The Institute of Politics and Governance (IPG) was formed in February 1994 with the vision of providing a venue or an alternative route for reform politics and good governance away from the traditional politics of ‘patronage, clientelism and personality-based networks.’ It attempts to address the lack of ‘institutionalization’ that also breeds governance problems such as political instability, incoherent policy-making, corruption and lack of accountability of public officials, and the exclusion of ordinary, poor citizens from political processes.
Towards this vision, IPG initially worked in the area of policy reform advocacy on political and electoral reforms including laws on a meaningful proportional system of representation in Congress, a proposed anti-dynasty law barring political families from holding on to public office for an indefinite period of time, modernization of the electoral process and enactment into law of Constitutionally-mandated local sectoral representation in local government units.
Our Good Governance Strategy.
IPG’s local governance program started in 1997, coinciding with the five-year mandated review of the Local Government Code of 1991. IPG took the position that despite the weakness of the law in addressing the need for effective political decentralization, the law has strong provisions on people’s participation and claim-makingthat could be maximized.
Towards this end, IPG engaged in democratic local governance approaches at the village (barangay) level knowing fully well that real political power for grassroots mobilization emanates from this basic political unit.
IPG’s governance program at the barangay level pioneered the highly successful Barangay Development Planning thru Participatory Resource Appraisal (BDP-PRA) process. This participatory planning and budgeting process engages local communities and empowers them with the necessary skills to negotiate for increased resources for basic services. At the same time it institutionalizes people’s participation in barangay governance, and deepens the concept of citizens as stakeholders in the development process.
This core program became institutionalized among the local NGOs that were later organized as the Barangay-Bayan Governance Consortium (BBGC), a nationwide network of national and local-based NGOs, people’s organizations (POs), and individuals pursuing participatory democracy in local governance. This network is also fondly called the BATMAN network, after the Barangay Training Manual which served as its initial tool in its work.
IPG is the secretariat of the Barangay-Bayan Governance Consortium. As such, it initiates and facilitates program development for the Consortium, taking the lead role in strengthening the network for the development of a sustained and dynamic social movement for participatory good local governance.
Beyond deepening democratic procedures, IPG likewise assists POs and civil society forces, which are into the business of contesting, re-appropriating and re-shaping political power by fielding candidates in local elections. IPG developed a module on Campaign Management and Electoral Training (COMET) that were used by these forces in successfully waging electoral battles.
Also, with its maiden Women in Governance program, IPG also helped train local women leaders towards their increased participation in community affairs and eventual involvement in electoral exercises, whether as campaigners or as candidates.
IPG is thus helping to develop an emerging constituency that combines electoral victories and participatory governance methodologies that “work,” i.e. they result in helping attain better lives for community members towards genuine political empowerment.