Lahat Kasama. Lahat Kasali. Everyone Engaged. Everyone Included.
Who is Voice? What is Linking and Learning (l&L)? Voice Linking and Learning in the Philippines YGOAL – The Beginning The Start of YGOAL’s Journey with Voice YGOAL: Voice Linking and Learning Facilitator
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Significant Events Affecting Voice L&L Implementation The Philippine Political and Socioeconomic Landscape Major Crises Hits the Country
Responding with Empathy: Kumustahan YGOAL’s Challenges During the Pandemic
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Communities of Practice (COP) The Emergence of Pathways Re-Designing Linking and Learning to Ensure Inclusivity A Community Connected for Change Reflections From Voice Linking and Learning: Stories from the Ground
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Our Story Beyond Voice Closing One Chapter and Opening a New One The Voice Grantees: March 2018 – March 2021
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A safe and inclusive space for dialogue and dissent.
This is the vision of Voice in facilitating linking and learning.
It is where the rightsholder groups can share their stories of pain, challenges, and triumphs. It is a community that allows one to be touched and touch others’ lives. It is a family in which members are allowed to expand beyond self and share common hopes.
Leave No One Behind, Nothing About Us Without Us, and Putting the Furthest Behind First.
These three guiding principles connect the people of Voice. Having these principles as an anchor, the Voice PH community is able to listen with their hearts and minds, is empowered to take action, and inspired to innovate together amidst their differences. This ultimately helps them create an inclusive community to catalyze transformative change for the rightsholder groups (RHGs) often left behind.
This is Voice. This is Linking and Learning.
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WHO IS
In 2016, a beautiful idea was developed by a consortium between Oxfam Novib and Hivos. This idea envisions rightsholder groups often left behind collectively telling their stories, opening windows for equity and opportunity.
This idea is now known as the Voice Programme.
Voice is an innovative grant facility for diversity and inclusion. Voice funds civil society groups that breathe and live NOW-Us! in its collective journey to an inclusive world. Voice believes that what unites is much bigger than what divides. Voice’s dream is for an inclusive world of empowered rightsholders working towards responsive and inclusive societies. Voice is implemented in ten countries in Africa and Asia. Voice is an initiative of and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands as part of their overall policy framework called ‘Power of Voices’. Hivos is the coordinating body in Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya, and Tanzania, while Oxfam coordinates in Laos, Cambodia, Uganda, Niger, Mali, and Nigeria.
Society continues to progress. Setbacks, however, continue to happen due to the shrinking civic space. This presses the need to close the gap between vulnerable rightsholder groups and the society at large.
Voice-supported individuals are called rightsholders . Their main goal is to carry out the Theory of Change which is
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founded on three pathways: to empower, to amplify, and to influence.
To empower is to help rightsholders and grantees find their own voice. This is done by enhancing self-esteem and building confidence. Since organizations are made up of individuals, Voice made individual empowerment as its main approach. Voice amplifies rightsholders and grantees by providing the means so they can further express and raise their voices. The collective amplification of voices can build a critical mass of allies that can help influence and bring about the social change we seek, whether it be on individuals, families, communities, decision-makers, and even policy-makers. Voice Linking and Learning provides platforms for grantees, rightsholder groups (RHGs), and other stakeholders to discuss, share good practices and learnings, and synergize efforts through partnerships and collaborations. The program’s grants are an innovative fund for diversity and inclusion given to grassroots groups and organizations that have difficulty accessing funding, and represent or support the following groups:
Women experiencing exploitation, abuse, and/or violence (WEAV) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+), Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and Ethnic Minorities
Persons Living with Disabilities (PWD), and Vulnerable Youth and Elderly
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WHAT IS LINKING AND LEARNING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Linking and Learning is a process of Voice that encourages mutual learning and empowerment of the RHGs. It aims to boost collaboration, connectedness, sharing, listening, learning, innovation, and application of new knowledge using a participatory, creative, and transformative approach in linking together communities online and offline. The process strives to produce evidence and innovative solutions to bring about transformative changes for the RHGs fighting for empowerment and for their contribution to society.
Linking and learning is designed to assist grantees in developing their own linking and learning process and to help in building and developing communities of practices around issues and challenges that concern RHGs. Platforms that support inclusive collaboration, including community members in remote areas, events, meetings, creation of thought-provoking pieces and creative works aimed at amplifying the grantees’ voices at the local, regional, national, and even global levels are part of the target results of the program. The communities of practice established do not just share concerns and passion for their advocacies but regularly interact to learn how to do things better. It was heartening to see that in 2020 and 2021, the grantees and rightsholder groups were rife with their own stories of change, empowerment, and inclusion as seen from the national summit conducted in both years. This is proof of the success and effectiveness of the linking and learning approach.
