in Lanao del Sur. New recruits from Marantao attended the seminar to cover health units in their locality.
The other very significant progress is the active participation and involvement of Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC) representatives in the seminar. They too formed their cluster group to cover selected barangays in PRO-Health monitoring, advancing bottom-up state-society synergy in BARMM!
Ms. Alliah Alonto Matuan, RN, MD, PhD of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Health Office provided a briefing on the reproductive, maternal, neonatal, childhood and adolescent health situation, as well as the programs and services of the province and expressed strong support to PRO-Health.
Promoting Rights Organizing for Health is an initiative of Government Watch and the Accountability Research Center (ARC) on strategic approaches to accountability in the health sector. It aims to improve public health governance by ensuring quality reproductive, maternal and newborn, children and adolescents health services accessible to all through organizing, monitoring, coalition-building, advocacy and learning of monitors and accountability frontliners of G-Watch’s local core groups and other partner civil society organizations, in collaboration with allied local government units.
For more on PRO-Health, see
https://www.g-watch.org/event/g-watch-launches-its-new-health-initiative...
https://www.g-watch.org/news-release/g-watch-pro-health-doing-groundwork...
https://www.g-watch.org/news-release/barangays-are-put-task-indigenous-p...
** UPDATE: Adding those from Southern Leyte, the total PRO-Health volunteer-monitors mobilized and capacited is 292.