Amid the confusing reports straddling between conflict escalation or reduction in the Middle East, the barebones truth remains that the current impact and the aftermath of this conflict between Iran, the US, and Israel has already brought immense uncertainty amid the impact of increased fuel costs, posing formidable challenges. Overcoming these challenges will require vulnerable actors like us to invest in contingencies to ensure that our local economies continue to thrive despite these impacts, effects, and scars.

Here is an initial list.

The first is the idea of co-loading cargo. Recently, a company called FAST Logistics proposed this, as stated in Dexter Barro’s MB article last March 18. The activity calls for shared spaces on delivery trucks to maximize trips and save on fuel. This is primarily aimed for deliveries of fast - moving consumer goods but can also be applied to farm produce, especially for Metro Manila, which gets its food from areas far from the metropolis. Apart from cargo forwarding companies, passenger bus companies can also join in by allocating larger amounts of cargo space underneath their buses. I believe this will maximize bus trips and greatly help small producers so that they can quickly ship their produce without having to wait for consolidation.

The next is the concept of proximate production. This concept is not new, as it entails allocating nearby property for vegetable production and nearby agricultural lands for livestock production. Encouraging production in spaces near population centers lowers the cost of transport from farm to market. Many local government units outside Metro Manila are blessed to have such areas. In Metro Manila’s case, I have written in many past columns about the possibility of landscaped areas in condominium complexes being transformed into vegetable plots to allow the production of food. Barangays can develop community plots to raise vegetables using composted soil.

A third suggestion is to form car pools to and from home, work, and school to save on fuel and reduce parking costs. Condominium and homeowners associations can help organize these efforts to help residents save fuel, since the individual resident will not need to use their car every day. When this effort is combined with many subdivisions and condominiums, fewer private cars will enter roads, causing less vehicular traffic, and parking lots in central business districts will see less congestion.

These are practical suggestions that can be adapted for the particular contexts of the locations. I am sure you have other suggestions of your own that would be good for your locale. The key is finding creative and practical solutions and sharing them. As you can see, these solutions will require high levels of synergy. These cannot happen without more mature collaboration between businesses, homeowners, schools, and local government.

To facilitate the synergies needed to address these economic challenges and promulgate, execute, and monitor the implementation of these initiatives, consultative conferences will need to be held at the local and regional level, to enable the right discussions and participation not only of the capable, but the vulnerable as well. The regional development councils can convene, and local government task forces can be set up for these, in collaboration with local business organizations, Church groups, and other residents. We all will need to work together. We will overcome these challenges.