Next leg slated in Cebu to tackle good governance and business
(Manila, Philippines, October 15, 2014) As part of government efforts to promote good governance, the Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster, led by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), recently kicked off a series of regional fora on good governance, open government and the national budget.
The Good Governance Dialogues is being organized by the Governance Cluster in partnership with the Union of Local Authorities in the Philippines (ULAP) and the International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov), and with the support of the US Agency for International Development-Facilitating Public Investment (USAID-FPI). The Manila leg converged local chief executives and representatives from various civil society organizations (CSO) from Metro Manila, Regions III, IV-A, IV-B and V to discuss the national budget and open government initiatives.
The two-day forum was opened by DBM officials led by Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, who discussed national government’s efforts to reform the budget process. This was followed by a presentation on budget priorities for 2015, as well as breakout sessions on Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) studies in the afternoon. One of the reforms introduced by the Aquino government, ZBB is an innovative approach to budgeting that involves evaluating previous expenditures to ensure that programs and projects are responsive and relevant, and produce the most impact.
The second day devoted to “talakayan” sessions, which were moderated by media veteran Howie Severino. The first session on open government was participated in by DBM Undersecretary Richard Moya, Department of Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Austere Panadero, Commission on Audit Chairperson Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan, Professor Solita “Winnie” Monsod, and Makati Business Club Executive Director Peter Angelo Perfecto. The second session had local government chief executives sharing best practices on how to meaningfully engage CSOs in local governance.
The two-day event concluded with a workshop that brought together local government officials and CSO representatives by region to develop a co-created commitment plan which localized the Philippine government’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments. The activity consolidated many ongoing and proposed partnerships between CSOs and LGUs and signified the strengthening of this brand of inclusive governance at the local level.
“DBM has led a significant number of reforms that build the enabling environment for multi-stakeholder partnerships around the national budget like Budget Partnership Agreements, Bottom-up-Budgeting, and Open Data. We will continue to open these platforms for dialogues and constructive engagement as a firm commitment to open governance as a pillar of good government,” said DBM Assistant Secretary Maxine Tanya Hamada.
“USAID’s programs in the Philippines focus on accelerating and sustaining broad-based and inclusive economic growth, among other thrusts. We see the value in institutionalizing participatory governance through programs and that makes the government accessible from the grassroots. At the Good Governance Dialogies, we witnessed how productive government and CSOs can be through meaningful engagement. We are happy to be part of this initiative,” USAID-FPI said in a statement.
The next leg of the Good Governance Dialogues, slated on October 16 to 17, 2014 in Cebu City, will tackle the economics of good governance. Real-time updates will be posted on GGAC’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/goodgovernancedialogue) and Twitter account (@goodgovPH) with the hashtags #goodgovPH and #opengovPH. After Cebu, there will be three succeeding runs in Northern Luzon and Mindanao until November.
