Building Resilience in the Philippines Through Sustainable Livelihoods and Psychosocial Support

Elvie Gallo's thriving chicken business means she can support her family and put aside savings to build resilience against future shocks. Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

Elvie Gallo’s thriving chicken business means she can support her family and put aside savings to build resilience against future shocks. Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

By Joyce Chimbi
Iloilo, Philippines, Sep 1 2022 – Elvie Gallo no longer hangs around her local grocery store, hoping for the odd job to put food on the table. Her hand-to-mouth life has been replaced by a viable chicken rearing and selling business in Iloilo province in the Philippines.

“I have enough for today, and I am saving for my children’s future,” she says. Gallo’s story of growth and transformation is replicated across 2,700 households in Iloilo, Bukidnon, and Sultan Kudarat, three of the poorest provinces in the country.

These households have been reached through the Padayon Sustainable Livelihood program (Padayon SLP). This is a capability-building program for households and communities living in extreme poverty to improve their socio-economic conditions and develop thriving livelihoods. The Padayon SLP program is overseen by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI).

This project builds on two existing government programs, the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), with additional interventions providing access to available government services and resources to households, coupled with supportive coaching and mentorship as well as robust monitoring of household outcomes. This more holistic approach to poverty reduction is often referred to as Graduation, a multifaceted set of interventions designed to address various factors keeping people trapped in extreme poverty within the local context.

Before this most recent program, the government began exploring how to build on their existing cash transfer and livelihood programs to address multidimensional poverty, diversify household income sources, and build resilience to shocks.

Integration of the Graduation approach into the government’s existing cash transfer program was led by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) via a Graduation pilot officially launched in 2018. The pilot worked with 2,400 extremely poor beneficiaries of the 4Ps cash transfer program and administrative systems established for their Kabuhayan (livelihood) program, which provides households with productive assets and technical training.

The program included other Graduation elements to make the interventions comprehensive such as technical training on managing assets, savings mechanisms, coaching by Graduation Community Facilitators, skills building on social and health issues, and linkages to community groups and cooperatives.

 

Corazon Gaylon, a participant of the initial pilot, is comfortably putting her children through school and is no longer in debt. Credit: BRAC 2020

Corazon Gaylon, a participant of the initial pilot, is comfortably putting her children through school and is no longer in debt. Credit: BRAC 2020

Corazon Gaylon, a participant of the initial pilot, reflected on how much her life has changed in just two years after successfully “graduating” from the program.

“My eldest daughter has been able to finish her college program, my second child is now starting his first year, and my youngest child is fully enrolled in school. I am no longer in debt [to anyone]. Our training sessions helped me a lot during the [COVID-19] lockdowns; I was able to prepare for it and put money aside.”

According to an initial endline impact assessment reported by ADB, despite the many challenges created by COVID-19 and ensuing lockdowns, participants demonstrated more resilient livelihoods and better savings and financial management. 73% of group livelihoods and 60% of individual livelihoods remained fully operational by the end of the program. Likewise, despite some initial dips in savings and new loans taken, by September 2020, 69% of those who reported incurring a debt also reported being able to repay all or part of the loan, indicating improved savings management and a significant decrease in instances of risky financial behavior.

After successfully completing the DOLE Graduation project in Negros Occidental, the government is now on its second iteration of Graduation integration via the DSWD program.

Rhea B Peñaflor, DSWD Assistant Secretary, hopes to see the Padayon SLP program scaled up to become a central part of the 4Ps scheme. This will ensure that people participating in the social protection program will not fall back into extreme poverty.

By integrating these various components, Peñaflor has witnessed drastic changes in the participants. “From livelihood support to social empowerment via coaching, our dreams for these participants are being realized, and they are able to create a more stable and successful future for themselves and their families.”

She stresses that the most significant feature of the Padayon SLP program “is the intensive coaching and monitoring aspects that are mainly facilitated through the coaches. We are also seeing great commitment from the various LGUs (Local Government Units) to oversee the implementation and help participants sustain their livelihoods and progress”.

“Our vision, in particular, is to create self-sufficiency and support the entire household. Extreme poverty should be everyone’s business. All levels of government, top-down and bottom-up, should be involved,” Peñaflor continues.

Every day, you can find Rosalie at the fish market near the docks of Iloilo City, providing customers with quality, freshly caught seafood at a fair price. Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

Every day, you can find Rosalie at the fish market near the docks of Iloilo City, providing customers with quality, freshly caught seafood at a fair price. Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

Marlowe Popes, Program Manager at BRAC UPGI, says: “The future starts at the local level. We must strengthen the capacity of local government units. They have the most experience working within the local contexts and implementing projects. They have experienced the roadblocks and challenges firsthand and are the real experts.”

Additionally, Popes confirms the need to engage local communities in the adaptation and design, implementation, and measurement of Graduation programs. Emphasizing that monitoring processes are significantly boosted by the participation of the local communities, community members serve as a driver for the success and motivation of the participants.

This level of involvement improves accountability, integration, and community ownership, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our strategy to involve leadership was key to success. Regular updates helped bring them into the fold, allowing them to feel part of success,” Popes concludes.

