1. To make the PH-OGP process more strategic, it is critical to continue engaging with the Steering Committees for direction setting and innovation rather than limiting their functions to procedural matters. Communicating what we’re doing and what we’ve done successfully is important to remain relevant and to sustain stakeholders’ engagement.

2. Explore endlessly. We created new content, tested A/B to see which content worked better, looked at competitors, and stayed curious on how to improve the Communications program. A good part of what the Resource Building program accomplished was exploring current and trending/ upcoming approaches on development financing. It is a very wide field of advocacy and action in the international arena, and we wondered which ones might be worth pursuing by the CSO sector here. Our participation in a project on local/community philanthropy was a consequence of that interest, not that the concept of local resource generation is new to us, but varying perspectives or innovative approaches refresh familiar concepts and create new energies for action.

3. “Remember, you were made for these times,” Vice-President Leni Robredo spoke to Batch 2020 in their commencement exercises. The same message inspired us in 2021 to continue working despite obvious limitations and challenges, and to “stay on the side of courage”. We were hesitant at the start of our pandemic journey, but our experiences and passion shaped us to become resilient – evolving and adapting in such a volatile and uncertain world, for our personal purpose and our commitment to CODE-NGO, its member networks and partners.

4. “Hindi madali, pero kung sama-sama, kakayanin.” The new normal is not yet the norm for us, but managing and operating CODE-NGO with a very lean Secretariat this year was not a hindrance to further our mission. In fact, it provided an opportunity for us to cultivate our relationships and to be successful together. We shared the load and worked with each other’s strengths. We learned how to be agile, adaptable, and effective in social change. We may not have as much human resources for our convenience, but we are fortunate to have a team that understands how to recognize individual efforts, care for everyone, and advocate for the collective goals of CODE-NGO.

This article is part of the CODE-NGO Annual Report 2021.