PHILSSA - Social Mission, Strategy & Approach

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Social Mission, Strategy & Approach

The creation of the PHILSSA network was in part a response to many existential dilemmas confrontin development organizations in the post-EDSA era. One was the need for individual NGOs to create an impact broader than the village or barangay level. “Upstreaming” and “scaling up” are buzzwords of those who wanted to make their gains sustainable and long lasting. Certain organizations responded to this dilemma by expanding their personnel and operational capabilities, eventually becoming giant organizations that even rival with government agencies in the direct delivery of services. This unfortunately created features characteristic of big systems, not the least of which is bureaucracy. The original flexibility of small organizations like Egos was gradually eroded by the rigidity and formality that come when an organization exceeds a certain size.

Another dilemma is in the area of network management. Many NGOs have tried to settle the dilemma of “big NGOs” by creating more decentralized formations such as alliances and coalitions with more lateral than vertical relationships. However, some of those who were the first to do so became trapped in another pitfall, as they became overshadowed by their network secretariats, which became disproportionately powerful and costly in relation of their original functions. National secretariats are often more strategically situated to respond to concerns affecting their respective networks than any of their NGO-members, thus they are often better projected than the latter.

Crystallizing learnings from the varied experiences of networks, the People-Centered Development Forum has summed up some effective guidelines in strategic networking and which PHILSSA has somehow tried to incarnate in its own organizational life (See Dr. David C. Korten, “NGO Strategic Networks: From Community Projects to Global Transformation”, Bangkok, Thailand, November 26, 1990.) Among these principles of strategic networking which PCDF espoused are the Principle of Strategic and Catalytic Networking.

AUTONOMY

PHILSSA as a network does not diminish the autonomy and independence of member-organizations. In fact, PHILSSA seeks to protect and strengthen the same autonomy. PHILSSA recognizes the independence of its members including their right to self-determination and self-governance. Thus, individual members may plan, operate and implement their own activities independently of the network, for as long as these does not negate commonly-defined values and aspirations. PHILSSA itself undertakes common activities that strengthen the capabilities of members in self-management and self-reliance.

Co-Ownership and Democratic Management

Ancilliary Role of the Secretariat

Corollary to the principle above, the Secretariat performs an ancillary role in relation to the network. While it has no decision-making power, the Secretariat has a strong recommendatory voice, especially in matters pertaining to actual program implementation. It performs the following functions: coordination, technical assistance, monitoring, administrative and logistical support. In general, the Secretariat serves as a support structure, providing services in pursuit of the network’s goals and in support to the entire membership.

Subsidiarity

The principle of subsidiarity states that decision, action and reflection undertaken effectively by small groups at their appropriate levels must not be contravened or superseded by bigger groups or higher levels which are less competent to handle matters at the lower levels. In other words, where the small is capable of deciding for itself, the big may not interfere for this is both inefficient and inequitable. Inefficient because the most reliable level of decision is the one closest to the direct source of information. Inequitable because the big overpowering the small is, needless to say, domination.

PHILSSA incarnates this principle by acknowledging the competence and expertise of members to carry out initiatives at their appropriate levels: the individual organization, the geographic aggrupation, the programmatic cluster, etc. PHILSSA believes that many activities are most effectively actualized at these levels because individual members have more genuine understanding of the existential peculiarities and challenges of the concrete situation than the entire national network. Thus, PHILSSA echoes the popular principle of sustainable development: THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY

Complementation

While PHILSSA respects self-direction and self-determination at so-called “lower” levels, individual members cannot be idealized as being competent in all things. Thus, the principle of complementation itself complements the principle of subsidiarity. Individual members build on each other’s strength and reinforce each one’s accomplishments. At the same time, each organization compensates and makes up for the lack in another’s capabilities, assisting each one to turn negatives into positives, to transform inadequacies and shortcomings as mechanisms to learn from experience and invigorate oneself and the entire organization.

The PHILSSA network takes pains to internalize its principles and live them out in its day-to-day life. PHILSSA refreshes itself in operationalizing these principles every year at its annual gathering. It continually educates new and veteran members on the core values that tie the whole network together.

The Second PHILSSA Congress took place at the John Pollock Center of the Ateneo de Manila University on August 10,1990. Attended by 39 NGO delegates representing the same number of organizations, the congress followed a three-day-training-workshop which topics included organizational diagnosis, planned change, personnel management, financial management, fund sourcing, and the like. The body elected three new board members and three regional representatives. The congress focused its energies on expanding the network and consolidating gains made during the past two years. It designed follow-up seminars on organizational development and NGO management.

