05 December 2014 – The planning officers of the Home Office Units of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the 28 Philippine Foreign Service Posts (FSPs) in the Asia-Pacific region gather at First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo City from December 04 to 06 for the DFA 2014 Planning and Review Conference, bearing the theme “Effective Planning for a More Responsive Philippine DFA.”
The DFA’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination organized the Planning and Review Conference in line with the Department’s commitment to make meaningful contributions to the fulfillment of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s Social Contract with the Filipino People.
The three-day Conference provides the opportunity for the DFA to review its performance and to feed forward the review results into its plans and commitments for the period 2015-2016. The Conference program intends to immerse the participants in the Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS), the Philippine Government’s tool of choice in realizing its transformative agenda. The RBPMS “seeks to rationalize, harmonize, streamline, simplify, integrate, and unify the performance management systems and activities of oversight government agencies.” It promotes responsiveness, transparency and accountability in governance mainly through the identification of clear performance indicators.
With the help of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the DFA Performance Management Team, headed by Undersecretary for Administration Linglingay Lacanlale, endeavors to capacitate the participants in creating more value for the benefit of the DFA’s stakeholders.
“What we are attempting is nothing less than a paradigm shift; a shift toward greater accountability for the mandates and functions that are entrusted to us, and the resources we are given to deliver them,” Undersecretary Lacanlale remarked in her keynote address.
“In the next three days, we will be applying these same foundational skills we practice everyday in our work to forge solutions to help us be more responsive to our personnel, our people, and the international environment. We will journey together, creating a safe place where we can collaborate in identifying how we can contribute to improving the quality of lives, not only of our fellow Filipinos and foreign publics, but our own as well,” she added.
The Conference program includes, among others, a presentation of DFA priorities for 2015-2016 by the principal offices, and sessions focusing on the concepts, frameworks and tools to help Planning Officers understand the links between Performance and Financial Planning, and Organizational and Individual Performance. There will also be workshops on preparing Project Procurement Management Plan (PPMP) and Budget Proposal, and accomplishing the Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form (IPCRF). END