Digital Participatory Human Development

Winnowing Strengths, Weaknesses and Lessons from the implementation of Participatory Human Development (PHD) through Digital Technology in Selected OPI communities in Nueva Ecija

By: Amiella Marie D. Salazar

Research and Documentation Officer

Outreach Philippines, Inc (OPI)

Email: opi.outreachphils@gmail.com

Introduction and background

When lockdown was declared due to COVID 19 pandemic last March 2020, the big question for Outreach Philippines, Inc. (OPI) was how to implement its Participatory Human Development (PHD) methodology when residents and non-residents were not allowed to leave their homes. The lockdown and succeeding strict protocols that lasted from 2020-2022 affected how OPI’s HDFs conducted its methodology to achieve its vision of community development.

At that time too, OPI had 23 areas with community-based organizations that were in the phasing-over stage. These organizations commonly identified the following as issues to be resolved: lack of food, loss of income, inability to buy food and immobility of families during lockdown.

To address the problem that it faced during the lockdown, OPI resorted to the use of digital technology such as computers, mobile phones, and social media services. The presence and access to the digital world was maximized by OPI staff to continue implementing its PHD methodology, and in particular, the implementation of its COVID Emergency Response Project.

This “digital PHD implementation” was a unique experience for everyone at OPI and inspired the staff to formally document it as part of its research and documentation plan for 2023-2024. When an opportunity came to participate in the 10th International Consortium for Social Development Asia Pacific Biennial Conference, OPI submitted an abstract of its Digital Participatory Human Development experience. Through its Research and Documentation Officer, OPI became one of the three presenters on Panel 1 of the conference’s Parallel Session 2 that had the sub-theme of Social Development in the Digital World. The conference was held last October 23-24, 2024, at the College of Social Work and Community Development in University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

Who is OPI and what is PHD?

Outreach Philippines, Inc. is a non-profit organization that aims to help people improve their lives through Participatory Human Development (PHD) methodology. OPI currently implements its methodology in four municipalities of Nueva Ecija, one municipality of Isabela and one municipality of Masbate. It has established more than 36 community-based organizations since it started its operations in the late 80s.

OPI was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1994. It is also registered as a Social Welfare and Development Agency (SWDA) under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Participatory Human Development (PHD) is a multi-stage, cyclical methodology that aims to develop communities where people act together on their poverty issues. It involves a process that encourages participants to undergo activities and experiences that enhance their problem-solving capability, raise their consciousness, and provide cohesiveness, for them to improve their situation.

PHD is also commonly known as community development work or community organizing. It follows these nine steps: Integration, Social investigation, Groundworking, Problem Identification and Prioritization (PIP), Meetings, Roleplay, Mobilization, Evaluation and Reflection. These steps are implemented by OPI fieldworkers who are referred to as Human Development Facilitators (HDF).

The Study

In 2023, OPI conducted several researches and produced publications about its community development work. There were also a lot of conversations and sharing among OPI staff comparing how OPI’s methodology was done when OPI was just starting and how it is done at present.

Learning about the 10th ICSD Asia Pacific Biennial Conference on the theme The Fifth Industrial Revolution Amidst Multifaceted Disruptions: Harnessing the Power of Social Development encouraged OPI to contribute and be a part of international discussions about Social Development and in particular, in the sub-theme “Social Development in the Digital World”.

OPI’s work encompasses a wide setting of community development including research and networking. All of these gave OPI the opportunity to accomplish its goals despite lockdowns back in 2020 but for the purpose of the conference, the focus is on the project that OPI implemented to extend assistance to our partner communities at the height of the lockdowns. This project was called Emergency Food Relief for Locked Down Communities. It benefitted a total of 23 communities, four of which are represented in this study.

The Community-based Organizations (CBOs) that were included in this study are all located in Nueva Ecija, a province in Central Luzon. These were:

a. San Isidro Kabalikat sa Pag-unlad (SIKAP) in Brgy. San Isidro, Lupao, Nueva Ecija

b. Lawag Ti Caridad Norte Association (LCNA) in Brgy. Caridad Norte, Llanera, Nueva Ecija

c. Samahang Magsasaka Lakas ng Bosque (SMLB) in Brgy. Bosque, Llanera, Nueva Ecija

d. Buklod Association in Brgy. San Vicente, Laur, Nueva Ecija.

The method used for this study is Key Informant Interview wherein four (4) Human Development Facilitators of OPI and six (5) presidents/leaders of the CBOs were interviewed using a guided questionnaire. Each interview per CBO lasted 60 minutes. The interviews were also done online as these leaders now belong to CBOs that are in the Graduate phase of OPI’s work and OPI does not engage directly with them anymore.

The HDFs as respondents from OPI were selected because the primary responsibility to implement the PHD methodology lies in the hands of the HDFs. As such, they were the ones who underwent the experience of doing PHD with the use of digital technology during the pandemic. Six CBO leaders were also interviewed because they were the primary participants of the PHD process at the ground during the pandemic.

Beside KII, documents like request letters and the terminal report were also reviewed. A validation session was done with the HDFs to confirm the study results and include information which were not covered during the interview.

There were four major questions that were asked from the respondents during the interviews. These were:

1. What were the urgent community problems that were experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

2. What were the efforts made to address the problems?

3. What were the lessons learned, strengths and weaknesses of implementing digital PHD?

4. What are your recommendations with regards to implementing digital PHD?

RESULTS of the Interviews

All the responses to the questionnaire were collated until themes were identified. The results can be found here