This congress took courageous positions vis-à-vis national issues. Among the several resolutions it passed were those on KABISIG, WAND, PHILINK, American Military Bases, and Ecology.

The General Assembly recommended that the network further undertake (1) follow-up ODM training-workshop using brainstorming sessions and the case approach, (2) capability-building that will deepen the skills, knowledge and orientation of participants in relation to ODM, program development and management, networking/linkaging (3) come up with an updated NGO profile and databank on historical evolution and experiences of NGOs (4) create a pool of NGO managers who will provide regular consultancy services on organizational development (OD), resource development, training and development, career development and NGO personnel management.

On December 2, 1991, the Third Regular Congress took place again at John Pollock Renewal Center of Ateneo de Manila University. It followed an emergency general assembly on June 14, 1991 which tackled new funding opportunities made available to the network. The Third Congress was attended by 32 organizations, twelve of them new members. The Congress affirmed PHILSSA’s leading role in the formation of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO). It approved its linkages with various international agencies. The Congress refined the Code of Ethics and highlighted “gender, environment and human rights as fundamental imperatives.” It also identified concrete activities for the network as well as lead agencies per activity. It formulated sanctions for non-performing members and a socialized scheme in the payment of annual dues. The Congress also elected five new members and three regional representatives.

Close on the heels of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the change of the Philippine governments in May 1992, the Fourth PHILSSA Congress was held at the Institute of Social Order, Ateneo de Manila campus on December 3, 1992. It was sandwiched by two major trainings that tackled two timely topics : “environment and sustainable development” and the interface between two landmark government enactments, namely UDHA and LGC. Thirty-three organizations were represented, seven of them newly-accepted members. Four board members were elected, together with three regional representatives.

The Fourth Congress prepared the network for emergent trends resulting from historic development that year, such as the regionalization of coalition-building efforts and the new venues for NGO/PO participation opened up by the 1991 Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160). The Congress brainstormed on the financial sustainability of the network and identified possible measures and strategies to move in that direction. The network’s communication/information dissemination was improved when a monitoring process was set in motion and with regional desks set up to act as support structures to non-NCR-based members.

The entire network was kept abuzz by the myriad of NGO activities after the 1992 UNCED. As a result, no Congress could be held throughout 1993 but a strategic planning process that involved both national and regional units beginning November 1993 kept all of them busy. The last SAP had been conducted two years earlier, on July 10-12, 1992.

The Fifth Congress finally took place six months behind schedule, on June 4-5, 1994 at the Social Development Complex of Ateneo de Manila. It drew enthusiastic participation from 39 member-organizations. It introduced eight new members and elected five organizations to the Board plus three regional representatives.

The General Assembly also made public the results of an internal study about the personnel systems and benefit packages of PHILSSA members. The need for this survey had been articulated as early as 1990, arising from PHILSSA’s desire to find commonalities among diverse practices, identify innovative schemes, and uplift sub-standard personnel systems. Based on the results of the study, the General Assembly created an ad-hoc committee composed of senior leaders who would further examine and validate the survey’s findings, and recommend norms that would serve as reference points or benchmarks for individual members to re-adjust their existing systems.

Principles of Strategic Networking

Maintain a low public profile. Emphasize the commitment and contribution of other organizations to the network’s goals. Measure own success by effectiveness in making others stronger and more successful contributors to these goals. ..

Recognize the differing motivations and resources of the groups engaged in the network. ..

Look to those who have the most direct and compelling interest in the outcome to provide the sustained leadership. ..

Continuously scan the environment for opportunities to engage new participants who bring new perspectives and may appeal to additional segments of the public. ..

Do not take on any function that another group can perform. Facilitate linkages and fill temporary gaps not serviced by other organizations. ..

Work through existing communication networks and media to reach large audiences efficiently. ..

Help other groups find their own sources of funds, but don’t become a funder. ..

Keep staff and budget small to assure flexibility, avoid competing institutional interests, and maintain independence on the effective action of others. ..

Use protest actions to position the movement to advance a proactive agenda.

Many of the learnings articulated above have formed part of the unwritten but operative principles of PHILSSA.

Philssa's Vision

PHILSSA is committed to the creation of a society based on justice and equality, operated through mechanisms that are participative and democratic.

