Overall, huge reasons to be worried and disappointed about, with little positive to hold on to.
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.
G-Watch is exploring to set up a multi-sectoral and multi-level citizen monitoring of key government programs and services in the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) learning from the three-decade old experience and knowledge of G-Watch adapted and customized in the unique context of BARMM.
On April 20-22, G-Watch conducted a soft launch of the initiative ‘Enabling G-Watch Monitoring in BARMM’ and briefing-orientation of volunteer-monitors from Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.
As I attend my 3rd Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tblisi, Georgia, I am hoping to see progress in this network in breaking what I refer to as "open government myths."
Let me share ten of my most favorite:
“What can we do amidst these concerted efforts to strike down accountability? The people in the roundtable ask. What can we do against the overwhelming arrogance of power?
“The suggestion, coming from Government Watch — an action-research organization embedded in various civic groups all over the Philippines — is to revive the power of social movements. Or more specifically: revive the movement-building approach, especially in light of a society that feels more divided and fragmented than ever.”
"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."
The Political Democracy and Reforms (PODER) and Government Watch (G-Watch) of the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG), in collaboration with Ateneo de Naga, Naga City People’s Council (NCPC) and Jesse M. Robredo Center for Good Governance (JMR Center), recently spearheaded the forum on the "Ill-Effects of Dynastic Politics and the Imperative of Political and Electoral Reforms as a Campaign Issue".
The Philippines has a long history of state–society engagement to introduce reforms in government and politics. Forces from civil society and social movements have interfaced with reform-oriented leaders in government on a range of social accountability initiatives – to make governance more responsive, to introduce policy reforms, and to make government more accountable.
A new generation of strategies for government accountability is needed, one that fully considers entrenched, institutional obstacles to change. Vertical integration of coordinated civil society policy monitoring and advocacy is one such strategy. Engaging each stage and level of public sector actions in an integrated way can locate the causes of accountability failures, show their interconnected nature, and leverage the local, national and transnational power shifts necessary to produce sustainable institutional change.