PhilDHRRA Mindanao conducted a five-day training activity on database designing at the Patin-ay Training Center in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur on February 2 to 6, 2009.  The training activity attracted 42 men and women participants from the member-agencies of PACAP FOCAS Management Committee, the PhilDHRRA-Mindanao Secretariat, and the National Capital Region (NCR)-based Asian Farmers Association (AFA).

The training is an important translation of PhilDHRRA’s advocacy for greater use of existing information technologies as a tool for more transparent, accountable and efficient development interventions, according to Rolando Abando, Regional Coordinator of PhilDHRRA-Mindanao during the opening program of the activity, which he reiterated during the closing ceremony.

The training activity, which utilized Microsoft Access 2007 as the “platform” software, was initially intended for the members of the PACAP FOCAS Management Committee (FMC).  It was eventually redesigned to accommodate more participants including from non-FMC agencies. PACAP, which stands for Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program, is an important bilateral program between the Governments of the Republic of the Philippines and Australia.

Among the FMC members represented were the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Provincial Government of Agusan del Sur. The Regional Office of the DTI-Caraga also sent participants to the training activity.

PACAP and the Office of the Governor of Agusan del Sur, through the Provincial Planning and Development Office, comprised the major funding sources of the training activity. PhilDHRRA-Mindanao provided the resource person Paul Cornilla Baang who manages PhilDHRRA and Intercambio y Solidaridad’s project entitled, “Promocion del Tejido Social y Productivo para el Desarollo Integral de Comunidades Rurales en Caraga”(06-PRI-229) in Caraga. The project is funded by Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo or AECID, which is the international cooperation agency of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain. Intercambio y Solidaridad or InteRed is the Spanish-NGO partner of PhilDHRRA.

Arriving to the training activity as mere database enthusiasts, the participants completed the activity as database designers in their own rights. On the final afternoon of the activity, the participants showed off the databases they created, which received affirmations from their co-participants. 

For most, if not all, of the participants, the activity shattered the myth that designing and running a computerized database system is reserved for the so-called computer geeks only.