Workshop
Details
Local government officials in Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao are afforded the opportunity to apply an effective Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to their operations as well as coordinate with neighboring local government units through the capacity building and comprehensive planning session organized and facilitated by KAS partner the Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF).
Consistent with its mandate of strengthening local institutions through capacity-building initiatives and ardent promotion of Inter-local Cooperation, the LOGODEF, together with the Provincial Office of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao, held the Inter-Municipal Teams (IMTs) Reorganization and conducted its 3rd Geographic Information Systems – Comprehensive Planning Training Session for its 9 partner-municipalities in Misamis Oriental.
The intensive four-day training was attended by the IMTs of the three clustered-municipalities namely; BMT (Balingoan, Medina and Talisayan); ManLuNa (Manticao, Lugait and Naawan) and BinKiSu, (Binuangan, Kinoguitan and Subongcogon). Congruent with the recent change in administration, this session reorganized the members of the IMTs through an election.
IMTs serve as the clusters’ main body in developing and implementing collaborative developmental programs, working under the supervision of the Council of Mayors (COM). Members of the IMTs include: municipal assessors, budget and planning officers among others.
The Training session has two components: the Geographic Information System and Comprehensive Planning.
With the continuous guidance from experts from National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), the Geographic Information System (GIS) enables the efficient management of spatial dataset. This training session however, presents a more dynamic GIS utilization, as the system is now being used to create baseline information for each municipality that will serve as basis for formulating development plans apart from its focus on increasing potential local revenue generation through Real Property Tax Assessment.
To better achieve this end, the integrated comprehensive planning facilitated by Professor Cresencio Doma, Jr., aims to complement the GIS training through direct practical application. Having been able to identify common critical areas of concern, the clusters formulated specific development plans using data plotted to become part of the municipalities’ baseline information system. An open forum was also held to identify and assess the challenges faced by the municipalities in adopting this new system. Other uses for the GIS mapping to address specific municipal and cluster concerns were also explored.
LOGODEF and KAS Manila remain committed in its primary goal of improving local governance. These capacity building initiatives are testaments of their flexibility and continuous relevance as they seek to prepare local government units respond to the needs of the time.
Partner
