Urban Partnerships Program Philippines (UPP Philippines) envisions Western Visayas as a regional network of 16 cities and two capital towns working for a broad-based, pro-poor and sustainable urban development and driving their institutions to become primary agents of social and economic change on the ground.

In its goal to make a Canadian contribution to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), CUI’s International Urban Partnership Program in the Philippines will be guided by two objectives, one related to actions and the other to ideas:

• To support selected Western Visayas' local government partners to develop model approaches to enhancing urban governance and the public realm of cities as a contribution to urban sustainability and poverty reduction objectives established in the Habitat Agenda and MDGs.
• To generate new ideas for advancing urban sustainability and poverty reduction in city-regions through participation in local, regional and national knowledge networks.

The achievement of the two objectives will involve four interconnected and mutually supporting themes, which will run through the three-year project:

• Building the Regional City : Working with MIGEDC and other clusters of urban LGUs in We stern Visayas and their stakeholders to find practical approaches to strike balance between local pride and regional need, involving “trading in” municipal decision making freedom for collective regional decision making involving common resources and processes. This component will start with supporting MIGEDC to work together in developing common action plans and implement demo projects, and may be expanded to include other regions at a later point.
• Renewing the Public Realm : Pursuing a collective agenda aimed at investing financial, social, and institutional capital towards the improvements to the public realm and development of community assets. This may involve, among other activities: convening “Ideas for City” forums and “Show-What-You-Mean” activities like model projects on plazas, clean and green projects, central business district revitalization and use of internet to share new practices.
• Regenerating the Economy : Supporting city regions in rethinking opportunities to create economic wealth and changing economy-environment relationships; this involves assistance in the tourism industry, agricultural enhancement and bolstering business support initiatives.
• Making Democracy Work : Advocacy for “civic-grounded” urban governance, where all levels of government are working for the improvement of public realm, the building of regional city and the regeneration of the local economy. This may include, among other things, exploring various new ways to expand civic engagement and partnership approaches to practical and sustainable city-building projects.