MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) Executive Director (ED) Niño Raymond B. Alvina is this year’s awardee of the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board of the United States (US) Department of State, in cooperation with the Institute of International Education.

In an earlier announcement of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation or Fulbright Philippines, ED Alvina’s study program will be on public policy analysis and public administration for the Fall 2022 intake up to Spring 2023 in the US.

Awarded competitively by the US State Department to young leaders from emerging democracies and developing countries, the Humphrey Fellowship is an annual grant that began in 1978 to honor Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey for his work and commitment to international cooperation and public service through diverse academic, leadership, and cultural exchange opportunities that promote change for the greater good.

ED Alvina will study at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of the Syracuse University in New York. He is the fourth Filipino Humphrey Fellow placed in the said school since 1979, and he joins two other Humphrey awardees from the Philippines for this year’s global cohort of 161 grantees from 93 countries who will complete non-degree study programs and professional affiliations in 13 host universities in the US.

An alumnus of the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines, ED Alvina was the first appointed director of the BLGF’s LGU Operations Service in 2015, following his work and engagements in local finance projects and innovations led by the BLGF since 2005. He took the helm of the BLGF in 2016 as the designated Officer-In-Charge (OIC), until his appointment as a full-fledged ED in 2018. Last March 2022, he was conferred with a Career Executive Service Officer III rank appointment from the President.

After his Humphrey year, ED Alvina will return to government service to lead new projects in data analytics and data-driven policies, establish professional development tracks, and broaden linkages on local finance expertise, as part of the commitments that he proposed to Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, together with DOF Revenue Operations Group Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko who supervises the BLGF.

The Humphrey Fellowship covers study programs in the fields of economic development, finance and banking, technology policy and management, communications, human resource management, law and human rights, trafficking in persons policy and prevention, agricultural and rural development, environmental and climate change, urban and regional planning, education, public health policy and management, among others.

More information on the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program are available at www.humphreyfellowship.org/about-the-program and www.fulbright.org.ph/index.php/humphrey-fellowship-program.

Courtesy of Maxwell School, 2022