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Linking and learning is the legacy of Voice… Linking and learning is one component of the space we co-create with our grantees, rightsholders, and other stakeholders to encourage the sharing of lessons learned, experiences, and knowledge… It’s a space for mutual empowerment and meaningful collaboration. It’s where we create the Communities of Practice around different themes, questions, and solutions towards issues concerning diversity and inclusion. (The Voice community) is composed of all these different voices yet with similar vision. It is a society where no one is left behind... The voices and stories together create a bigger picture of that inclusive society that enable us to contribute to movement building. Linking and learning aims to sustain the Voice community beyond the program. Which is why we believe that this is our ultimate legacy. It’s important because it aims to sustain mutually empowered groups and individuals that can push forward the different advocacies, giving the chance to understand one another and be understood, and use that as a foundation for a more collaborative and inclusive nation building.”
Kay Lapiz, Voice Linking and Learning Communications Officer, Voice Philippines
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Voice Linking and Learning in the Philippines
the inc. BEGINNING
It was over a decade ago when a group of young career professionals composed of JR Demecais, Yani Alonto, Argie Aguas, Joseph Navarro, Mildred Ople, Joejit Velasquez, and Vince de Guzman would spend their weekends and time outside of their official workplace doing volunteer work for various youth and youth-serving organizations whose advocacies matched their own. But each time they would finish one of these volunteer activities, they yearned for something more because they knew deep down that doing volunteer work individually for other youth organizations
their regular wage-paying jobs to work in a startup. And even so, it again took another three years for YGOAL to become fully operational because it was only in 2016 that the founding members became full-time with the organization. It was a journey froth with struggles and hardships. And in the middle of it all was the fear of failure. Because, just like anybody, they were supporting not just themselves but their families as well. So it was also a story of courage to push forward no matter what. Their daily living was not the only one at stake, but more so their dreams for a better future and nation that can only come about with the collaboration of organizations working towards that goal. Therefore, YGOAL adopted the social enterprise model to achieve its mission to help youth organizations while operating as a consultancy and training company. As a learning organization, they designed YGOAL using a creative, innovative, and collaborative organizational framework, co-creating their programs with their stakeholders and clients focused on personal and organizational growth. This was YGOAL then. But their journey with Voice helped shape what YGOAL came to be, as a grantee of Voice and as Voice Linking and Learning facilitator in the Philippines.
could only achieve so much, that they would only be able to reach a small number of people, and those little projects would not be able to achieve sustainability. Thus, in 2010, the idea of forming an organization to help other youth organizations began. And soon, YGOAL was born. But it still took another three years for the company to be formally registered in 2013 as the core team continued their full-time professional careers with their respective companies, because none of them had mustered enough courage then to give up
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There’s nothing to lose. We just have to try.”
Being a youth-led organization, the YGOAL team were highly adept users of social media not just for personal use but even more for purposes of the organization. They believe that technology is a highly effective tool for creating awareness, magnifying advocacies, and finding opportunities for expanding their reach. And one such opportunity presented itself in 2017 when, while browsing through Facebook, Argie Aguas came to know about Voice and its call for proposals. For YGOAL, the journey with Voice started with finding the courage to write that project proposal. The team knew that the Voice project could help accelerate its social mission because of the number of RHGs they could reach if they were to be able to get the Voice grant. At the time, YGOAL was still very young in terms of experience and network of partners to back them up. They were just starting to seriously roll-out as a small social enterprise and felt then that the most they had going for them was their drive to succeed, though bolstered by their diverse yet complementary skills, experience, and expertise. And their constant determination to make a difference in the sphere of training, organizational development, and impact assessment. So, even with uncertainty in their hearts, they gathered their courage and determinedly pushed forward and designed a project focused on rightsholders getting to know one another and understanding the concepts of linking and learning while building the communities of practice and stakeholders. This was the design of the initial stages of project implementation because the team knew from experience that one sure way of sustaining projects is to create a sense of community and ownership among the rightsholders and stakeholder groups. And they were resolute with their goal of helping other organizations and rightsholders and building on their capacity and expertise. As JR Demecais said:
So, they gathered their ideas about how they understand Linking and Learning. It was a conversation amongst friends who have different ideas and experiences which they put together as their version of Linking and Learning, and wrote down and submitted as YGOAL’s proposal for the Voice grant in 2017.
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The opportunity given by Voice made a lot of impact to us as an organization… we knew that Voice would be a very good platform for us to be able to accelerate our social mission while implementing something that is very close to our hearts. We have been working with the marginalized sector in our previous jobs… So, it was not entirely new to us, but we still had to recollect all our experiences so we could propose a project that would allow us to work hand in hand with the different rightsholder groups.”
JR Demecais, Co-Founder and President, YGOAL Inc.
