Achieving the 2030 Agenda requires new and transformative impetus for sustainable development. This development can be considered difficult when taking into account all the complex and non-linear processes that come with urbanization in a country. To be more specific, in a country like the Philippines where climate-induced hazards are prevalent and where activities like agriculture are climate-sensitive, an interdisciplinary and co-operative approach to decision-making must be undertaken in order to be climate resilient.
The creation of the Philippines chapter of Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN-PH) is one example that shows the country’s willingness to cooperate and work with the global community in the face of climate change disasters as part of sustainable development. As an organization, the SDSN-PH was established as an extension to Ban-Ki Moon’s original idea of the UNSDSN in 2012 to mobilize global scientific and technological expertise for sustainable development. For the Philippines, the mission of the SDSN-PH is to mobilize the academe, the civil and business societies, and the Philippine government to collaborate with international partners in the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Concretely, this network aims to do this through the joint creation of practical solutions on the local and global levels. The complex and non-linear nature of urbanization and its associated issues, to borrow from the previous paragraph, requires multi-sectoral and participatory approaches involving both local and global knowledge and practice.
In 2020, the SDSN-PH had a project in collaboration with with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit or German Development Agency (GIZ) and the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability (AIS) entitled Strengthening Academe-Business-Government Partnerships to Address SDGs in the Philippines. This project aims to raise awareness of the SDGs amongst the various stakeholders on the ground in various partner communities, academic institutions, and local governments around the country. The project also aims to provide a platform for multiple sectors and disciplines to work together in identifying local challenges, to network and collaborate, and craft contextualized solutions according to their local environments
To be able to provide that platform, several workshops were designed and established to draw awareness towards the UN’s SDGs and how these can specifically be tackled in the country. These workshops grouped SDGs into clusters, whereas SDG 13 (Climate Action) was grouped into what was called the Natural Capital Cluster. Based on the preliminary findings from the workshops, the community identified disaster management and climate change to be one of the bigger sustainable development challenges.
Aside from these initiatives of the SDSN-PH, research is also being undertaken by the university on climate change. The research entitled Disaster impacts and financing: local insights from the Philippines cowritten by Majah-Leah V. Ravago of the Department of Economics and Dr. Gemma Narisma of the Manila Observatory focused on insights from local communities and provides guidelines for policymakers for better risk interventions. From the findings, the researchers reported that there needs to be enhancements to national-to-local dialogue in terms of capacitating local stakeholders tailored to their contexts.
To conclude, any country will still have a long way to go in terms of development toward climate change resilience, with the Philippines being no different. The establishment of a network like the SDSN-PH is a good starting point in bridging the gap among the different sectors in a country. However, as reported in the given research, what’s important is following good and consistent communication and coordination with context-specific practice and capacity building across all sectors.