The ICCP Group, through its social development arm, the ICCP Group Foundation, Inc. (IGFI), and Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI), have collaborated on a Community Solid Waste Management Project to strengthen community members’ capacity and competence in the arena of inclusive and long-term environmental protection.
This joint project of IGFI and CCFPI aims to improve community members’ environmental knowledge and skills, allowing them to be advocates and effective partners of local government in community development.
In coordination with local government units, this project will encourage community participation in environmental protection by providing capacity building through solid waste management training and orientation and establishing “Bantay-Kaagapay Advocates”. These advocates will take part in solid waste management initiatives as environment stewards for the community.
The project will benefit community members from 16 different urban areas of Sto. Tomas and Malvar in Batangas; City of San Fernando, Pampanga; Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; and the City of Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental.
At least 510 community members will form the “Bantay-Kaagapay” Group, which will receive training and workshops from project management and environmental experts invited as resource persons to provide necessary knowledge, appropriate skills, and proper attitudes and values on waste management.
Following the completion of the training program, Bantay Kaagapay advocates will conduct house-to-house campaigns on proper waste segregation, the 4Rs of environmental protection (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse), and other environmental issues. Bantay Kaagapay advocates will also work with their respective local government units to adopt its waste management agenda.
“The key to the project’s success is the involvement of key stakeholders and having policies that will be included in the budget and programs of local governments,” said the ICCP Group.
The project intends to assist in the development of local legislation governing people’s participation in proper waste management within the context of inclusive environmental protection, such as a barangay resolution formulated and enacted by the barangay council recognizing the Bantay Kaagapay’s role and agenda in environmental protection.
This Community Solid Waste Management Project will run until October 2023.