Australia hands over HR and OD learning materials to PHL Government

Australia hands over HR and OD learning materials to PHL Government

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Amanda Gorely, recently led the ceremonial handover of human resource and organisational development (HR/OD) knowledge products to the Philippine Government, which also marked the culmination of the Philippines Australia Human Resource and Organisational Development Facility (PAHRODF).

PAHRODF is the Australian Government’s flagship program for supporting human resource management, organisational development, and institutional change in the Philippines. The program, which ran from 2010 to 2017, supported 38 organisations including key Philippine public service agencies such as the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Education (DepEd) among others. Through PAHRODF’s support, these partner government agencies were able to strengthen HR management in their organisations that it significantly contributed to improving effectiveness and efficiency in delivering services to Filipinos.

“The Australian Government is proud of our accomplishments under PAHRODF. The Facility and its predecessor, the Human Resources Development Facility, have always been pioneers here in the Philippines. Australia was the first international development partner that had a strong focus on human resources and organisational development. I believe we are still also the development partner that has the strongest focus on this area of work and is the partner of choice in this field,” said Ambassador Gorely.

Meanwhile, in his keynote speech during the handover ceremony, Undersecretary Rolando Tungpalan of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) underscored PAHRODF’s contribution to the Philippine long term vision.

“The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 provides for the strengthening of the civil service, enhancement of labor capacities and improvement of service delivery, with human capital development, specifically, higher education, serving as an accelerator of innovation and inclusive economic prosperity.  The Duterte Administration’s Six-Point Peace and Development agenda, on the other hand, emphasizes the need to strengthen government development institutions and mechanisms to increase their responsiveness to issues faced by the country today. Through the PAHRODF, I believe we have begun the process of building confidence right where it matters: in the government’s most valuable assets - its institutions and the civil servants,” he said.

One of PAHRODF’s key contributions to the Philippine Government is its support to the Civil Service Commission’s PRIME-HRM* which will help transform the entire bureaucracy’s human resource from being transactional to strategic as it provides the standard against which all government agencies measure their HR systems. Other notable PAHRODF interventions include developing competency-based HR systems for recruitment and promotion; learning and development; strategic planning; performance management; coaching and mentoring; and management and leadership development.

All of the learnings from these interventions were documented in various knowledge products that were handed over to the Philippine Government as resource in continuing its mission of strengthening human resource and organisational development in government institutions.

“The guidebooks and manuals will help carry on the reforms we have initiated. I trust that they will continue to encourage and inspire others to adopt strategic human resource management in their own organisations. I have no doubt that the system improvements and the learnings gained through the Facility will continue,” said Ambassador Gorely.

Speaking on behalf of the Philippine Government, Undersecretary Renato Solidum of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recognised the value of PAHRODF’s support and the significant role of its knowledge products in sustaining the gains of the Facility.

“Our partnerships with PAHRODF have tremendously improved our capacities to fulfill our mandates, our competencies to make our work more effective, efficient and of high quality, and our readiness for change to make us more adaptive and relevant to the demands of the times. The Knowledge Management products and documents that have been turned over to us, would serve as guides for us to continue to improve our HR and OD systems and process, and for other organisations to apply,” he said.

For the past seven years, PAHRODF has produced 240 knowledge products, implemented over 135 HR/OD interventions, and trained over 3,000 intervention participants from its partner agencies.

 

 

*Program to Institutionalise Meritocracy and Excellence in Human Resource Management (PRIME-HRM)