Governance Reform Studies

Pitfalls of Aiming to Empower the Bottom from the Top: The Case of Philippine Participatory Budgeting

This paper explains why and how a reform program that opened up spaces for participatory budgeting was ultimately unable to result in pro-citizen power shifts that transformed governance. The study reviews the design and implementation of Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB), the nationwide participatory budgeting (PB) program in the Philippines, which ran from 2012 to 2016 under the Benigno Aquino government. The findings underscore the importance of institutional design to participatory governance reforms. BuB’s goal was to transform local government by providing more space for civil society organizations (CSOs) to co-identify projects with the government and to take part in the budgeting process, but it did not strengthen CSO or grassroots capacity to hold their Local Government Units (LGUs) accountable.

Enhancing the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) Report Card Survey (RCS): A Report to the Civil Service Commission

There is a need to look at how the RCS can be improved in assisting the frontline agencies in ensuring “prompt, efficient, honest and high quality” delivery of services.

This research aims to provide recommendations to the CSC on how the ARTA-RCS can be improved in effectively assisting the frontline agencies in reducing red tape in their delivery of services by:

Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): The Philippines Progress Report 2015-2017

"In anticipation of the 2016 election, the third Philippine action plan sought to institutionalize existing OGP participatory mechanisms and largely continued expanding the scope of activities from previous action plans. While general awareness of OGP remains low, the passage on an Executive Order on Freedom of Information and inclusion of new commitments on improving public service delivery indicates sustained energy on areas with immediate impact on citizens’ lives."

G-Watch Technology for Monitoring Compliance with Human Rights

This is an attempt to superimpose the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to the Social Accountability approach of G-Watch.

Expenditure Monitoring in the Philippines: A Rapid Scan of the Experience (Draft)

The attempt of civil society to venture into expenditure monitoring is a huge challenge. It is a new terrain that involves technicalities and requires access to critical processes and documents of the government.

Baselining and Benchmarking of Electoral Administration Spending

A follow up to the COMELEC Budget Watch in 2009, this study aimed to baseline and benchmark electoral administration spending of COMELEC, in the hope of helping inform COMELEC of relevant performance standards and indicators they should achieve in effectively linking their budget preparation and performance target setting.

G‐Watch Tracking and Documentation Report on the Comelec Budget Process

This provides report from the project, COMELEC Budget Watch.

Civil Society Participation and Education Spending of Philippine Cities

This paper presents the result of the exploratory research conducted by a research team of Ateneo School of Government that studied the impact of civil society participation on the responsiveness of local spending for education.

Philippine Education Under Construction: A Policy Study on the Government School Building Program

This policy study aims to identify key issues in the implementation of the government’s school building program, focusing on the DepEd-led School Building Program for schools experiencing acute classroom shortage and the DPWH enforced Regular School Building Program which is in the ambit of Republic Act No. 7880 or more commonly known as the Roxas Law.

Politicization of Allocation and the Persistent Problem of School Building Shortage in the Philippines

After round of monitoring of school building projects (SBPs) under the Bayanihang Eskwela, G-Watch has persistently encountered issues on allocation. This led G-Watch to inquire about the standard involving allocation.