#BudgetNatin: Pushing for sectoral budget through the Young Budget Leaders Program

By Reycel Hyacenth ‘Hya’ Nacario Bendaña and Jodit Santander

What is the Young Budget Leaders Program?

Last October 2022, WeSolve Foundation, together with the People’s Budget Coalition and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), launched the Young Budget Leaders Program. The YBLP is a six-month part-time paid fellowship designed to capacitate and empower young leaders in civic movements to design, mobilize, and lobby for a budget that their sectors deserve. With technical budget expertise and collective impact experience from the program, the Young Budget Leaders were trained in six core modules for budget research, advocacy, and coalition building and negotiation in the Philippine context. One of the goals of the program is to improve the fellows’ capacity to advocate for a budget and push for their sectoral budget in succeeding budget cycles.

Overall, the Young Budget Leaders Program supported eight (8) sectors through the fellows. All of them are from underrepresented sectors of labor, internally displaced peoples, waste workers, persons with disabilities, smallholding farmers, human rights, and trafficked persons. These next-in-line leaders are supported by senior members in their community in the work that they do and in building long-term relationships with related government offices and civil servant champions for the cause.

Here are their advocacy budget proposals:

1. YBLP Fellow Atty. Josiah proposes a budget of ₱6,632,083.20 for the development of an automated document and workflow management system for the Commission on Human Rights (NCR).

You may read the full research and watch his 5-minute presentation here.

2. YBLP Fellow Charizze Villaruel proposes a budget of ₱3,033,719 for the Creation of PWD Affairs Office in the city. As of 2022, the number of registered Persons with Disabilities in Balanga is 2% of the city’s population.

Read her budget research here.

3. YBLP Fellows Marianne Galvez and Angel Bonuel looked into DOLE’s TUPAD (Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged / Displaced Workers) Program implementation in Barangay Pinyahan Quezon City. As one of the municipalities that have substantial budget allocation and a number of beneficiaries, the significant data and further analysis led them to propose a budget of Php 40 billion to sustain the TUPAD Program and extend the required minimum days to thirty.

Read their full paper here.

4. YBLP fellow Dave Sy proposes a budget of Php 4,202,200 to support the Gender and Development (GAD) Office in developing inclusive programs for the LGBTQIA+ community in Oas, Albay. This budget could fund the creation of a Pride Council, SOGIESC training and seminars, free HIV/AIDS testing and support group sessions, and Pride Month activities.

Read the full budget research and watch the 5-minute presentation here.

5. YBLP Fellow Suwaidi Ebrahim proposes a budget of Php 6,727,189,400 to achieve transitional justice in Maguindanao. As of November 2022, around 10,940 families, or approximately 54,696 individuals are still displaced in the region.

You may also watch his presentation and read the full budget research here.

6. YBLP Fellow Leo Jaminola’s budget research looked into improving the waste workers’ rights and welfare in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro. This includes hiring additional workers, regularization, providing hazard pay, life insurance, and safety training. Overall, his proposal is expected to cost about Php 10.5 million during the first two years of implementation.

You may read the full budget research and specifics of the proposal here.

7. YBLP Fellow Richelle Verdeprado-Mangga first met survivors of human trafficking in 2009 and since then she’s had the desire to help them as they journey towards justice and empowerment. In her research, she proposes a ‘holistic, dignified, and empowering-based’ budget of Php 11,050,000 for the trafficking survivors in Region VI.

You may read the full budget research and watch her presentation here.

After 6 months, our fellows have been trained and empowered to engage in the budget process of their respective local governments and national agencies. Through this fellowship program, we co-designed a guidebook called Budget Natin: A Guidebook for Engaging The Philippine Budget Cycle which documents the learnings from the budget advocacy training and from our organizers who shared their own personal experiences fighting for their sectors’ own budget.

Download your copy now.

Reycel Hyacenth ‘Hya’ Nacario Bendaña is currently an Associate at Wesolve Foundation. She was the project manager for the Young Budget Leaders Program.

Jodit Santander is the People and Culture Associate at WeSolve Foundation.