Tanauan, Leyte - The Municipality of Tanauan, Leyte has been nominated to become a recipient of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Municipal Partnership Program, Mayor Roque A, Tiu informed.

Under this program which is a partnership among the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the League of Cities of the Philippines and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, Canadian Municipalities and Filipino local government units are linked together through a series of technical exchange missions to devise initiatives to increase the capacity of participating municipalities for strategic and operational management, service provision and community participation in local governance.

This year, the Municipal Partnership Project will be based on one of the priority issues identified by the partners. These are Better Financial Resource Mobilization, Waste Management Services, Support Alternative Service Delivery Agreements and Support Inter-Local Government Units.

For this initiative, the partners are seeking one Canadian Municipality and one Filipino Municipality that will collaborate towards implementing a municipal capacity building pilot project.

A thorough selection process will be undertaken in order to determine the local government units that will be partnering in this new Municipal Partnership Project.

Mayor Tiu said that the Partnership Selection Working Group, consisting of one FCM representative and three members of the Project Advisory Committee will be responsible for interviewing the list of applicants and selecting a shortlist.

Mayor Tiu added that since the MPP will involve the municipalities, the LMP has identified three potential LGUs for a new partnership; Tanauan was one of those chosen.

In order to be nominated, the municipality should have clear needs for support in the area of focus agreed upon and have an interest to develop a project in that sector. The needs of the municipality should be a common need of LGUs in the Philippines so that if a project is developed in the candidate LGU, the project can have a “pilot” or demonstration nature and be beneficial to all LGUs.

Moreover, the political leadership of the candidate LGU should demonstrate strong support to participate in a Municipal Partnership and that the LGU must exhibit the capability to sustain a sound and effective international partnership like the availability of communication infrastructures especially internet and the stability of peace and order climate. (PIA 8)