A total of 61 individuals from various civil society organizations (CSOs) graduated on Thursday, Feb. 2, from the Pasig City CSO Academy, the first educational institution in the country dedicated for civil society leaders, workers, and volunteers.
The graduation ceremony, held at the Tanghalang Rizal in Rizal High School, was graced by Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, Vice Mayor Robert “Dodot” Jaworski Jr., Congressman Roman Romulo, and officials from the Advocacies in Praxis for Leadership and Community Development Inc., the Rizal Technological University (RTU), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) – Pasig.
Fulfilling its core principles of community engagement and praxis, the CSO Academy seeks to increase the knowledge and capacities of CSOs in order to enable them to participate more actively in dialogues with the local government and in community service.
In a span of three months, the graduates studied the provisions on people’s participation of the Republic Act No. 7160 or the “Local Government Code of 1991.”
During their study, the graduates were also taught lessons and trained on governance and addressing social issues like family planning, food security, and online sexual exploitation and abuse of children (OSEAC).
The program included an immersion component that required academy fellows to create and execute “Program Prototype Execution Proposals,” pertaining to concrete action plans and initiatives that they implemented in their respective communities and groups.
The Pasig City local government pioneered the creation of this institution to support CSOs and introduce a more "people-centered form of governance," as Sotto said at the start of his second mayoral term.
The academy was established in partnership with the Advocacies in Praxis for Leadership and Community Development Inc., RTU, and the Center for the Advancement of Local Governance of DILG-Pasig.
These parties all lent their expertise and other resources such as teaching personnel and training material to the academy.
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) establishing the CSO Academy was signed by the stakeholders last Nov. 24, 2022.
READ MORE: Mayor Vico eyes ‘people-centered’ governance in second term, ‘From beneficiaries to partners:’ Pasig City opens landmark accreditation process for CSOs