After submitting the proposal, all the team could do was wait. And pray. Pray that Voice would trust a little startup like YGOAL.
The prayers and waiting was worth it because now, after more than two years YGOAL celebrates...the end of the first funding phase with Voice from March 2018 to March 2021 with the beginning of a community of like-minded groups who are all one with the Linking and Learning principles of Leave No One Behind, Nothing About Us Without Us, and Putting the Furthest Behind First. I think it was our fate to be the Linking and Learning Facilitator, not just because we feel that we are the best ones to be in the position. But that we were meant to learn from the experience. And even now, we feel that there is something divine that actually helps us to push through.” Yani Alonto, Program Manager, Voice PH L&L Facilitator “
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YGOAL: Voice Linking and Learning Facilitator
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YGOAL’s role as facilitator in Voice Linking and Learning is a big challenge because it entails creating a safe space for the grantees for open dialogues and learning. They had to make the space available for them to talk to one another, and recognize their differences, without discrimination or judgment. This is where dialogue comes in where empathy and listening to one another are championed. Their approach was to put to heart the co-creation process with the grantees, employ the consultative approach when designing events or activities, and actively and wholeheartedly engage themselves in the process, see what works, identify opportunities for collaboration, and share the learnings. It was important for all players to feel being part of the entire process, because in the end the objective is for everyone to take ownership of the community, which is how linking and learning can be can be sustained beyond Voice. To help achieve this, YGOAL immersed its board members, the YGOAL staff, and pool of consultants on the principles, advocacies, and processes of Voice to mainstream inclusivity and safe space within the organization and external manpower support to ensure familiarity and understanding of Voice and valuable and substantial outputs. From the start of YGOAL’s journey with Voice, Linking and Learning was a developing process. In its initial stages, its focus was on training the implementing team and the grantees on inclusive facilitation methods. In 2019, YGOAL introduced “unconferencing” which seeks to empower participants to create their own thematic discussion points, manner of information dissemination, and behavioral knowledge design for mutual and optimal learning experience. It promotes the principles of “Leave No One Behind”, “Nothing About Us Without Us”, and “Putting the Furthest Behind First”. These principles are at the core of linking and learning and ensure that the project deliverables of Voice grantees are anchored on inclusive development. It values collaboration among grantees to further their advocacies and ensure sustainability of initiatives and reforms, even beyond the grant given by Voice.
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SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AFFECTING VOICE L&L PHILIPPINEs IMPLEMENTATION Although Voice Linking & Learning began in the Philippines in March 2018, there were a number of factors and events that took place before and during the project that affected its implementation throughout the years.
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The Philippine Political and Socioeconomic Landscape
One was the 2016 Presidential Elections that took place in May 2016 where Filipinos voted for a new president, vice president, and 12 senators. This is significant because it brought about major changes to the political and socioeconomic landscape of the country. The new leadership’s directions and stance, particularly on the war on drugs and human rights, caused a major strain on the relationship with government, particularly the socioeconomic sector. The Voice Linking and Learning team had to practice caution in inviting government leaders to Voice events and in the messaging of Voice Philippines as a whole. On May 13, 2019, the Philippine general (mid-term) election was held for 12 seats in the Senate, all seats in the House of Representatives, governors and provincial councils in the provinces, and mayors and city/municipal councils in the cities and municipalities. Some Voice grantees affiliated with political entities became busy with advocacy campaign work. Some chose to lay low while awaiting
Politics, from national to local governments, took a drastic turn, seemingly for the worst, that in the Luzon Communities of Stakeholders Learning Event held on March 23, 2021, most of the grantees’ stories held strong messages against the current government that the facilitator had to curate these to ensure safety and security of the participants. Even more difficult, some of the Voice projects were being perceived as anti-government, which makes it challenging to engage some grantees’ and RHGs in linking and learning activities that involve other stakeholders. The situation was not helped with the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law in July 2020, which further added to the extremely adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The law’s passing alarmed the Voice grantees on the possible security issues not just for the organizations but also for the communities they serve. The law was a critical discussion among the Voice PH community, with some grantees being red-tagged. The members of one of the grantee organizations, for instance, were detained by police while rallying on the streets.
election results. And given the way politics in the Philippines works,
some organizations avoided engaging with the current
leaders prior to the elections fearing the negative effects on engagement when a new leader takes over.
