This story contains personal anecdotes from one of the project heads, as well as learnings and insights from the event.
A little over a year ago, I came across a simple post on Instagram of a pile of books, where one of which was Kate Raworth’s Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Book. The intrigue of the words Doughnut and Economics put together sparked my interest and curiosity to search it up and know more about it. Coincidentally too, I was taking my foundational economics class at that time and like what Kate had experienced, I noticed a great disparity between what I was learning and what I wanted to really know more about to solve the issues I care about. In the process of reading the book and learning more about anything that supplements it, I found myself wanting to get the word across where I am from - Manila, Philippines. The next thing I knew after reaching out to DEAL about the DE-event my organization planned to do in the coming months, we were graciously supported by the team in and out.
For ReGenerations, a learning event held last July 31, 2021 (PHT 2:30 to 5:30 PM), was made in partnership of Archers for UNICEF of De La Salle University-Manila, and HABILIN of TAYO Sustainable Strategies & Creative Consultancy - brought about by the common interest of furthering their advocacies and finding ways to progress towards a more sustainable world. It also proudly brought together the Doughnut Economics team with Filipino professionals who are working to shape social, economic, and environmental systems to fit inside the doughnut.
The webinar started with a plenary session from Kate Raworth and Rob Shorter who talked about what Doughnut Economics is all about and how we could possibly reimagine and visualize the cities we live in right now, respectively. This was followed by a discussion by Skilty Labastilla who shared how he connected the concept and framework into academia, and Carlo Delantar on how the Doughnut could first be downscaled in the Philippine context. A plenary session was held afterward, moderated by Paul John Pena, an economics professor in De La Salle University-Manila. To cap off the plenary session, a special message was given by Hon. Loren Legarda.
To give further insights on contextualizing the Doughnut particularly into climate, community, and commerce, three breakout room sessions were held simultaneously free for the participants to choose.
The Climate room discussion was led by Jen Horn, a learning facilitator and a transformational coach, who discussed how we could bridge the DE mindset into thinking about climate solutions.
“We can not buy ourselves out of the mess we are in. So even if we say we shift consumption towards the more sustainable way, that’s still at the surface level and we need to change the underlying mindsets of what brings us prosperity and a good life for all.”
In the Community room discussion, it was led by Skilty Labastilla, wherein he further discussed the importance of customs, values, and policies for DE adoption through his work as a professor at Ateneo De Manila University.
“Even online you can actually reach out, if you just have that initiative to do so. Start with the local community, know who your barangay leaders are. Try suggesting small ideas to your community leaders. It starts from there, once you’re in that network then it’s hard for you to get out because you know the responsibility already.”
Last but not the least, the Commerce room discussion was held by Kara Rosas wherein she shared the work of her grassroots NGO Lokal Lab in Siargao Island, as a DE-inspired business model.
“In order to really empower the local community and for them to reach their full potential, it’s really about making them understand what’s happening around.”
“Going local and understanding the needs of your community and what you guys need and then identifying the issue and how you could solve it together. To be able to solve it you have to be really interested in the idea and you have to be passionate about it. Put your whole heart into it.
For ReGenerations, to me, is not simply a webinar nor a one-day occurrence. From introducing the concept and framework to people who wouldn’t otherwise have known about it if it weren’t for the event, organizational representatives who were able to see this is a viable goal and plan of action to work towards, and to being reminded of the values and principles that DE has in itself — I continue to see it as something that was able to catalyze an idea that Filipinos could collectively strive for.
In case you're interested in viewing, kindly go to this link that will redirect you to the live stream of the plenary portion of the event posted in Archers for UNICEF's Facebook Page.
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Jovita Rodrigues
Sancoale Goa, India
The Doughnut Economics makes sense to me and feel this is the way we can change our way of living. To me this is the answer!