How TUKLAS Gave Birth to Success

In the later part of 2017, TUKLAS Innovation Labs, a consortium of international humanitarian organizations issued a call for innovative ideas on making the Philippines prepared from disasters. The call was welcomed by individuals, teams and organizations with program and vision on disaster risk reduction.

With the reality of climate change, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and destructive; hundreds of proposals from all over the country were sent to heed the call.

I learned about TUKLAS not as a potential innovator nor a proposal writer but as documenter of the writeshop intended to improve the proposals received online. The participants, I learned later on, were coming from organizations or individuals from all over Mindanao who responded to the call.

As documenter, details sank in to me deeper than any other participants; thus, I was fully aware that they were given a deadline to submit a revised and improved version of their innovative idea. It was December 1, 2017 and before the working hours of the day ended at 5:00 in the afternoon, I was able to submit our innovative idea online, bearing the original concept of “Codification of Hazard-Specific Early Warning System and Indigenous Knowledge for Replication.”

Engr. Cesar Y. Yamuta, former Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer (DRRMO) of Iligan City and the President of our organization, Success Initiatives, was the chosen individual proponent.

The concept was shared to me by a friend and former colleague in the development work. We agreed to submit the improved ideas together on that 1st day of December. Having been away from development work for some time, being a government employee with a permanent status during that time, I was not confident that the submitted proposal could pass through the different levels of reviews and evaluations.

Surprisingly, we went through the peer review, the community review, the experts appraisal and even passed the dreaded 5-minute pitching or elevator speech. During the ensuing process, our innovative idea was improved and became the project: POPULARIZING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AS EARLY WARNING TO REDUCE DISASTER RISKS.

In retrospect, it was a journey full of lessons learned and appreciation for the knowledge and experiences gained. It is also, primarily, a journey laden with transformations and turns or shall we call in the TUKLAS lingo, full of pivots. For more than a year, from inception, implementation and completion, the journey is indeed full of innovations. A pivot is a turning point from which the person or organization somehow redefines its course.

One learning gained from TUKLAS is the sensitivity and respect to listen to what the community is saying what works best for them, for the innovation and for the team. One would not be that stubbornly-attached to original thoughts as not to allow to pivot, when it would surely yield productive results. After all, the community and the people is the center of our innovative designs.

As starter, our most significant pivot is our organization itself. We submitted our proposal as an individual proponent. To become competitive enough, we organized ourselves to form a competent team. We ended up giving rebirth to our dormant and sleeping organization: the Success Initiatives, Inc.

After all, we realized that in our engagements with the different stakeholders of disaster risk reduction(DRR), an organization is more credible to implement disaster preparedness ideas than a singular person or team. Thus, we look back to an organization formed in 2010.

Our common belief and passion in training and capability building became the impetus by which Success Initiatives is organized. It was formed with the vision of establishing a resource center in Iligan City where experts and competent resource persons can be tapped on various topics and issues of human concerns.

The occurrence of Tropical Storm Sendong overtook our vision then, as we became engaged in different capacities in the development of a disaster risk reduction management program for the city.

Being chosen one of the ten innovations in Mindanao, identified as ML23, is the cause by which the team decided to revive the organization. The effect is having Success Initiatives (SI) as one of the non-government organizations in the City of Iligan with services on:

With this long list of capabilities, our organization will be here to stay and continue with its various advocacies. This would not have been made possible, if not for the inspiration and support of TUKLAS Innovation Labs.

Through the funding grant awarded to SI, the organization was able to acquire the necessary materials and equipment for its operations. As such, we can proudly proclaim that TUKLAS gave a rebirth to Success Initiatives.

About the Contributor

It is part of the Disasters & Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Innovation Labs, a global network of labs that is funded with UK aid from the UK government, and managed collaboratively by the Start Network and the Communications with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network.

Related posts:

The apps that connect people can also be used as a source of income. When it comes to apps like Tinder, the thought that’d strike any decently dirty mind is sex for money. I am a man, so I may have…

An essay that I wrote on the international challenge as a part of my graduate school applications last winter. I thank my professors Schirach and Cox at Bay Atlantic University for taking the time to…

I agree wholeheartedly with Swindoll’s characterization. The best opportunities are often hidden. They are often located in places we least expect to find them and are presented by people we least…