The Department of Social Welfare and Development through the Kalahi-CIDSS conducted the Bridging Leadership Training on April 26-29, 2016 at Roderics Resort in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Participated by the local government unit of different municipalities in the region, the purpose of the three-day training is to build the character and competence of the LGU. This is also the opportunity to reflect on where they are now in terms of local leadership so that they’ll become more supportive and they’ll become more committed to developing their municipalities.

This is also an avenue to strengthen the partnership of the program to the respective LGUs, as noted previously by the Deputy Regional Project Manager Elpidio Lapad, “there have been many issues experienced by Kalahi-CIDSS team like for the past three years there have been poor LGU support, and delay in the delivery of local counterpart, limited technical assistance from the LGUs to the ACTs and to the communities”.

The challenge remains despite the numerous sub-projects that have already been implemented in some municipalities within the region.

“The poor ownership of the LGU is partly the reason why we are conducting this Bridging Leadership Training”, DRPM Lapad added.

At the end of this training, the most important output is for the LGU to determine new relationships, new arrangements in local governance that are reinforcing what Kalahi-CIDSS is doing in municipalities.#