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Major Crises Hits the Country
Two more significant events happened during this period that shook the nation hard, not just because of the magnitude of their scope, but because of the kind of impact it brought upon the nation and the Voice grantees and rightsholder groups. Both events happened in the year 2020. The eruption of Taal Volcano. On January 12, 2020, the Taal Volcano awoke from 43 years of quiet and erupted. The eruption spewed ashes across Calabarzon, Metro Manila, and some parts of Central Luzon and the Ilocos Region, resulting in the suspension of school classes, work schedules, and flights in the area. Damage to people, property, plants, and animals was severe, with 39 deaths recorded. A large percentage of the fish cages in the Taal Lake were destroyed causing farmers to appeal to authorities to feed and harvest the surviving fish despite the lockdowns preventing people from going near the still-active volcano. For Voice, the eruption of Taal Volcano affected grantees and rightsholder groups residing in the affected areas. Yakap sa Kaunlaran ng Bata (YKBI) was one of the organizations affected. Its production shoot for a special feature of an innovation component of the linking, learning,
and facilitation grant in the Philippines had to be pushed back due to strict restrictions on mobility.
The COVID-19 Outbreak. The Taal Volcano eruption was just the start of 2020’s major challenges. As the saying goes, “bad things happen in twos”. And this held true for the Philippines because on March 8, 2020, Proclamation No. 922 was issued, declaring a State of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines, enjoining all government agencies and local government units (LGUs) to render full assistance and cooperation and mobilize necessary resources to undertake critical, urgent, and appropriate response and measures to curtail and eliminate the threat of COVID-19. And on March 16, 2020, the whole country was placed under a state of calamity due to the rapid spread of the virus. As a result, resources and movements were limited. Only one person per household was allowed to go out to see to the household’s daily needs such as food and medicines with the situation certainly affecting persons with disabilities and the elderly, especially those living alone. The local and national economy experienced heavy losses affecting all sectors
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of business. Even big businesses were not spared. The only sectors allowed to operate were drugstores, groceries, wet markets, and certain manufacturing companies such as food, medical equipment, drugs, delivery services, and telecommunications services. Local transport services were made to stop operations, affecting frontliners such as nurses, drugstore, and grocery store employees, among others, who needed to travel daily to and from work. Physical offices were closed down. All these created an increased demand for strong internet connectivity to keep businesses alive and keep communication lines open, not just for business but to get in touch with families, friends, colleagues, and the outside in general amidst the lockdown. The vulnerable sectors were especially hit. And to make matters worse, government’s response to the situation was slow and unclear, causing confusion on supposed national policies and programs in handling the pandemic. The crisis served to deepen pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political, technological, and economic systems, which only amplified the negative impact of COVID-19.
burden, was crucial. Instability of work and disrupted operations were major concerns, weighing on the over-all wellness of all stakeholders and making the implementation of linking and learning activities difficult because the organizations would rather focus on their own projects. Some sped up their Voice projects given the disruptions caused by the pandemic to the implementation of their activities. Others focused their attention on providing humanitarian aid. This only showed that there was a clear disconnect between linking and learning in its current design and the grantees’ thrust in the current context.
The shift to humanitarian aid and disaster
response, including providing assistance
for mental and psychological
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PHOTO: CNN PHILIPPINES
Responding With Empathy: Kumustahan The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing nationwide lockdown caused severe disruptions to the country’s economic, social, political, and technological state. The Voice grantees and rightsholders were not spared. Advocacies were challenged. And the rightsholders faced further exclusion. YGOAL, in the middle of its own internal struggles, responded with empathy by conducting a Kumustahan Session ( kumusta is Filipino for “how are you?”) to assure Voice grantees and rightsholders of their support and presence, and to find out how they were affected and holding out during the pandemic. This exercise enabled YGOAL to gather crucial data on their current situation, what they are doing in both personal and organizational capacities, how they intend to weather the storm and reach out to the members of their organization and RHGs. The success of the activity and resulting database of information served as springboard for the online design of the 2020 NCOS and succeeding initiatives. When the lockdown was announced, connecting with the grantees was a main concern. The Voice Linking and Learning team used technology and online platforms to be able to find out the situation of the grantees and RHGs. They knew they could only do so much and could not expect too much when it comes to engaging the rightsholders and grantees particularly during the lockdown since one of the major issues that came up from the situation was food security. Pressuring them to join in the online
activities amidst the situation would only push them away because they were dealing with not just their organizations but their own problems at home. YGOAL knew from experience that this was not the time to push the grantees and rightsholders to accomplish what was in their contracts under the Voice grant. It was the time to test the substance of community belongingness that Voice had endeavored to establish since it began in the Philippines. So Voice and YGOAL re-strategized, shifted their modality and discussion focus and aligned and streamlined linking and learning activities with the needs and context of the grantees and rightsholders. From this exercise, they were able to gather data on how the community can move forward through the linking and learning activities.
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This is the point where we felt we are stretched as L&L facilitators. L&L should be a space that is made available to the grantees and RHGs at any point that they feel they need it. When you feel isolated because of the pandemic, the power of freedom to choose when to show and engage yourself in activities is important. And this is something we, as a team, felt should be given to the Voice community. Thus, asynchronous participation in Linking and Learning emerged because not everybody can be present at the time. Not everybody has the technology tools or good internet connection. Multiple channels had to be made available, which is easier said than done. And the activities had to be inclusive, ensuring that persons with disabilities are also considered. We also had to ensure that the materials are accessible whenever the grantees or rightsholders need or want it leading us to the establishment of the Learning Management System.”
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YGOAL’S Challenges During the Pandemic
Though as Linking and Learning implementers focus was made on the grantees and rightsholder groups, YGOAL’s situation was, in fact, no different from those who were affected by the pandemic in terms of job and financial security. The prolonged restrictions and quarantines had also pushed YGOAL to the brink. Its other partners who were also severely affected chose to stop its projects or put on hold new ones, including funding, rendering YGOAL unable to provide security for its project-based employees and consultants in the months that followed. As a result, only YGOAL’s original founders were left to complete the Linking and Learning facilitation role. Yet even though manpower had been reduced to just the founders in their attempt to cut costs and stretch the organization’s viability options, YGOAL was still confronted with the problem of holding the fort of hope in the midst of their own dismal situation. The founders found themselves searching for revenue-generating activities to help sustain them and their families, while still trying their best to open the space for the grantees, constantly thinking of ways to innovate, be agile, and adapt to bind the Voice PH as a community in these trying times. Their circumstances and sentiments can best be described in the following excerpt written by Yani Alonto for an article on Linking and Learning:
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“Being constantly present as the linking and learning facilitator is also challenging. The same with all the grantees and rightsholder groups, we also experienced disruptions and imbalance at the organizational and individual levels. This vulnerability humbles us and enables us to recognize that while we hold the fort in sustaining the linking and learning space, we are also members of this community. The energy shared with us by our fellow grantees and rightsholder groups fuels us to remain present. Seeing how this experience brought a stroke of hope is more than enough for us to push through.”
Because of all these, YGOAL recalibrated its Linking and Learning efforts, holding deeper consultations with the grantees on their context, time limitations, and the effects of the pandemic on individuals and organizations, resulting in putting focus on relevance such as the identified COPs and learning questions in early 2020. This led to the development of the Communities of Practice (COP) and Community of Stakeholders (COS) components into the Linking and Learning Pathways.
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The pandemic left the Linking and Learning team uncertain about activities scheduled for January and February 2020. On checking with the grantees and rightsholder groups, they chose to push through, even while citing schedule limitations. YGOAL provided vitamins, face masks, and disinfectant solutions during the events. Two Regional Communities of Practice (COP) events were conducted in early 2020 – one for Luzon and one for Visayas and Mindanao. The COP is a deliberate and continuous process of conversations and reflections using intersectionality as an opening for collaboration. It celebrates not only successes but also learnings from failures. It is action-focused and fosters cooperation, openness, and respect among members. It was here that the grantees identified the practices that they would like to focus on based on their varying capacities. Communities of Practice
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A brief description of each COP is provided below:
luzon
Data Management
Integrating disability sector concerns into local development and disaster risk reduction and management plans.
Capacity Building Measurement
Measuring impact of the programs and strategies involving advocacy participation.
IEC Development
Effectively communicating advocacies to generate wider support.
Community Management
Platform for easing tensions of different sectors.
Fundraising and Social Enterprise
Strategies for sustaining efforts or advocacies towards economic development and empowerment.
Linkage and Partnership
Sustaining meaningful engagements within the Voice network.
Identifying strategies in policy advocacy that can be adapted by different movements and organizations.
Policy Development
visayas & mindanao
Psychosocial Support
Strengthening psychosocial support as a common practice for the protection and advancement of children’s rights.
Community Organizing and LGU Partnerships
Reclaiming and protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the oppressed.
Awareness Raising
Amplifying rights of women especially in local communities.
Ensuring online and physical security in the context of the Philippine national issue on red-tagging, anti-terrorism act of 2020 (RA11479).
Online and Physical Security
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THE EmERGENCE OF PATHWAYS
The data gathered from the Kumustahan Session helped YGOAL determine how the community can move forward through the linking and learning activities. Plans were refined through consultations with the grantees and rightsholder groups which led to the implementation of the online sessions for the Linking and Learning Pathways. To implement this initiative, YGOAL partnered with other organizations to help facilitate and sustain the learning process for the grantees. The Pathways was also opened on a registration basis to a bigger audience and stakeholders who champion inclusiveness in their own spaces of influence.
To reinforce inclusivity for those who do not have internet, a USB thumb drive containing all presentations were sent to all grantees. Printed copies were also given to those organizations who expressed the need for it.
YGOAL formed a team of co-conveners to ensure the success of the Linking and Learning pathways identified by the rightsholders and grantees. From their pool of partners, they sought the expertise of three youth-serving organizations to lead the three of the six pathways. The National Society of Parliamentarians, a non-profit, non- stock network of parliamentarians and policy advocates in the Philippines, took charge of the Legislative Advocacy pathway. Sowing Legacy Movement (SLMi), a network of committed individuals working together to bring positive change through love and concrete actions, provided crucial support for the Psychosocial Support pathway. They were chosen because one of their major programs is providing face-to-face and virtual psychosocial support and Psychological First-Aid. The Safety and Security pathway was led by HYLEAP, a network of former boy/girl officials and Sangguniang Kabataan which aims to develop values-based servant leaders and build their commitment to national development. The organization is recognized by the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation of Hagonoy, and the current chair of the Economic Empowerment Committee of the Provincial Youth Development Council of Bulacan.
The goal was to sustain the learning exchange, and the communities of practices. We wanted individuals, groups, and organizations to fo- cus on certain practices and create solutions or solve issues with the view of the current context. Through the consultation process, the six Linking and Learning Pathways were born: 1. Legislative Advocacy 2. Communication & Advocacy Planning 3. Psychosocial Support 4. Enterprise 5. Safety & Security 6. New Normal Training Delivery
The Six Pathways
According to Joseph Navarro, Program Coordinator, Voice PH, for the Legislative and Advocacy Pathway, they wanted to mainstream the efforts of the rightsholder groups and grantees to deepen and amplify their advocacies further. They believe that policy is important in shaping the awareness of the community and ensuring participa- tion of those affected by the issues.
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The National Society of Parliamentarians (NSP) is the co-convener for the Legislative Advocacy Pathway, the objective of which is to mainstream the efforts of the RHGs and grantees to further amplify their advocacies. Under this pathway, the grantees were trained on lobbying, resolution making, and creating campaigns to showcase the importance of their advocacies to the decision-makers and policy-makers responsible for crafting policies. Policy making is important in shaping the awareness of the community and ensure participation of those affected by the issues.” - Bryan Ezra Gonzales “
The NSP had been working on different aspects of lobby- ing and legislative advocacy since December 2020. They conducted a writeshop in January 2021 and collated the different concerns to look closely at priority legislation and legislative agenda. The major concerns identified were: 1) Shifting priorities among legislators and CSOs, due to the national and local elections, 2) Lack of support from legislators and other decision-makers, and 3) Lack of working political maps to guide lobbyists and advo- cates.
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This Pathway was a big help in teaching me strategies on how to effectively convey our message to the public. Like us, a young farmers’ organization that is just starting out, this helped us a lot in encouraging fellow youth to engage in farming through our advocacy.” - Mary Jane Magan, KAISAHAN
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The Legislative Advocacy pathway reminds us to seek other platforms and channels to lobby our advocacies. The sessions helped acquaint us with other grantees, know their advocacies, and share lobbying experiences. Although we have experiences on lobbying at the national level, we also wanted to explore lobbying at the local level. And we are glad that this was discussed during one of the sessions. We agree with the recommendation to develop a one political map and have a one-on-one session to help grantees develop their own advocacy plan. It helps me to enhance my knowledge on how to prepare a bill and gain knowledge on the processes in making a bill and all the needed considerations on lobbying.”
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Implementing advocacy plans in the time of pandemic especially for their inclusive employment program is a big challenge.” - Maureen Ava Mata, LCDPFI
For Charles Mangga of Sowing Legacy Movement, Inc., the Psychosocial Support Pathway is not only about theories of learning but also a process of building relationships with the participants. The learning journey is shared between participants and facilitators.
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This pathway is an important and useful service especially during the pandemic which affects everyone. It reinforces and strengthens the support system, ensuring the provision of constant care and communication. Listening with an open heart is especially important.” - Melinda Gallego, MTWRC
- Kim Alvarez of KAISAHAN
The Communication and Advocacy Planning pathway sought to help improve the communication and advocacy plans of the grantees. Given the forced transition to a new normal of being online, it became apparent that the pandemic is not only a health issue but a communication issue as well. Hence the need for a platform for grantees and RHGs to communicate and advocate for their rightsholders. This pathway helped them develop a communication and advocacy plan to adopt and implement within their organizations.
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I learned practical tips on managing stress through the Psychosocial Support pathway.” – Virginia Pacunio Guanzon, PSDM, Inc.
