The Development Academy of the Philippines’ Center for Governance recently conducted a training course on basic policy process for the Forest Management Bureau to deepen the understanding of selected technical personnel on the basic concepts and steps involved in developing sound policies.

A total of 27 personnel of the bureau participated in the training at the DAP Conference Center and Hotel in Tagaytay City.  Assistant Director Mayumi Quintos-Natividad of the FMB provided some context during the opening program on existing laws and policies in the Philippines relative to the Philippine Master Plan for Climate-Resilient Forestry Development.  She stressed that the FMB is one of the sector bureaus of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources whose mandate includes recommending policies.

The training consisted of an overview of policy analysis and the policy process; a discussion on the different methods of understanding the issue, prioritizing agenda, lobbying advocacies, and monitoring and evaluating policies; and a brief overview of the role of the FMB in the Philippine development context, which was given by forester Edna Nuestro, Division Chief of the FMB’s Forest Policy, Planning, and Knowledge Management Division.

At the end of the three-day training, the participants produced policy papers addressing identified challenges faced by the FMB’s different offices and projects after being given guidance on how they can improve and make more effective their policy papers.

Gilbert Lumantao, Director of the DAP’s Policy Research Office, expressed the Academy’s hope at the end of the program that the bureau’s next generation of foresters and technical personnel can effectively craft policies for the future. — Dominique Reario