ASSIST joins PBSP’s Annual Membership Meeting and Foundation Day

Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) Managing Director Sreenivas Narayanan and Group Associate Mahnaz Zanganeh joined the Annual Membership Meeting and Foundation Day Celebration of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) as guests last January 24, 2012 at Makati’s Intercontinental Hotel.

With the theme “Harnessing Business Solutions Against Poverty”, the event served as a gathering for all its Board Members to hold their Annual Board Meeting, recognize of new trustees and member companies. Most importantly, the organization celebrated its 41st anniversary.

During the meeting, the board led by Manny Pangilinan discussed the key results of PBSP’s efforts in 2012, and planned programs and events for 2012. In addition, the board encouraged progressive efforts to create lasting impact on health, basic education, environment and livelihood  by fostering collaboration among its partner corporations.

Photo from BlogPhilippines.com

And at the Foundation Day Celebration, Keynote Speaker US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. came to express his support for PBSP’s advocacy and efforts geared towards poverty reduction.

Photo from TheMindanaoCurrent.blogspot.com

ASSIST and PBSP are planning to become partners in sustainability initiatives for the industries. #

Ten Photos to Shake the World voting on Facebook begins!

Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) is pleased to announce that the Facebook voting for the top 24 entries of the Ten Photos to Shake the World Photo Competition has begun today, January 25, 2012, and will last until February 1. The entry with the most number of ‘likes’ wins a (separate) special prize.

The panel of judges was composed of Inquirer Photojournalist Raffy Lerma, Center for Environmental Concerns Executive Director Ces Quimpo and ASSIST Research and Knowledge Management Director Sheena Carmel Duco Opulencia.

Launched last year, the competition sought “ten compelling photos to shake the world and promote awareness on the state of the world environment.”

Winners will receive cash and gift packs from sponsors Petron, Kraft and Nestle.

Visit the competition’s official Facebook page by clicking here.#

SAFE Cambodia conducts Gap Analysis of pilot companies

The SAFE Cambodia Structured Program to Achieve Food Safety Excellence in Cambodia initiative conducted a Gap Analysis among nine pilot companies in Phnom Penh, Kompong Thom and Battambang last Dec. 12 to 17, 2011.

A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative of TUV Rheinland and  Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), it seeks to instill mass awareness on international food safety and cleanliness standards amongst local SMEs operating in the agriculture and fishery industry.

For the Gap Analysis, project partners TUV Rheinland and ASSIST assessed the companies’ capacity in implementing the international standards Good Manufacturing Practices, Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Food Safety Management System (FSMS)/ ISO 22000).

Following this activity, Project Consultant Ma. Lourdes Mangaban will develop the action plan for the companies to ensure compliance of their documentation and records to requirementsof GMP and HACCP.

The action plan will outline the steps to take, to prepare the participating companies for the rigorous certification process.

Pilot companies include caterers, water bottlers, and farm produce distributors.#

ASSIST Now! Volume 2, Issue 4 now available

 

PRO-FIT initiative opens with a multi-stakeholder forum

 

Food safety practitioners gathered for the multi-stakeholder forum of PRO-FIT (Promoting Food Industry Competitiveness Training Program) last January 12, 2012 at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay.

Co-financed by Sequa and BMZ, PRO-FIT is implemented by Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), AFOS Foundation for Entrepreneurial Development Cooperation (AFOS), TUV Rheinland and UP Institute for Small Scale Industries (UP ISSI) that will run for 2 years.

It aims to train practitioners on a variety of qualification options on food safety and sanitation practices at the UP ISSI.

The vocational training courses will target Micro, Small and Medium enterprises of the country’s food products as well as beverage manufacturing sectors.

TUV Rheinland Philippines COO Tristan Loveres (COO, TUVR) welcomed the participants to the forum, while DOST XI Regional Director Dr. Anthony Sales and AGHAM Partylist Chief of Staff Dr. Florentino Tesoro discussed Food Safety Initiatives.

Meanwhile, AFOS Country Director Dr. Stephan Kunz and UP ISSI Director Prof. Nestor Raneses talked on the state of food safety in the Philippines, its challenges and opportunities. ASSIST Managing Director Sreenivas Narayanan provided a Project Overview.

Finally, TUV Rheinland’s Business Development Manager Pinky Villacrusis discussed the next steps and closed the program.

Through the event, the project implementers were able to solicit inputs from the representatives on the strengths and opportunities for harmonizing initiatives towards achieving food safety. Organizations also expressed support and offered contribution to the development of the training curricula.#

ASSIST India inspires environmental awareness among the youth

True to its thrust towards raising environmental consciousness, Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) India joined the inauguration of the Eco Club in Dominic Savio Higher Secondary School in Santhome, Chennai last January 12, 2012.

An alumnus of the school (which also counts as its graduate ASSIST’s Managing Director Sreenivas Narayanan) and now project coordinator Mithoon RV graced the event as the chief guest.

At the ceremony, Mithoon explained the importance of simple environment-friendly practices, such as planting trees, not using plastic, and conserving resources.

As he explains in his speech, “We’re all just normal people with our routine lives who hope that maybe we can make a difference. That’s what it’s going to take, everyday people all over the world realizing that each one of us has the potential to make a difference in our community and in our environment. But it starts with us; we have to be the messengers, and we have to be the ones who start caring about this planet we live on. It’s time to step out of our comfort zones and start taking action.”

He adds, “Our cause does not start and end with this rally. We must continue this struggle tomorrow and the day after and carry with us this dedication to the preservation of this planet.”

ASSIST India intends to spread the awareness to other schools. #

ASSIST holds pilot training on Green Building for IFC

Nineteen architects convened in Ho Chi Minh City’s Energy Conservation Center (ECC) last December 17 to 20, 2011 for the Green Building pilot training of Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) under the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) initiative Energy Efficiency Training Product and Trainer Development.

The event sought to develop the learning materials that can be used by Vietnam-based builders in designing Green structures. With content focused on green buildings, it is hoped that the material will spread environmental consciousness among policymakers, academe, and members of the infrastructure and construction industries.

For this endeavor, ASSIST serves as consultant and project management.

A member of the World Bank Group, IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. Its Green Building training initiative is aligned with one of its strategic priorities, “Addressing climate change and ensuring environmental and social sustainability.”#

SHIFT Indonesia holds mock audit of pilot companies

ASSIST and PT TUV Rheinland Indonesia conducted a mock audit of pilot companies on ISO 27001:2005 for the SHielding Income and Financial Transactions (SHIFT) Indonesia Project last November 28 to 30, 2011 in Jakarta and Bandung.

Designed to ensure that the client is prepared for the certification/ external auditing, the audit followed the principles of Adequacy, Compliance and Effectiveness of the management system in three major aspects: Awareness of People, Effectiveness of Implementation and adequacy of processes.

After the mock audit, the Project Team produced a report includes findings, recommendations and inputs for the corrective/preventive actions to be taken.

The activity marked the end of the project’s third (Implement) phase which involves the provision of technical assistance Phase.

ASSIST Technical Consultant Raja Kumar conducted the audit for three out of seven participating companies – all subsidiaries of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia,. His report reveals that the pilot companies showed no major non-conformance, and stated that after implementing corrective actions, they are ready for certification.

SHIFT Indonesia is a PPP that aims to qualify and ensure compliance of merchants and other service providers with international security standards, norms and procedures, especially PCI DSS and ISO 27001.

The initiative is supported by German development bank DEG. #

Philippines losing the battle against HIV/AIDS

Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) News Commentary by Paula Bianca Lapuz

Consistent with the upward trend of the past months, with males having recorded the most number of cases, the latest government reports on HIV incidence in the Philippines raise red flags and demand greater support for prevention programs (Tubeza 2012).

photo from talakayanatkalusugan.com

 

According to the Department of Health, HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) cases in the Philippines have surged by as much as 90% between November 2010 and November 2011. Majority of inflicted individuals acquired the virus through sexual contact (MSM/Men having Sex with Men) and sharing of needles. Mother-to-child transmission rates remain to be negligible (Tubeza 2012).

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS has noted that while elsewhere HIV/AIDS growth rates have declined, the Philippines and Bangladesh have posted at least 25% increase from 2001 to 2009 (UNAIDS 2011). This is why, UNAIDS Manila Head Teresita Marie Bagasao pressed the government for immediate and decisive actions to address the further spread of the disease, blaming severe underfunding for the unabated growth.[1]

The Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry under the Department of Health (DOH) National Epidemiology Center reports that from 1984 to 2011[2] there have been 940 AIDS cases, 682 of which were males (Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry 2011).

