Tour de force: Discovery Tour Highlights UN Work in Philippines

As part of ongoing celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, United Nations Philippines this week organized the first ever UN Discovery Tour, showcasing the breadth of UN support to the country. Featuring six sites across Metro Manila, the tour included a wide range of Unite Nations-supported projects, from technical assistance in education, health and security, to boosting national capacities in disaster response and tackling organized crime.

Ambassadors and officials from Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and the European Unions as well as representatives from the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs joined the pioneer UN Discovery Tour.

“To commemorate 80 years of partnership between the United Nations and the Philippines, we chose to organize this Discovery Tour and share firsthand the stories and impact of our work,” said the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, Arnaud Peral. “This visit enables our partners to see the incredible diversity in the United Nation’s portfolio in the country, and allows them to engage with the people, communities, and agencies the United Nations works with.”

The tour started with a visit to Pasig City’s Innovation for Circular Economy (ICE) Hub. A joint initiative by the city and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the facility is supported by the European Union and the Government of Japan. Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto welcomed the delegation to the facility that was previously a simple waste sorting site but has since become the centrepiece of Pasig’s Circular Economy Portfolio. The ICE Hub houses machinery for upcycling, recycling, composting and other forms of sustainable waste management, as well as training and research centres for the development of circular economy enterprises.

The second stop involved a project by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on logistics and supply chain management to strengthen the country’s national disaster risk management capacity.

The Luzon Disaster Resource Center (LDRC), which the World Food Programme (WFP) supported setting up, is one of two hubs that produce family food packs (FFP) that can be prepositioned and are distributed during emergencies. It features a mechanized packing system that packages up to 100,000 FFP within 24 hours. One FFP can feed a family of five for three days. A similar facility is operational in Cebu, while another is set to be erected in Butuan within the next three years.

The third site in the Discovery Tour, the Bureau of Immigration’s Advance Passenger Information System Operations Center at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila is only one of the facilities at international airports in the country that uses the UN-developed software goTravel to strengthen national security and border management.

An initiative deployed in the Philippines through the help of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), goTravel is used by authorities to analyse airline passenger data to detect and respond to threats like fugitives, terrorists, and individuals involved in organized crime who try to enter the Philippines by air. The system facilitates the sharing of data between all countries using the software and may be used to identify potential victims of human trafficking and illicit activities. Since its deployment in March 2025, more than 7.6 million passengers entering and leaving the Philippines have been pre-screened, generating over 200 hits against INTERPOL alerts.

Technology plays a prominent role at the fourth site in the UN Discovery Tour. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has been supporting the Department of Education’s Bureau of Alternative Education in enhancing ICT-enabled delivery of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) Program. ICT4ALS offers ALS learners a more flexible and engaging learning experience through the use of digital, interactive versions of the nine ALS Life Skills modules, made more fun and engaging by ALS teachers trained on ICT-supported pedagogies.

At the SDO Pasay City ALS Community Learning Center in Pasay City, Discovery Tour participants saw how UNICEF’s ICT4ALS programme supports ALS learners in completing their basic education. Daily, around 100 learners at the facility—including adults, out-of-school youth, and children with special needs—benefit from the digital tools that ALS teachers are now able to use to make their sessions more dynamic and learner-centred. By introducing technology-enabled learning, DepEd and UNICEF are promoting a blended, self-paced learning approach that accommodates the learners’ diverse contexts, schedules and needs. Attendance and enrolment have improved across 100 ALS centres nationwide as the tech improvements have enticed and enabled many to continue their education, ensuring that no learner is left behind.

The fifth stop in the Discovery Tour is an illustration of the United Nations’ contributions to good governance and the rule of law. Housed in a seized and repurposed Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) site, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission’s (PAOCC) headquarters offered a glimpse into the government’s efforts to fight organized crime. While PAOCC offices have been set up, many rooms in the building were left in their original state to demonstrate the illicit activities that had taken place within the POGO, which included cybercrime, money laundering, human trafficking and torture.

The Discovery Tour illuminated how the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) supports the PAOCC in dismantling the criminal operations linked to POGOs and related scam hubs, following the ban on POGOs declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2024. While continuing to produce cutting-edge research and raising awareness emerging criminal phenomenon, UNODC technical assistance in facilitating international cooperation, developing operating procedures on cyber-forensics, combatting corruption, preventing trafficking in persons, managing seized assets and investigating crypto-currency is concretely helping enhance the Philippine government’s efforts to address cyber-enabled organized crime.

The Tour ended with the visit of the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), the country’s leading institution for research, training, clinical and diagnostic services, storage of vaccines for the national immunization programme and other medicines for infectious diseases, and the production of antivenom.

RITM detects and monitors the spread of infectious diseases and responds to outbreaks with assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO). In partnership with the Department of Health and WHO, RITM set up seven labs across the Philippines to detect vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, rubella, and rotavirus.

WHO also provided laboratory equipment, testing materials and technical support to improve disease detection and monitoring for COVID-19, and continues to provide guidance to ensure RITM’s compliance with global standards and readiness to detect other new and re-emerging infectious diseases.

As the country approaches upper middle-income status, the work of the United Nations evolves towards expert and system-wide support to government departments through global best practices, to which the Philippines also contribute. The Discovery Tour enabled participants to appreciate this evolution and the impact of the United Nations’ work under the business model that underpins the Philippines United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (CF), the blueprint for joint work for the 2024-2028 period.

“The tour gave me the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of United Nations projects in the Philippines, particularly in education, illicit activity prevention and health. It also helped me appreciate the current situation in these fields as well as the vital roles played by the United Nations in addressing these critical challenges,” said Lee Sang-hwa, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines.

DFA Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa Almojuela affirmed that the Tour is valuable in increasing awareness of the 80 years of productive partnership between the Philippines and the UN. “We hear, read and discuss about United Nations role and work in the Philippines and elsewhere, but the fruits and impact of partnerships that we have seen first-hand, make the case for the value of multilateralism and international cooperation where it matters a lot: on the ground,” Ms. Almojuela said.