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For Argie Aguas, Program Coordinator, Voice PH, the Enterprise pathway was conceived during the pandemic because of the Voice community’s struggle on economic sustainability. Some grantees experienced challenges in keeping their manpower; communities were also financially unstable. Some grantees re-strategized their enterprise to be able to cope with the new normal. This COP gave them the opportunity to be a social entrepreneur to assist their organization’s economic struggles. The objective of this pathway is primarily to provide an understanding about the social enterprise model as an economic empowerment initiative. To assist the grantees in the learning journey, YGOAL partnered with DGY Academy and provided a special series featuring social enterprises in the Philippines and the stories of social entrepreneurs. It deepened their knowledge on entrepreneurship by featuring such topics as business canvas, resource mobilization, product development marketing, sales finance, operations, production management, basic financial management, and practice business idea pitching.
The result is a business idea using a business model canvas to have a stronger and relevant enterprise to pursue.
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The whole business model canvas was very helpful in designing strategies for advocating indigenous wisdom. The result of the social enterprise is a lifestyle product that promotes indigenous knowledge through sustainable and unique handicrafts.” - Maria Elena Regpala, PIKP The Linking and Learning Enterprise pathway taught us how to keep our business afloat. We were even able to expand the coverage of our products and services, which won us an innovation award. We are building a fair-trade alliance of all social enterprises who are engaged with indigenous people.” - Timothy Salomon, Bukluran
The relevance and timeliness of the Safety and Security pathway is best captured by Chantal Crisostomo of MMPride:
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The political landscape in the Philippines is getting more dangerous by the day, not only for human rights defenders but also for average Filipinos who dare to express dissent or dissatisfaction. The Safety & Security Pathway is very timely as it oriented them on the risks and tools to keep communities safe.”
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According to Maricel Tolentino, KAISAHAN: Our group in the New Normal Training Delivery pathway created a training session entitled “Land Rights 101 – Perspectives from Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and the Youth”. We chose the topic of land rights because two of our member organizations’ focus is on agrarian reform and rural development, and because we have youth groups and we work with small farmers and indigenous peoples in the Cordilleras.”
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We in ORKALEFF are grateful for VOICE that they have provided us pathways like these. You did not stop reaching out to us even in this pandemic times. Not only did you support us with knowledge and learnings, you also linked us to different organizations and because of that we were inspired to know that we are not alone in this journey. We may have different advocacies but all are the same in the aim to serve the people in our community.” - Loreta Arguelles, ORKALEFF YGOAL is one of the early grantees who foresaw that going digital is the way forward in this time of the pandemic. The organization studied and explored for the different tools that will help the Voice Linking and Learning grantees. YGOAL then taught the grantees on how to effectively use these online platforms, including social media, so they can continue their advocacy and the workshops they need to do during the pandemic.” - JR Demecais, Co-Founder and President of YGOAL
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RE-DESIGNING LINKING AND LEARNING TO ENSURE INCLUSIVITY: A Community Connected for Change
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Linking and Learning’s message is that even if we have different sectoral issues, we are one in the fight for inclusion. The activity was a community-building exercise bridging our needs and other rightsholders within the whole framework of the Voice inclusion strategy.” - Voice Grantee
To illustrate the immensity of the changes in how the Linking and Learning implementation was done pre-pandemic to what is now commonly called the ‘new normal’, it helps to look at how linking and learning’s major activities were done in the previous years, moving towards the current setup. One of the much-awaited events of Voice is the annual national summit. From March 2018 up to March 2021, Voice Linking and Learning in the Philippines would physically gather grantees and rightsholders from different parts of the country so they can share and understand stories about each other’s work, and freely express and share opinions, learnings, good practices, and strategies. The summit provided the grantees and rightsholders a venue where they could amplify their voices and fulfill the linking and learning process because it provides a safe and inclusive space for dialogue and dissent. Here they could compare approaches and see how each project and advocacy may be related to one another, creating openings for possible assistance and collaboration.
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At first, we viewed the Voice Linking and Learning activities as just another part of the requirement. But this changed when we realized that we could learn something from joining the activities. I always look forward to joining because I knew that I could learn something new. What is good about Linking and Learning is that they try to connect with the target audience. The sessions were delivered in a creative way given our challenges because of the pandemic.” – Timothy Salomon, BUKLURAN “ What is interesting about the annual summit is the progression in its purpose and design over the years, yet always with the intended outcome of creating a sustainable and inclusive community of like-minded groups. It is also worth noting at this point that in the more than two years of implementation of this first funding cycle, the Voice grantees which eventually totaled to 48 organizations, joined Voice at different stages of program implementation. The first National Linking and Learning Summit was held in August 29-31, 2018 . With the tagline Include, Innovate, Influence, the objective was to create a sense of community among the organizations and grantees to have a better understanding of each organization’s activities, ask questions to clarify concerns, convey their message to one another, and see possible connections even if they have different target groups. The concept of “unconferencing” was introduced by YGOAL as a strategy for enabling the grantees to share activities and practices in their respective communities so they can mobilize the different sectors to be part of their advocacies. Other activities aimed at laying the land for Linking and Learning included a Strategic Communications Workshop, Intersectionality Workshop, Optional Video Editing Training, and Solidarity Night. The development of Voice Philippines National Learning Questions concluded the summit. The questions generated served as guide in meeting objectives during program implementation.