DOH runs an HIV/STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) Prevention program which aims to empower communities and individuals through proper sanitary education and adequate health care services. However, this has obviously fallen short of its targets.

What went wrong?

Sectors

The government has evidently failed in assessing the gravity of the situation among homosexuals and drug users as HIV transmission among these groups become more rampant than among female sex workers (Macaraig 2011). Focus on prostituted women encouraged social workers and advocates to find ways to introduce “innovative practices” in sex work which later proved helpful in radically decreasing possible new infections in Angeles City, Pampanga (ABS-CBN News 2011).

Budget

The budget for the prevention program is meager. Bagasao mentioned that almost 80% of the funds came from different multilateral agencies. DOH notes that it can only make ends meet by trying to maximize available resources – just a little over half of the needed funds (Macaraig 2011).

Analysis

The government will most likely have to stretch the budget even more. Bagasao states that the government should decide which to prioritize: prevention or treatment? But as DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag puts it, “It is a race against time because the more cases there are; the more different kinds of financial support are needed in the long run.”

Although the proportion of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS (7,884) is relatively small compared to the total population of the country (94 million), the fact remains that Philippines is among the few countries whose HIV rates have steadily gone up in the last two decades (Macaraig 2011).

With this in mind, there is a need to identify more mechanisms to address the worsening status of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, which is listed as part of the Millennium Development Goals. The government has to create aggressive and dynamic information-education programs that can be integrated with the high school and college curricula. This way, more people will be aware of preventive practices.

Indeed, the issue also brings to the fore the need for a reliable and effective sex education program which is part of the Reproductive Health bill pending before the congress. In particular, it will be challenging to reach drug users and homosexuals, since they have not been the target market of the past programs.

Other line agencies and local government units must scale up their efforts to contribute to the DOH initiatives as well. Truly, for the HIV/STI prevention program to succeed, the approach must be holistic, strategic, and pro-active.#

 

Works cited:

ABS-CBN News. ABS-CBN Lifestyle. January 23, 2011. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/01/22/11/safe-sex-101-how-put-condom-mouth (accessed January 02, 2012).

Macaraig, Mynardo. ABS-CBN Lifestyle. December 23, 2011. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/12/03/11/philippines-struggles-aids (accessed January 02, 2012).

Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry . Newly Diagnosed HIV Cases in the Philippines. Update, Department of Health , 2011.

Tubeza, Philip C. Philippine daily Inquirer/Latest Stories. January 02, 2012. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/121121/hiv-cases-rose-89-in-november%E2%80%94doh (accessed January 02, 2012).

UNAIDS. HIV in Asia and the Pacific: GETTING TO ZERO. Update, UNAIDS, 2011.

 

ASSIST launches Advancing Carbon-Neutral Economy (ACE) PPP Project in China

ASSIST launched back to back events to kick off its Public Private Partnerships Advancing Carbon Neutral Economy: a Multi-Stakeholder Forum on December 19 and Awareness Session on December 20.

ASSIST Projects and Grants Management Director graced both events

An 18-month PPP Project co-financed by DEG and implemented by TUV NORD China and ASSIST, ACE seeks to help reduce China’s carbon footprint.

The forum was attended by top executives and representatives of government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), academic institutions, and private companies. Meanwhile, the awareness session featured a discussion on the current level of carbon emissions in China and the practices that can be adopted by members of energy-intensive industries.

Mrs. Jin Joy, CEO of TUV NORD Great China, welcomes the participants to the Multi-Stakeholder Forum

The following topics were discussed: Carbon Neutrality and the Underlying Concepts; International Standards on Carbon Neutrality (ISO 50001, ISO 14064, PAS 2050); Determining, Quantifying, Reducing and Offseting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on various international standards; and Benefits and challenges of implementing Carbon Neutrality in an organization.

Forum speakers include Mr. Li Yong Jun, AP Product Manager Climate Change, Mr. Tang Qing He, Director of Low-Carbon Economy Research Center at the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, Mr. Gu Qing Ping, Deputy Director at Carbon Accounting Center, Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange.

ASSIST Projects and Grants Management Director graced both events. #