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DAVAO CITY — The Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) and Government Watch-Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) is holding a forum entitled “Deepening Citizen Participation in Politics and Governance Beyond 2016” on January 26, 2016, 12nn-3pm at Xavier hall, Ateneo de Davao Community Center of the First Companion, Davao City.
The forum aims to bring up the issue of the opportunities and threats to deepening citizen participation and participatory governance in the country beyond 2016. The Government Watch (G-Watch) of ASoG has been propagating a way of citizen engagement since 2000 that contributes to improved transparency and accountability in governance.
It has engaged several localities, one of which is Igacos whose local leaders from civil society and government have formed their own local G-Watch to further promote participatory governance in Samal and nearby localities. G-Watch’s accompanying research and advocacy program, the Political Democracy and Reforms (Poder), on the other hand, has initiated many dialogues and has produced several studies that identified ways and means to deepen accountability and citizen empowerment in the country.
There are also various efforts all over the country promoting participatory governance, including proposed legislations that ensure its sustainability and deepening, like the People empowerment Bill proposed by Camarines Sur Cong. Leni Robredo that aims to support the establishment of people’s council in every locality based on the successful experience of Naga City. Such trend and direction is so given the promising results of a kind of government where people actively participate and leaders are open and transparent - ready to engage citizens and be held to account. With the political transition that comes after the 2016 elections, the challenge is to ensure that such trajectory is sustained and even get deepened. The forum shall host key leaders to discuss their points of view on the issue.
G-Watch-ASoG will also be showcasing its work on citizen engagement in accountability through its work in Igacos where it will be launching one of its Citizen empowerment hub, a local repository of knowledge, capacity and efforts towards the deepening and strengthening of governance accountability in this event.
The forum is open to non-government organizations (NGOs), student-youth leaders, the academe church organizations, media and government. G-Watch leaders from different localities all over the country will also be present in the forum. For inquiries and confirmation, contact Paul Lopez of G-Watch-Igacos at paullopez.12phl [at] gmail.com and Carmel Llarenas of ASoG at (02) 920-2920.
This article was first published in http://samalcity.gov.ph/2015/index.php/basic-information/economic-profile/2-uncategorised/90-asog-governance-forum.