Meanwhile, Gallo and all other 2,699 targeted households continue their journey of growth and transformation, developing livelihoods of their choice, including agriculture, water buffalo, pig rearing and swine fattening, food carts ventures, convenience stores locally known as ‘sari sari’ stores.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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100 million People with Long COVID is a Crisis We Must Address

With the rise in COVID-19 cases fueled by new variants, the number of long COVID cases will keep increasing. Credit: Unsplash/Ivan Diaz

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Sep 1 2022 – More than two-years in, the COVID-19 pandemic rages on with rising cases and deaths every day.  A silent and more long-term pandemic occurring simultaneously is long COVID. The impact of long COVID has serious consequences for the future of humanity and should worry us all.

The recent Household Pulse Survey by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control shows that an average of 14% of US adults report long COVID symptoms. This is staggering because 93 million cases have been reported in the U.S. This implies that 13 million people in the U.S. have long COVID. Long COVID is also a global phenomenon: 2 million people in the United Kingdom, half million in Australia, and more than 100 million people globally.

13 million people in the U.S. have long COVID – Long COVID is also a global phenomenon: 2 million people in the United Kingdom, half million in Australia, and more than 100 million people globally

Long COVID is a group of symptoms which some have who, on the surface, recover from COVID-19 infection. Its occurrence is more frequent in those who had severe illnesses and in people who are not vaccinated. However, even those without COVID-19 symptoms when infected could have long COVID too.

Examples of long COVID include loss of smell, loss of taste, brain fog, difficulty in remembering past events, tiredness on exertion, chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, heart palpitations, muscle pain, change in skin and hair color and lots more.

Long COVID varies in duration. It could last for as short as 2 weeks and as long as many months after recovery from COVID-19 infection.

Research published in the British Medical Journal even documents a female patient with persistent loss in smell 27 months after the initial COVID-19 infection.  Therefore, it is unsurprising that some long COVID sufferers are unable to work. According to the Brookings Institution, long COVID could account for 15% of the  10.6 million unfilled jobs in the U.S.

With the rise in COVID-19 cases fueled by new variants, the number of long COVID cases will keep increasing. This is a wake-up call for global and country-level efforts to mitigate the impacts of long COVID. These are five ways to do so.

First, all global COVID-19 funds replenishment efforts must include plans to support long COVID interventions. These should go beyond COVID-19 prevention activities such as wearing of face masks, washing of hands with soap under running water and COVID vaccination.

Unfortunately, the 2022 “Break COVID Now Summit” co-hosted by Gavi only focused on replenishing funds to enable poorer countries to buy COVID-19 vaccines. Another way to ensure availability of funds for long COVID interventions before the next round of funds replenishment is ensuring that all COVID-19-related funding should include a component on long COVID. Such funding should cover local research on long COVID to determine the burden at country-levels, treatment and care for sufferers.

Second, some long COVID symptoms should be classified as disabilities. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognises that long COVID can be a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act if it substantially limits one or more major life activities. Other countries should do likewise.

Classifying long COVID symptoms as disabilities would enable sufferers to fully recover while being supported by the government or their employer. It would also protect the rights of sufferers from discriminations and stigmatization. For instance, a worker who has brain fog and difficulty in recalling past events requires time off work and mental health therapy to recover.

Third, update mental health care to include care of those living with long COVID. This should include updating standards of practice for mental health practitioners, mental health policies and laws. In addition, doctors should refer people with long COVID to mental health specialists.

This is relevant globally, especially in low and middle countries with poor awareness and services for mental health care. For example, in Nigeria, public perception of mental health is poor, qualified personnel are few, the law regulating mental health is from colonial times and care of those suffering from mental health disorders is mostly provided by unqualified personnel.

In 2019, I co-led the mental health in Nigeria surgery – the largest mental health survey in the country within the last 20 years. Our result showed that 70% of Nigerians say that mental health disorder is when the sufferer starts running around naked. Such wrong perception delays care and stigmatizes sufferers. One can imagine how long COVID sufferers with mental health disorders could be neglected in Nigeria.

Fourth, prioritise long COVID interventions in children because they are our future and long COVID could tamper with their abilities to be successful in life.

systematic review of long COVID in children and adolescents shows a prevalence rate of 25.24%. The top five long COVID symptoms in children and adolescents are mood symptoms (16.50%), fatigue (9.66%), sleep disorders (8.42%), headache (7.84%), and respiratory symptoms (7.62%).

The thought of children and adolescents dealing with such conditions is disheartening. Their development and productivity are stifled. Therefore, paediatricians, parents and child social workers should be trained on providing the best long COVID care for children and adolescents.

Lastly, invest in nonprofits providing long COVID interventions because governments alone cannot cater for the huge backlog of sufferers. COVIDAid – the first long COVID Charity in the United Kingdom — has brought long COVID to the front burners of national discuss in the UK. It has provided support to more than 125,000 people via a web hub, held live events on the mental health impacts of COVID-19, launched new free long COVID courses and encourages voluntarism for long COVID.

Nonprofits play important roles in bridging gaps in social development. Having more of these types of long COVID nonprofits would ensure these achievements are replicated in other countries.

Long COVID is an existential threat to humanity. Globally, the 100 million long COVID sufferers are more than the population of Germany. There is fire on the mountain. We must consolidate global efforts to quench the fire.