The Case of Batangas Province, Philippines
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Promoting Effective Information Management through Academic Partnership: the Case of Batangas Province, Philippines CASE STUDY 8 Case Study 8 Promoting Effective Information Management through Academic Partnership: the Case of Batangas Province, Philippines Vivienne Rhea Padura1*, Nancy Bermas2, and Daisy Padayao2 1 De La Salle Lipa 1962 JP Laurel National Highway, 4217 Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines 2 Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia DENR Compound, Visayas Ave., Quezon City 1100, Philippines Key Message • Involving an appropriate academic The province explored a new modality institution at local level as a stakeholder of operationalizing the IIMS database by partner can contribute to effective partnering with De La Salle Lipa (DLSL), coastal governance and management, one of the local academic institutions in including strengthening the quality, use, the area. DLSL was able to provide the and management of local information. needed human and technical resources in operationalizing the system and at the same time strengthen its role as an ICM Abstract Learning Center in the Philippines. The storage, retrieval, and access of A partnership was initiated to build the large amount of data/information capacity of DLSL in operationalizing accumulated from a number of years the Batangas IIMS database. Other local of ICM implementation in Batangas governments, including the Provinces Province, Philippines was facilitated by of Bataan, Cavite, and Guimaras found an operational integrated information the partnership beneficial. In turn, they management system (IIMS). However, the were engaged in discussions with local operationalization of the IIMS database in academic institutions in their respective the province was constrained by the limited areas to replicate the initiative. This case study is part of the book: number of staff in the ICM coordinating Chua, T.-E., L.M. Chou, G. Jacinto, office. S.A. Ross, and D. Bonga. (Editors). 2018. Local Contributions to Global Sustainable Agenda: Case Studies in Integrated Coastal Management in the East Asian Seas Region. Partnerships in Environmental Management for * the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) and Email: [email protected] Coastal Management Center (CMC), Quezon City, Philippines. 121 CASE STUDY 8 Background With more than two decades of ICM management interventions for the sustainable implementation, Batangas Province was development of its coastal and marine areas. accumulating a large amount of data/ The academe was the partner of the local information. An operational IIMS was provided government in the conduct of relevant research to facilitate storage, retrieval, and access of studies (e.g., connectivity studies on marine these information to support planning and protected areas; see Sollestre, et al., this volume), decisionmaking processes and activities and in the preparation of outputs required in relevant to coastal and river basin management the ICM program (e.g., coastal environmental of the province (see Box 1). profile, setting up of the environmental laboratory, assessment of marine protected The IIMS database was initially established areas). at the Provincial Government-Environment and Natural Resources Office (PG-ENRO)1 The interest of local academic institutions to in 2005 as a decision support system for the partner with the local government stemmed Batangas ICM program. With its limited staff, from the fact that they were also stakeholders the number of activities and the amount of and users of the area. As with other stakeholders, responsibility required in coordinating the local academic institutions recognized the need ICM program, PG-ENRO was faced with to contribute to the management and sustainable the challenge of populating the data tables, development of coastal and marine resources. and of updating and maintaining the IIMS database. While PG-ENRO recognized its Information management and dissemination importance in ICM program implementation, was another aspect that was explored by the the lack of human resource was impeding the local governments to collaboratively work with operationalization of the IIMS database of academic institutions, which were perceived Batangas. by stakeholders to be credible, objective, and impartial and not producing results that were Local and national scientific and academic “self-serving” to the government. Thus, reports institutions were long involved in the and outputs produced with, and information ICM program to assist the province in the disseminated by, academic institutions were identification of policy options and appropriate viewed as accurate, reliable, and neutral. 1 The PG-ENRO serves as the Secretariat and coordinates the implementation of the ICM program in Batangas. The ICM program in Batangas was initiated in 1994. 122 Promoting Effective Information Management through Academic Partnership: the Case of Batangas Province, Philippines CASE STUDY 8 Box 1. Integrated information management system The IIMS is a comprehensive relational environmental database that allows users (e.g., local governments, government agencies, academe, and other relevant stakeholders) to store, retrieve, and generate information supporting the implementation of integrated coastal and river basin management. The IIMS captures 11 categories of data and generates information relevant in producing the different outputs and supporting various applications in coastal and river basin management. The IIMS is a tool for local governments implementing ICM. Its establishment begins during the initiating stage of the ICM development and implementation cycle. At each stage of implementation, it generates information supporting various coastal and river basin management activities (e.g., risk assessment, resource valuation, state of the coasts reporting, land and sea-use planning, coastal strategy development, etc.). The IIMS has to be updated as data/information become available in the different stages of ICM implementation. PEMSEA developed a modular approach for the IIMS training. Module 1 discussed the requirements in the establishment and basic operations of the IIMS. After the training, participants were expected to establish and populate the data tables of the IIMS database in their respective areas. When the data tables were populated, Module 2 on query system and linking the IIMS to external software (e.g., GIS) was conducted. 123 CASE STUDY 8 Approach and Methodology Results Expanding academic partnership Initiating the new partnership for information management A series of discussions was undertaken among Early on, IIMS was developed by PEMSEA solely for PG-ENRO, DLSL, and PEMSEA to agree that the local governments to maintain, update, and sustain proposed arrangement was feasible and would result data and information to support ICM program in benefits for the province and its stakeholders. The implementation. Adapting to the realities on the discussions were also used to delineate roles and ground, Batangas Province embarked on exploring responsibilities, including human, financial, and a new modality to operationalize the system. The technical resources required from the three parties province engaged DLSL, one of its local partner in re-establishing and operationalizing the Batangas universities in ICM program implementation for the IIMS database (Box 2). operationalization of its IIMS database. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed The DLSL was established as one of PEMSEA’s ICM between PG-ENRO, DLSL, and PEMSEA on 26 Learning Centers in the Philippines in 2008. As a March 2014 during the Batangas Environment learning center, DLSL was serving as a repository Summit 2014 to re-establish and operationalize the of information and reference materials, training IIMS database of Batangas Province. The Provincial modules, tools, and methodologies relevant to Governor of Batangas, the President of DLSL, and coastal management. It was also expected to provide the Executive Director of PEMSEA represented the technical assistance in the conduct of training and parties in the collaborative arrangement and signed other capacity building activities in support of ICM the MOA (Figure 1). program implementation among local government units in the country, particularly in Batangas where Training the IIMS core team it was located. With the new arrangement, DLSL was providing the necessary human and technical Following the signing of the MOA, the IIMS core resources required to update and maintain the IIMS. team was trained on the operations and applications of IIMS. The team of DLSL consisted of faculty The DLSL, on the other hand, was perceived to members and staff from the Biology Department and benefit from the arrangement by an expansion of its Science Area of the College of Education, Arts and community outreach activities and the possibility of Sciences, and the Information and Communication developing research studies from the information Technology Department (Figure 2). The composition generated from the system. of the IIMS core team was based on the requirement for technical staff who are knowledgeable and Likewise, the local government and other understand the data requirements of IIMS, and an stakeholders were seen to benefit from the administrator who is knowledgeable in computer arrangement through improved access to and Internet operations. information supporting sound management decisions and informed planning in coastal and river basin management activities. 124 Promoting Effective Information