The 2018 East Asian Seas Congress (EAS) took place in Iloilo, Philippines from November 27th to November 30th, 2018. Some 1,000 local and international delegates attended this congress, a triennial event widely recognized as a platform for dialogue, knowledge-exchange, strategic action, partnership building and cooperation in support of the region’s common vision of sustainable development of the Seas of East Asia. SGP organized side event and provide training for the Youth forum at this congress.
On 28th, SGP organized the session ‘Partnerships to Scale-up Community-based Ocean and Coastal Management’ which showcased the coastal and marine projects of the GEF Small Grants Programme and the collaboration with the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project (YSLME). The session was moderated by Dr. Jose Padilla, the Regional Technical Adviser of UNDP Regional Hub in Bangkok. The presenters were Ms. Yi Liu, Ms. Shin Shin Lee, Ms. Catharina and Mr. Rodolfo Fernando Quicho Jr., who are SGP National Coordinators of China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, respectively; and Dr. Sangjin Lee of the YSLME.
The discussions covered how SGP projects generated successful results through community-based demonstration and created bigger impact through scaling-up as well as the lessons learned from their experiences. And also how YSLME project used SGP modality to involve CSOs and communities to contribute to the Strategic Action Programme for the YSLME.
The important lessons learned include building partnerships with local and national governments and other stakeholders such as academic institute, development agencies and private sectors, the need for complementation with other large marine initiatives and the always ensuring community participation and community benefits practically through livelihood improvement and creating enabling environment for project up-scaling. The session was well attended by EAS congress participants with active discussions.
The EAS Youth Forum has been conducted as one of the special events of the EAS Congress. It provides an avenue for East Asia’s young leaders to learn more about ocean governance and coastal management, interact with various stakeholders and learn skills related marine and coastal conservation.
SGP organized the Project Development Workshop for the youth delegates at the Youth Forum. Ms. Yi Liu, Ms. Shin Shin Lee, Ms. Catharina guided the youth delegates on project management cycle and focused on problem identification, problem analysis, solution analysis, strategy analysis and logical frame matrix. The youth delegates were divided into different groups and created and presented their draft project proposals on the topics of reducing plastic waste, mangrove conservation, control of fish bombing, restoration of coral reef, avoiding over fishing and control of water pollution. This workshop has equipped the youth the skills in developing project proposals for coastal and marine protection and sustainable development.