1. How do we understand human rights?
2. How do we uphold and claim human rights?
3. How do we collectively define progress and development?
4. What key considerations should we look into when doing community organizing?
5. How can we effectively engage the government?
6. How do we contribute to the attainment of the SDGs?
7. How do disasters affect communities?
8. How do we support sectors that are being attacked by the government?
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During the summit, the participants were able to share and understand each other’s work and views, freely express opinions, collaborate on how they can empower the marginalized sectors, develop participation and leadership, leave with new learnings, and able to adopt best practices shared within their own organizations and communities. It introduced the principle of ‘Leave No One Behind’ and taught the grantees to be mindful and open, and to learn to listen with an open heart and mind. Dialogue and Dissent was emphasized with the grantees and stakeholders coming to understand that even though each organization has alternative or dissenting views, linking and learning enables them to dialogue and openly discuss issues without fear of discrimination or judgment Also, the objective of the first summit of creating a sense of community was further enriched with the emphasis given on there being strength in coming together. All the organizations with their differing goals, advocacies, concerns and issues, are the same in wanting to do something for the common good which, if amplified, can help the reach their goal for a better Philippines. The inclusive community was best captured in the summit’s taglines: #LahatKasama, #LahatKasali, #NoOneLeftBehind. The second National Linking and Learning Summit was held in October 28-30, 2019. Entitled D2: Dialogue and Dissent, the summit was made more significant due to the entry of a new batch of grantees. By this time, the number of grantees had reached the 40th mark. Though more challenging in terms of coordination and monitoring, the bond and sense of community among the older grantees helped make it easier.
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We wired our minds to think about different activities. What elements should we put together so that it becomes a space for conversation. Because when everybody is telling their story, there are those listening attentively to their story, which leads to a dialogue. Telling my perspective and getting the perspective of others. It becomes a dissent when there is some form of disagreement. Without necessarily going into a resolution, you accept that this is where you are right now, and you somehow allow that idea to flourish, and understand that this is the real context of each of the rightsholder groups. This is part of strategy to get the rightsholder groups to share their own story and their own perspectives.” - JR Demecais, Co-Founder and President, YGOAL Inc. Thank you for the additional knowledge and opportunity to know more people. I never expected that I would be having this kind of experience in the Summit. This event was different from all the trainings and seminars I attended since in the normal events only the facilitators and organizers are the ones leading the events. But in this summit, you allowed us to also participate in facilitating the program. I am really amazed with the new learnings I gained.” - Voice Grantee
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In the same year, the s trengthening activity held in Cambodia helped the Linking and Learning facilitators in Asia to bond and form closer relationships with one another, and they were now able to message each other to share and ask questions. This also helped make the monthly e-meets more friendly and relaxed.
The Cambodia activity also gave focus on the CoPs, CoS , and platforms which led to further discussions and documentation of what was happening per country. The core characteristics of these components were clarified which was important for the reporting of success indicators of linking and learning across countries.
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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created a serious challenge for the grantees, rightsholder groups, and Linking and Learning implementing team due to restrictions on mass gatherings and mobility, and enforcement of physical / social distancing. As a result, the 2020 NCOS was re-designed from a 3-day conference style event to a month-long series of online Linking and Learning activities using social media and other online platforms to further support the emerging needs of the grantees in terms of advocacy building and sustaining connections and support within the Voice PH community. The activities were all done online, which paved the way for adopting the new normal of nonface-to- face online interactions. It was also a strong message of Voice’s presence and support during those difficult times.
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We used storytelling as a facilitation technique as learned in Linking and Learning, to better explain the new normal way of doing things and for cascading learnings on the community and grassroots level.” - Voice Grantee
Linking and Learning is the right place to address the need to learn about the new situation and new environment, to stay empowered and learn new strategies to deal with the new normal. It also makes you confident that you are doing the right thing.” - Voice Grantee
The main activities of the 2020 NCOS included the Online Marketplace which helped the grantees amplify their voices and open lines of communications and connections with other organizations with similar advocacies and interests. It helped determine RHG issues in terms of political, economic, technological, their needs and uncertainties, and the ongoing trends relative to their advocacies during the pandemic. Their inputs were used for the making of the creative content which was featured weekly through Voice and YGOAL’s social media accounts. Weekly digest posts were made to highlight the weekly gallery, and weekend livestream Wrap-Ups were conducted to talk about the weekly gallery and explain the message. This also became an avenue to encourage the public to check the online galleries.
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