Local Governments Converge to Finance Environmental Projects

With local government units (LGUs) under tremendous pressure to implement environmental projects that meet adequate standards of performance for essential service delivery, as well as the need to respond to concerns related to environmental degradation, global climate change and food security, USAID and the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) convened the “National Conference on Environment and Natural Resource (ENR) Financing: Helping Local Governments Fund Good Projects” on September 23-24 2009 in Quezon City, Philippines. The Conference, attended by over 160 representatives from key public and private sector organizations, helped at least 64 LGUs identify and access sources of financing for environment projects. As part of the interactive learning moduls, fourteen LGUs presented projects on forestry, water, energy, fisheries, waste management and tourism, among others, to a panel of experts for critiquing. The participants agreed on four main plans of action to: 1) establish a network of local governments to share information on best practices in ENR financing; 2) develop an information base on sources of ENR financing; 3) provide technical assistance and capacity building for LGUs; and, 4) conduct follow on focused roundtable investment meetings on specific sector or geographic areas.

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