PROJECT PLANNING WORKSHOP PARALLEL REPORT

As a result of the workshop done in February and the participation of four members of the CORE Group as observers in CRPD Committee Session in Geneva, a Project Planning Workshop was conducted last May 20-21 at Richville Hotel. The activity was sponsored by Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID) and the Christian Blind Mission (CBM). The workshop was attended by the CORE Group members with two additional members, namely, Tahanang Walang Hagdanan and New Vois Association of the Philippines.

The goal of the workshop was to establish the Terms of Reference for the members of the Coalition and to finalize timetable of activities for the Parallel Report Project. It was also an opportunities for the Geneva delegates to echo what they had learned from observing the deliberations of  country report by the CRPD Committee and the side events on Challenges and Opportunities in Monitoring the UNCRPD.

As of the Terms of Reference, the CORE group agreed on the following:
     a.  members should have commitment to participate in UNCRPD Monitoring and Parallel Reporting;
     b.  official members of the coalition are organizations of PWDs, parents of PWDs, NGOs working on disability issues and other civil society organizations who are committed to promote the UNCRPD; members of the CORE Group can be individual  PWDs or non PWD with commitment to contribute to the realization of the project on a voluntary basis. CORE Group members can be involved in their personal capacity, as representative of their organization or as focal person for other disability constituents (like parents);
    c. the duties of the members include data gathering, writing, sharing and establishing resources and prompt response to CORE Group communications.

    d. The Term of Office of the CORE Group will last until the Parallel Report has been discussed by the UN CRPD Committee. The submission of the Report will be in April 2012 and will be calendared in 2014.

     e. The Core Group Meeting is scheduled every first Saturday of every two months. A SKYPE group will be created for immediate meetings or discussions. An e-group will also be created to facilitate exchange of information as often as possible.

TIMETABLE OF ACTIVITIES FOR PARALLEL REPORTING; 


Regional Consultation was agreed to be one of the major approach in data gathering and promoting awareness on UNCRPD. The 17 regions will be divided into six (6) clusters based on the AKAPPinoy division. Cluster Coordinators were appointed to organize the regional consultations from August to February 2012. They are as Follows:

Cluster 1-              Region 1, 11 and III-                           Lauro Purcil
Cluster 2               Region IV-A, IV-B, V                         Ronnel del Rio
Cluster 3               Region VI, VII, VIII                            Ranil Sorongon
Cluster 4               Region IX, X11 and ARMM                Ogie Gonzalez
Cluster 5               Region X, XI and CARAGA                Carmen Zubiaga
Cluster 6               National Capital Region                        Abner Manlapaz

Over-all Regional Coordinator-   Capt. Oscar Taleon

Each Cluster will nominate 1 Cluster Representative to join the workshop on July 12-14 with IDA

Other critical groups that will also have national consultations are :

Women                                   Carmen Zubiaga
Parents and Children                Ranil Sorongon
Older Persons                          Capt. Oscar Taleon/ Manuel Agcaoili
Low Incident Group                 Emer Roxas / Celia Garcia
Youth                                      Abner Manlapaz/ Richard Arceno

Networking with Human Rights Organizations    -      Dr. Liza Martinez, Ronnel de Rio, Lauro Purcil
(Social Watch, National Budget Monitoring, RCDA

Resource Mobilization -     Carmen Zubiaga, Mr. Manuel V. Agcaoili, Lauro Purcil, Capt. Taleon

Ms. Celia Garcia presented the IDA Guidelines in Parallel Reporting and the key issues to look into in every article. (interested may request from the group).

During the open forum,  Mr. Purcil emphasized that those who will participate in the report writing should be technically capable and knowledgeable of the CRPD. The selection criteria should be based on capability. The extensiveness of the Committee mandate would require time, effort, energy, and resources to fulfill its commitments. Lastly, on the structure, it is important that evidences that will be gathered are verifiable. Thus, those who will gather data should have a connection from the source of information. The task is enormous but not overwhelming. He added that the Coalition does not have to answer all of the provisions if there is no have evidence. He urged everyone to avoid making claims with no data. In Geneva, they consider no data as data in itself. Any statistics that is not verifiable is not data. Those who are not technically capable, they can help in terms of advocating the CRPD and capacitating them so that they can help in the future. 

It was agreed that the name of the Core Group is Philippine Coalition on the UNCRPD. In the Training on July 12-14, the selection of participants will be determined by cluster group leaders. Mr. Purcil will prepare draft the criteria to be e-mailed to all coordinators. There will be one representative per region, who is tasked to echo to all and coordinate during the period of consultation. He added that the Coalition will not exclude even those who are sympathetic and willing to commit for the activity and practice the principle of inclusion. The coordinators will screen those groups. 

It was agreed that the next meeting will be on June 11, 2011 after the FREEDOM WALK.