Extension Services office holds target setting writeshop
The Office of the Extension Services headed by Dr. Frederick Aniga conducted a two-day target setting write-shop on January 25-26, 2023 to identify the projects, programs, and activities in alignment with what has been crafted and agreed upon in the Research, Innovation, and Extension Services (RIES) agenda on January 20, 2023.
The RIES unit was commended for its accomplishments for 2022, and acknowledged the efforts and commitments of RIES Heads and Coordinators for successfully meeting the last year’s target.
The new RIES agenda was formulated on January 19, 2023 in an activity held at the Plenary Hall. The said agenda and priorities shall direct the programs, projects, and activities of the Extension Services for the period 2023-2028.
The new mission statement of the RIES reads; “A leading unit of the University that provides intentional programs in Research, Innovation, and Extension Services for improved quality of life of Southern Leyteños and the people in other service areas.”
The word intentional was inspired from the speech of the Chair of Commission of Higher Education; Prospero de Vera III in a conference in Mindanao which meant a clear direction, with an intention of helping people in the community not because of the requirements mandated to the University / HEIs but simply because we intend to do it.
Furthermore, the transfer of technology intended to help the community has to be self-reliant. The goal to generate more technologies to be extended as livelihood is one of the priorities and thrusts of the Extension Services (ES).
There is also a need to take note of the two identified focuses in terms of livelihood; the agriculture particularly with the products of coconuts and cacao, and fishery. The agricultural products are a global business opportunity that, if developed, can raise the standards and quality of living of the marginalized communities that the University serves.
Dr. Mary Ann Jilly R. Ramirez, Director for Knowledge Technology Transfer Office, shared that her team developed a technology to resolve food shortage in times of calamities.
There is also a need for training for the internal community; the faculty and staff to upgrade in terms of learning and growth, to better serve the projects, programs, and activities of the Extension Services office to the people in the province and other service areas.
The Geographic Information System (GIS) - Technology Center; an information hub of the University must match with the research in order to become a basis for policy making and decision making in Barangay Local Government Units (BLGU) and Local Government Units (LGU); these are some of the strengths to tap in SLSU in deepening engagements with the community.
Another potential area to grow and develop is in the field of tourism; wherein the possibility of converting industries into tourist destinations are highly profitable; the agricultural businesses turning into tourism attractions in the province.
The key performance indicators (KPI) that Extension Services can look into are family high income, livelihood producing work/ job in the community, and making them financially well and autonomous.
To improve the quality of life of the community partners gearing towards sustainability by training mothers to produce disaster resilience food products are solutions most especially in times of calamities.
Everyone in the team was reminded that Extension PPAs must be researched back and should be able to help address the problems of the community, on the other hand if research is not available yet; citing research as the basis of extension activities.
Moreover, one target of the Extension Services Unit is to come up with a storybook of success stories in extension services. These are success stories of changed lives because of the efforts in uplifting and improving the life of people in the community.
In every extension service conducted, there is an acknowledgement and a certificate of recognition from the partner LGU /BLGU, the Extension Services coordinators may prepare it ahead of time and have it signed by the authorized person.
Meanwhile, each college has an ES allocation budget expected to be utilized at 95%, thus it will be monitored. This aspect connotes efficiency of the ES programs, projects, and activities of the college department. If the budget is unspent, it has an effect on the overall performance of the University.
The second day of the activity focused on discussions of ES quality processes and procedures, standard operating procedures on Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), statuses of PPAs, and presentation of action plans.
More photos of the activity:
