The Annual Public Policy Conference (APPC) is the main and culminating activity of the Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) celebration held every September. The 8th APPC will feature the theme “#CloseTheGap: Accelerate Post-pandemic Recovery through Social Justice” in a four-part webinar series.

This fourth and last webinar in the series will be on September 22, from 9:00 to 11:30 am, via Zoom. It will feature the topic “Environmental Resilience and Climate Change”. Through esteemed local and international speakers, this session will answer the following questions:

• How can we address the welfare of the most susceptible groups, including cultural minorities, to shocks?
• How can we build safe and sustainable communities with reduced vulnerabilities among the poor and marginalized groups?
• How can the government provide equitable access to safe and sustainable communities given vast differences in social, physical, and economic determinants?

This event will be streamed live on the PIDS Facebook page (facebook.com/PIDS.PH) and the SERP-P Community page (facebook.com/SERPPH/).

#APPC2022CloseTheGap
#APPC2022AcceleratePostPandemicRecoveryThroughSocialJustice

PROGRAM

APPC Webinar 4: Environmental Resilience and Climate Change (9:00 am to 11:30 am)

Presentation of the Speakers (9:15 am to 9:55 am)

Building Resilience that leaves No One Behind

• Ms. Floradema Eleazar, EnP
  Team Leader
  Climate Action Team
  United Nations Development Programme Philippines

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for Climate Resilience

• Dr. Rodel Lasco
  Executive Director, Oscar M. Lopez Center
  Former Country Manager, International Council for Research in Agroforestry

The Building of Resilient Philippine Cities

• Dr. Nathaniel Von Einsiedel
  Fellow, Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners
  Architect and Urban Planner

Panel Discussion (9:55 am to 11:00am)
Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos
Vice President, Oceana Philippines
Executive Committee Member, Oceana International

Dr. Marian delos Angeles
Board Member Emeritus, Resources, Environment and Economics Center for Studies
Senior Natural Resource and Environmental Economist

Open Forum (11:00 am to 11:25 am)

Closing Program

Senator Risa Hontiveros
Chairperson
Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality
Senate of the Philippines

Emcee and Moderator
Dr. Sonny Domingo
Senior Research Fellow
Philippine Institute for Development Studies

PROFILES

Ms. Floradema Eleazar, EnP
Team Leader
Climate Action Team
United Nations Development Programme Philippines

Ms. Eleazar is a professional Forester and Environmental Planner. She obtained her BS in Forestry from UP Los Banos and MA in Urban and Regional Planning from UP Diliman. She also obtained a Special Certificate from Harvard Institute for International Studies on Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis.

She spent more than 19 years in government, mainly DENR in designing, implementing and managing ENR programmes. She served as Manager of three major projects, namely: UNDP Integrated Environmental Management for Sustainable Development; WB-DoF Community Based Resource Management Project; and the UNDP-GEF-DENR New Conservation Areas in the Philippines Project. She worked as Independent Consultant to UNDP, EU, World Bank, ADB and DFAT for almost 15 years prior to joining UNDP in August 2016.

Her expertise includes land governance, biodiversity conservation, natural resources management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk reduction and management. She specializes in policy research, programme planning, project management, monitoring and evaluation.

She is currently the Outcome Lead of the UNDP Climate Action Team in the Philippines which manages the organization’s portfolio on environment and natural resources management, climate change and disaster risk reduction and management.

Dr. Rodel Lasco
Executive Director, Oscar M. Lopez Center
Former Country Manager, International Council for Research in Agroforestry

Dr. Rodel D. Lasco has over 40 years of experience in natural resources and environmental research, conservation, education and development at the national and international level. His work has focused on issues related to natural resources conservation, climate change and land degradation. He is an author of several reports of the IPCC, the 2007 co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, including the AR6 WG2 report. He is the Executive Director of the Oscar M Lopez Center, a private foundation whose mission is to promote action research on climate adaptation and disasters risk reduction. He is also a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in the Philippines.

Dr. Nathaniel Von Einsiedel
Fellow, Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners
Architect and Urban Planner

Nathaniel von Einsiedel is an Architect and Urban Planner, and has been involved with the field of Environmental Planning for over 40 years, not only in his home-country the Philippines, but also in countries of the Asia-Pacific Region. He was formerly the Commissioner for Planning of the Metropolitan Manila Commission (now MMDA), after which he left the Philippine government service in 1989 to accept the invitation of the United Nations to serve as the Regional Director for Asia-Pacific of the Urban Management Program. In this capacity, he supervised urban planning projects in 21 cities in 11 Asian countries. After 14 years as a Filipino expat, he returned to the Philippines and established himself as a private consultant. Since 2010, he has focused on urban redevelopment and disaster risk management. In 2012, he was awarded by the Professional Regulations Commission as Outstanding Environmental Planner of the Year. Dr. Einsiedel is a fellow at the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners.

Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos
Vice President, Oceana Philippines
Executive Committee Member, Oceana International

Atty. Gloria ‘Golly’ Estenzo Ramos is the Vice President of Oceana Philippines and a member of the Executive Committee of Oceana International.

Before leading Oceana since it established its office in the Philippines in 2014, Atty. Gloria ‘Golly’ Estenzo Ramos was a Southeast Asia representative to the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Governing Board. She was a faculty member of the University of Cebu’s College of Law. She co-founded the Philippine Earth Justice Center, a nonprofit which institutes environmental cases and uses accountability tools to promote good governance while assisting in stakeholders’ compliance with environmental laws.

Among the prominent environmental cases she was involved were stopping the offshore oil drilling project in the largest marine protected area in the country, the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape, which the Supreme Court declared in 2015 as unconstitutional. Together with other NGOs and partners, she also helped halt the indiscriminate dumping of coal ash, and a proposed destructive reclamation project within Tanon Strait.

Together with five Filipino environmental champions from the government and civil society, she received the People’s Gratitude Movement or the “Pasalamat sa Katauhan” award from the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Dr. Marian delos Angeles
Board Member Emeritus, Resources, Environment and Economics Center for Studies
Senior Natural Resource and Environmental Economist

Marian S. Delos Angeles is Board Member Emeritus of the Resources, Environment and Economics Center for Studies (REECS).

Ann is natural capital accounting specialist for fisheries/coral resources, USAID/DENR/RTI/REECS Sustainable Innovations in Biodiversity, Oceans and Landscapes Project. She is the resource economist, NIRAS Finland Oy, for the EU/ASEAN Center for Biodiversity on Conservation, and Management of Protected Areas, consultant, Asian Development Bank’s Independent Evaluation Department, and team leader (pro-bono) of the Partnership for Transparency Fund Asia/REECS assistance to Iriga City’s Climate Change and Environmental Governance.

Ann earned her M.A. and Ph.D. Economics from UP (School of Economics) where she teaches as professorial lecturer.  She graduated B.S. Mathematics, Magna cum Laude from the Univ. of San Carlos, and was UNDP/PIDS post-doctoral fellow in environmental economics at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

Senator Risa Hontiveros
Chairperson
Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality
Senate of the Philippines

Senator Risa Hontiveros is known for her tireless work in promoting public health, women's rights, and the welfare of the Filipino family. She is a multi-awarded public servant, community organizer, and journalist elected to the Senate in 2016.

In her first term, she successfully championed landmark laws, including the historic Expanded Maternity Leave Law that gives working moms 105 days of paid maternity leave, and the Philippine- Mental Health Law, the country's first ever national policy to care for Filipinos' mental health.

As a longtime health advocate, she pushed for the passage of the Universal Healthcare Law and the Expanded Anti-hospital Deposit Law to ensure the Filipino family’s well-being before profit, and to make health more accessible to all.

Even amidst the pandemic, Senator Risa pushed for free dialysis for senior citizens and for the timely release of benefits and salaries for health workers.

As Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Senator Hontiveros also authored the Safe Streets and Public Spaces Law or the Bawal Bastos Law that protects all Filipinos, particularly women, from gender-based harassment in the streets, public transportation, schools, and the workplace. During the biggest public health crisis of our time, she also pushed for the Maternity Benefit for Women in the Informal Economy Act, to help ease the multiple burdens of women exacerbated by the pandemic.

Senator Hontiveros worked on expanding the Solo Parents' Act to further help single moms and dads in providing for their families. The Senator is also pushing for an increase on the monthly pension of senior citizens through the Lingap Para Kayo Lolo at Lola Bill.

Even before becoming a legislator, in 2005, she was one of 27 Filipinas who earned a nomination to the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the peace movement.

Senator Hontiveros is a loving and hands-on solo mother to 4 children - Kiko, Issa, Helena and Sinta.

Dr. Sonny Domingo
Senior Research Fellow
Philippine Institute for Development Studies

Dr. Sonny Domingo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). Dr. Domingo has more than three decades of extensive multi-sector technical and policy research exposure in agricultural R&D and extension, natural resource management, and disaster risk reduction and management. He is a member of the Technical Committee of the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries Biotechnology Program; and a member of the Council of Fellows of the Philippine Public Safety College. His current research interests include ecological integrity and environmental policy, technical agriculture and resource economics, and climate change and disaster risk management.

He obtained his BS and Masteral Degrees from the University of the Philippines Los Banos, and his Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia, as fellow of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

This webinar is organized by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, with support from the BSP Research Academy.