What's New
QUEZON CITY, Philippines — The Galing Pook Foundation and WAND Women Organization, Inc. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding bringing Galing Pook's adaptive leadership course into a women-led peacebuilding program in the Bicol Region.
The MOU was signed August 13 at the Galing Pook Foundation office by Jay Carizo, Executive Director of Galing Pook Foundation, and Sarah Gabriel, Project Coordinator of WAND Women Organization.
"Good governance is not government's work alone," Carizo said. "Civil society must be at the table — helping shape solutions, strengthen communities, and make governance work better for people. And this partnership is a way to achieve that."
The agreement channels Galing Pook Academy's Adapt+Innovate Course (A+I) — a leadership and mentoring program built to strengthen adaptive leadership, innovation, and collaboration among local leaders and civil society groups — into WAND Women's Gendered Action on Peace, Advocacy and Community Transformation Project (GPACT).
GPACT is supported by the European Union (EU) and co-implemented by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), WAND Women Organization, Inc., the Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA) for Eastern Visayas, and the United Youth of the Philippines-Women (UnYPhil-Women) for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and Caraga.
For the Bicol Region, WAND Women works with its downstream partners: the Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD), LIKAS, Inc., and Malayang Lapian ng mga Kababaihan (MALAYA KA), Inc., bringing the project closer to local communities and civil society organizations.
Through the partnership, WAND Women will adapt A+I's learning modules, tools, and methods for local government units, civil society organizations, women's groups, and community-based organizations across Bicol. Galing Pook Academy mentors and resource persons will support the preparation, delivery, and documentation of these learning activities.
The collaboration also runs both ways – WAND Women will feed participant assessments and lessons from the field back to Galing Pook, which will use them to refine the A+I course for future use elsewhere.
Both organizations said the agreement places particular emphasis on gender equality, inclusion, safeguarding, conflict sensitivity, and do-no-harm principles throughout implementation.
The MOU was witnessed by Monette Montemayor for Galing Pook Foundation, and by Raissa Vincena Juada, Project Assistant, and Veralyn Taclas, Finance Assistant, for WAND Women. Galing Pook mentors Oyen Dorotan and Sally Bulatao also attended, along with Eddie Dorotan, Vice Chairperson of the Galing Pook Foundation Board of Trustees.
The partnership pairs WAND Women's grassroots work on women, peace, and security with Galing Pook's track record of identifying and scaling local governance innovations. The premise behind it is straightforward: stronger women's leadership builds stronger communities, and stronger local governance makes peace more inclusive and durable.
