In Pasig City, community engagement is helping build a more inclusive, efficient, and responsive health governance framework that fosters healthier communities. As part of WHO Initiative on urban governance for health and well-being, Pasig City formed the Urbanlead Committee through an administrative order issued by City Mayor Vico Sotto. The Committee’s role is to develop and sustain partnerships among key sectors and decision makers—academia, civil society, youth, and communities — and address broad issues affecting health and well-being in the urban setting.
“We value our partnership with WHO, academic institutions, communities, and youth groups in keeping Pasig a healthy city, and in demonstrating how local governments can lead in building communities that prioritize people’s overall health,” said Honourable Vico Sotto, Mayor of Pasig City.
Strengthening barangay participation in citywide health and development planning
A barangay, which forms a neighborhood community, is the smallest local government unit in the Philippines. Pasig, a city in Metro Manila, has an estimated population of 803,000 and is composed of 30 barangays, ranging from 800 to 163,000 community members. Barangays are crucial to the implementation of development plans and policies that translate urban goals into concrete actions because they reflect and influence the overall priorities of a city. Historically, however, there has been an observable disconnect between barangay government planning and budgeting and the plans of the city governments.
In September 2023, over 100 barangay leaders from across Pasig City came together for a consultation workshop to align Pasig City’s budgeting and planning processes with barangay health and well-being priorities. The participants developed a shared vision of their ideal healthy communities, which later turned into a cohesive plan. This resulting barangay action plan highlights the willpower of leaders to improve the well-being of their communities and addresses the need for a more participative barangay planning process – one that considers the challenges and opportunities inherent in local health planning and budgeting.
Uplifting community voices for inclusive decision-making
Community engagement also encourages the active participation of Homeowners’ Associations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society organizations (CSOs) through the action plan. Pasig City is strengthening participatory planning by involving individuals, stakeholders, and duty bearers in cascading its City Development Plan to influence Barangay Development Plans (BDPs)—both of which inform one another to address not only the city’s broader needs but also the specific priorities of each barangay.
Despite current efforts, planning and budgeting procedures at the barangay level still face several challenges, such as resource constraints and the lack of comprehensive data as a basis for priority setting.
At the consultation workshop, Dr Ernesto R. Gregorio, Professor from the College of Public Health, University of the Philippines Manila, emphasized: “Responding to the health challenges in the city requires a ‘bibingka approach’, which is like a Filipino way of cooking a local rice delicacy. There is a fire on top, provided by local leaders and policymakers that is complemented by a fire from below, coming from an empowered community at the barangay level. This interaction facilitates collective accountability, where both leaders and citizens work together to create sustainable impact on individuals and empower communities.”
Pasig City has also established a Civil Society Organization Academy to strengthen community representation and engagement, ensuring that vulnerable groups like senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and women’s groups, have a voice in sectoral meetings. Currently, CSOs are accredited at the city level, but this accreditation must extend to the barangay level to ensure broader representation. As part of Pasig City’s Urban Governance for Health and Well-being Strategy, accrediting CSOs at the barangay level will give them a space to participate in decision-making for a more inclusive and responsive governance.
By addressing the various challenges in the city’s planning processes, Pasig City is shifting their approach to ensure health considerations are integrated into all aspects of local planning and build more holistic and effective health and well-being programmes.
Highlighting the role of community engagement in achieving Healthy Cities, Dr Eunyoung Ko, Acting WHO Representative to the Philippines said: “Pasig shows how working together across different sectors and truly involving communities can lead to real and lasting improvements in urban health. The local government is the driving force behind Healthy Cities.”
About the initiative
The WHO Initiative on urban governance for health and well-being (2020–2028), supported by the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development, aims at improving the health status and well-being of populations in cities through participatory and multisectoral urban governance.
The Initiative is implemented in six core cities: Khulna (Bangladesh), Douala (Cameroon), Bogotá (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico), Pasig City*, Metro Manila (Philippines), and Tunis (Tunisia).
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WHO Health Promotion Department