This November 23, CLIMBS Life and General Insurance
Cooperative will be conducting Coop
Climate Summit 2022: Cooperatives for Climate Action & Education,
hosted by Cindy Obeñita (Miss Intercontinental 2021) and moderated by Donna C.
Dizon, the group’s Vice President for Admin
& Corporate Planning, and Co-operative College of the Philippines’
Principal and CEO. The event will be held at the Philippine International
Convention Center, beginning at 9:00am, and will center around how government and private organizations contributing or
implementing programs in the country can contribute to the mitigation of
climate change and further the cause of climate justice, specifically in terms
of supporting our essential but most vulnerable sectors.
The summit will be
divided into two plenary sessions, with the following speakers:
- Climate Change in the Philippines: Challenges and Responses
- Robert E.A. Borje (Vice
President and Executive Director, Climate Change Commission)
- Michael J. Cortina, Officer
In-charge Business Development & Marketing, Philippine Crop Insurance
Corporation (PCIC)
- Thelma A. Cinco (Chief of the
Climatology and Agrometeorology Division of PAGASA)
- Virgilio R. Lazaga, MD (Asst.
Secretary - Agriculture, Agrarian, Aquaculture, Farmers, Dairy, and Fisherfolk
Cooperatives Cluster, Cooperative Development Authority)
- James Elwyn D. Leyte (Sr.
Research Associate - Agriculture System Alliance of Bioversity International,
International Center for Tropical Agriculture)
- Partners for Resilience and Sustainability Goals: Climate
Action Now!
- Cheung Wai Man Raymond
(Managing Director - Alpha Consultancy; CEO - Alpha Millennia Technology)
- Noel D. Raboy (President
& CEO, CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative; Founding Trustee,
Co-operative College of the Philippines)
- Canceled
- Michael Rellosa (Executive
Director, Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association, Inc.)
- Emil Francis de Quiros
(Economic Growth Specialist) US Agency for International Development
Although the
motivations behind this event seem obvious, the topic must be further
contextualized for the Philippines to move forward with care. As of 2019, the estimated average age of the Filipino farmer is 60 years
old, while the median age of the overall Philippine labor force is
25.7—numbers that imply that very few of our rural youth are expected to join
the agricultural industry. By and large, and over many administrations, little help has
been available to our farmers, our fishermen, and the thousands of essential
but overlooked workers who constitute the backbone of our way of life. What
assistance has been extended, such as the free irrigation systems mentioned in
Republic Act No. 10969 last 2017, tends to be temporary for lack of
maintenance.
While bigger
industries like tech, banking, and retail have the time, expertise, and
resources not only to preserve themselves in a volatile market, but also to be
able to address societal ills such as gender inequality and climate change, our
farmers have little to no access to credit, insurance, or any sort of financial
asset outside of physical money. In fact, about half of Filipinos overall (44% as of 2021) report that they are not in
possession of a bank account.
This is where
cooperatives come in - grassroots organizations that collectively care for the
low-income but high-impact sectors such as farming, fishing, and other
service-oriented categories. Here in the Philippines, these groups give workers
the power and opportunities to build financial stability, and even to secure
higher income; so much so that members of cooperatives find themselves closer
to or even surpassing lower-middle class status. And with the help of
microinsurance providers such as CLIMBS - itself a fundamental mutual-protection
group - these workers can also begin to build their families’ futures.
Still, there are
many issues that require attention before we can speak of the security of those
futures. It is this same cluster of industries who suffer the most from the
effects of climate change, and the lack of action towards climate justice. With
messaging and, indeed, social responsibility efforts largely aimed towards the
individual rather than the collective—specifically, the corporate sector - larger
entities continue to aggravate the situation, while expecting the grassroots to
bear the brunt. Organizations like CLIMBS say, “No more.” In line with the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals,
CLIMBS continues to urge private and government institutions to learn and
implement concrete steps to tackle climate change, as well as fully incorporate
climate action into business practices.
To register your
organization or representative for the Coop Climate Summit, you may find the
forms here.
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