This vision is premised upon the belief that freedom and development can only be truly attained in an atmosphere of peace.

PHILSSA strives to ensure that its activities are directed towards the attainment of the following:

People’s Empowerment
People’s Participation
Autonomous People’s Organizations
Political Pluralism
Structural Change Through Non-Violent Action
Open and Honest Relations with Partner Agencies
Harnessing Professional Talent in the Service of the People
Consciousness of Gender, Environment and Human Rights as
Fundamental Imperatives

PHILSSA's Mission is to:

serve as organic linkage between different support agencies that could mutually assist each other in the task of contributing to the overall development of Philippine society;
strengthen member-organization’s capability to undertake different programs and projects through the pooling of resources,
conduct of training and education seminars on topics of common interest, joint staff development programs, and such activities; conduct research on the state of non-governmental organizations,
and propose to the appropriate government agencies ways and means by which NGO activities could be sustained and enhanced in the long term;
create an NGO human resource pool, so that whatever member-organizations need to fill up vacant positions or wish to expand, there would be a reserve pool from which personnel could be tapped;
assist member-organizations in sourcing grants and in undertaking other fund-raising activities. PHILSSA shall keep its members informed where they could possibly source funds for development work, how to make project proposals, how to make reports to funding agencies and other matters related to project implementation. Being non-profit, PHILSSA shall rely principally on the contributions from its member-organizations, donations from sponsors both local and foreign, and other gifts and bequests.

Goals & Activities

As a network of NGOs, PHILSSA’s main role is coordination, assistance and support service, advocacy, linkaging, and resource-accessing. PHILSSA aims to:

provide mechanisms for the sharing of resources (expertise and skills) and learnings from concrete experiences of member-NGOs,
help formulate standards and commonalities in personnel policies and staff development programs,
streamline NGO operations to enable individual NGOs to focus on development work, thus avoiding competition and unnecessary duplication of work,
ensure that basic aspirations that bind NGOs together are upheld and deepened by members,
ultimately link people’s organizations with each other, together with the NGOs servicing them,
link direct service needs with support service capabilities and vice versa, and
participate in broader formations of social development agencies such as networks and coalitions.

PHILSSA’s concrete activities, as identified during the second and third

Congress include:

setting up consortia of NGOs with common programs or client sectors such as urban poor, women, children, labor, youth/students, etc.
common capability-building program by means of trainings on human resource development, organizational development and management, program development, resource development,
gender and development,
creating a pool of in-house experts who can share their expertise with fellow members,
providing mechanisms that enable NGOs to theorize on their experiences and discuss alternative futures, self-regulation, their role on the parliamentary process, and similar concerns (lead agency, CSP/PA),
standardizing personnel management systems among NGOs and explore commonalities in compensation rates, benefits package, housing schemes, mutual fund, etc.
setting-up a placement/volunteer formation program, documentation of participatory learning and popular education methodologies,
documentation of NGO experience in the electoral process and of the experience of non-government individuals in the government, assessment of cooperative models,
databank of social development and human resource development resource materials,
exploring the feasibility of a center that caters to needs related to communication, news, research information, etc., and
scholarship slots and “special rates” arrangements for members.

Development Goals

Like many NGOs deserving of the name, PHILSSA’s vision is that of a people-centered, gender fair, socially equitable, culturally vibrant and ecologically sustainable society that nurtures life in all its forms and manages diversity in an atmosphere of peace. PHILSSA believes that such society can be attained only if the marginalized and oppressed sectors are empowered to participate more actively in their self-development. PHILSSA values people as both the means and the end of development and sees them as subjects, not objects, of development. Based on this vision, PHILSSA regards people empowerment as a strategy, a goal, and a process necessary for the total democratization of the social order.

PHILSSA’s self-conception of its major role in development work is to empower and equip the intermediary organizations that service the primary grassroots organizations. These support organizations or NGOs play crucial roles in furthering both democratization and empowerment. NGOs activate the poor to mobilize their own resources and to build on local capabilities. They share skills and values with the poor essential to the latter’s self-development. They assist the exploited and dispossessed to build their own networks and linkages necessary in attaining a certain measure of transformative power. Thus, in directly building up well-meaning NGOs, PHILSSA indirectly builds up the POs and provides mechanisms so that popular organizations can link up with each other to attain a critical mass that can effect equity-led, inclusive and sustainable development.

Philssa History

Institutional Development