“Building Partnerships, Mobilizing Resources and Empowering Communities!” This is the mission statement affirmed by members of ECOWEB, Inc. during its 13th annual General Assembly held on the 21st of December 2019 at its head office in Tubod, Iligan City.
ECOWEB was founded in 2006 by professionals and community leaders committed to addressing the four strategic problems that the group believes to beset the Lanao provinces: poverty, environmental degradation, strained social relations and poor governance. Observing the impact of these problems 13 years ago, its founding members envisioned “A Peaceful and Progressive Society Living in a Safe Environment”.
The GA was divided into two sessions, the presentation and discussion of institutional and program-based matters, and the election of the new set of Board of Trustees (BoT) from its members.
As part of its institutional consolidation, the 13th GA affirmed that the problems still prevail and not only in Lanao but also in other provinces in the country. The combined effect of the problems especially armed conflict and violence prompted ECOWEB that started mainly as a development organization, to integrate humanitarian work in its programs. ECOWEB started its Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) program in 2008, two years before the present DRRM Law was passed. Ten years after the start of its DRRM Program, ECOWEB become the recipient of the 21st National DRRM Council Gawad KALASAG National Awards in December 2019 as Champion under the Best Civil Society Organization Category in recognition of ECOWEB’s valuable efforts in strengthening the Survivor and Community-Led Response to Crisis as an innovative approach in responding to humanitarian crisis; adopting a participatory and consultative approach in capacitating communities to become disaster-resilient while promoting social unity; and for its effective local advocacy, lobbying & building partnerships with agencies, foreign funders, and stakeholders. Gawad KALASAG – accomplishments recognized as notable contributions to the national effort to build a safer, climate change adaptive and disaster-resilient Philippines, worthy of emulation by the Filipino people and recognition from Gawad KALASAG that stands for “KAlamidad at Sakuna LAbanan, SAriling Galing ang Kaligtasan”.
The GA, attended by the majority of its members and invited staff, re-iterated its commitment as a development and humanitarian organization to serve the country by affirming its updated 10 Year Strategic Plan for 2017 to 2026 approved in 2016. After three years of implementation, the strategic plan was reviewed and revised in order to be responsive to the changing realities of Mindanao, the Philippines and around the globe.
The organization’s revised Strategic Plan is capped by its commitment to contribute to the building of humanitarian-peace-development (HPD) nexus in the regions where it works. The HPD nexus is increasingly the framework of action for organizations working on humanitarian response and development in contexts with prevailing conflict. ECOWEB found this emerging concept fitted as a guiding framework in addressing the four major problems it is addressing.
For its humanitarian work, ECOWEB’s GA subscribes to the principles of Survivor and Community-Led Response (SCLR) to crisis. SCLR is an approach to emergency response anchored on the belief that any response has to uphold the dignity of the affected and that survivors of any crisis still have the capacity to help themselves and lead the response, recovery, and rehabilitation and have rights for protection. SCLR is an approach that allows the survivor and communities affected to address the root causes of crisis linking humanitarian, development and peace. During the GA, the Executive Director reported that ECOWEB had able to organize more than 200 self-help groups of internally-displaced with support from various agencies.
For its development work, ECOWEB’s GA affirms its commitment to sustainable development with a strong emphasis on developing social enterprises (SE) and enhancing the resilience of communities on the impact of climate change. Empowering humanitarian response, DRRM, SE and CCA are among the eight strategies that ECOWEB outlined in its updated strategic plan. The other three that compliments the first four includes sustainable livelihoods, peacebuilding, and advocacy and engagement with government.
The GA elected a new set of Trustees: Atty. Romero P. Pacilan, Mr. Rodrigo Gamit, Ms. Jocelyn Pacaldo, Prof. Luz C. Sevidal Castro, EnP. Elsa Maquiling, Ms. Precious Derro and Ms. Darlene Madrona. Atty. Pacilan was re-elected President for another term of two years. The founding Executive Director, Regina Salvador-Antequisa, remains as an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.
The new set of Trustees vowed to sustain all the current programs and craft all the needed policies that could further enhance its mission, attainment of its goals and support its personnel and staff. In her part, Ms. Regina Antequisa, during her report, commits to strengthen the management, develop more projects and partnerships and increase ECOWEB’s international presence and stature.
