DAVAO CITY—The Davao region last year sent only one entry to the Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Cities and Municipalities as participating local government units were becoming scarce.
The technical working group of the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children (TWG-RSCWC) noted this as it encourages local government units (LGUs) to take part in the search and vie with other LGUs on child-friendly initiatives.
Tagum City was the only LGU which braved its way to the national level last year and was the only LGU in the region that signified interest to vie for the child-friendly-award.
The Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Cities and Municipalities has been institutionalized through Executive Order 184 series of 1999 as part of the Philippine commitment as signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on November 20, 1989.
The search identifies LGU accomplishments with regard to the four broad rights of the child, namely, the right to survival, development, protection and participation as well as seeks to measure LGU achievements in institutionalizing the four gifts for children.
The four gifts refer to Local Development Plan for Children, Local Investment Plan for Children, Local Code on Children and Local Investment Plan on Children.
To entice more LGUs to showcase child-friendly initiatives and vie for the award, RSCWC-TWG spearheaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to go full-blast in advocating child-friendly governance which basically involves the four gifts for children in the third quarter of this year.
Target areas of child-friendly local governance advocacy are Governor Generoso, San Isidro, Boston, and Mati City in Davao Oriental; Sto. Tomas, Asuncion and Braulio E. Dujali, and cities of Panabo, Tagum and Samal in Davao del Norte; Nabunturan and Maco in Compostela Valley.
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) XI representative Miguel Penalosa, during the RSCWC-TWG meeting proposed a resolution to ask the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) to allow full disclosure of the search criteria to LGUs so they would know how to brace themselves in taking part of the search. He also proposed that RSCWC XI ask CWC to institutionalize the frequency of the search whether it be held annually or every two years thereafter so LGUs which would be able to better for the search.
Penalosa also pointed out the need to raise incentives for winning entries and if possible raise the national winner prize to 1 million from 300, 000 pesos. (PIA XI)
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