Bayanihan sa Kalunsuran (BAKAL):
Shaping Good Governance through Collective Action
2006-2011
The Institute of Politics and Governance and the Barangay-Bayan Governance Consortium (BBGC) has implemented its good governance work for the most part in rural areas. The reason behind this was that the rural areas represented the vast stronghold of patronage politics and elite control over government and its structures. Most of the development work carried out by the Consortium’s members were also rural-based.
An increasing trend however has been noticed in the increasing urbanization of the Philippine setting. For example, based on the 2002 Philippine census, urban population stood at 36.7 million, within 9,998 urban barangays. This accounts for almost half (48.05 percent) of the total population. Meanwhile, poverty incidence in urban areas for the same year was registered at 25.0 percent, which represents 9.6 million of the urban population –two million more than the 1997 levels.
The population and poverty trends have put increasing pressure on local governments of these areas to provide devolved urban services. The same problems facing rural areas are needless to say, evident in the urban setting as well.
But unlike their rural counterpart, these local governments have greater resources. They cater to a more heterogeneous constituency and face a different set of demands for socio-economic development.
And yet, similar to rural communities, the poor, especially women, has been marginalized in decision-making and development. Thus the services provided by urban governments have not been accessible and/or do not fully benefit the urban poor.
The Democratic Urban Governance (DUG) project supported by OneWorld Action-UK, provides the urban perspective of the Second Generation Program, which offers interventions that enable LGUs to address the challenges posed by decentralization, such as the limited financial resources of LGUs to adequately provide for devolved functions; the lack of continuity and sustainability in the implementation of programs and projects that are responsive to community needs and problems; weak mechanisms for transparency and accountability in public expenditures of LGUs; and the lack of incentives for greater risk-taking by LGUs in internal resource mobilization and full exercise of its fiscal powers.
The Democratic Urban Governance Project takes into account several factors present in the urban setting which requires a modified approach in introducing and/or strengthening participatory good governance methodologies.
The project, which is a crucial component of the Second Generation Program of the IPG, builds upon the gains of IPG’s maiden local governance program of promoting active citizenship and democratisation of local governance processes, particularly in development planning. It is designed to deepen the impact of previous interventions by scaling up people’s participation from the rural to urban and urbanising areas.
The project adopts innovative approaches, particularly the introduction of co-production and co-financing and/or community contribution as a strategy in delivering services in targeted cities/municipalities. It is a viable alternative to patronage politics and clientelism as it promotes transparency, accountability, and efficiency in local governance processes and facilitates the formulation of local policies, plans and programs that are sustainable, gender-responsive, promotes equity, and builds upon local indigenous mechanisms and resources.
People empowerment remains as the fundamental strategy in organizing and mobilising peoples’ participation in democratisation and development. Community and women organizing and networking is fundamental to people empowerment. Moreover, the project actively promotes inclusion of women in political leadership and decision-making. The project supports women’s participation in electoral contests.
It is being implemented as a Consortium project, in eight urbanized, highly urbanized and urbanizing settings: Muñoz City in Nueva Ecija, Daraga in Albay, Cebu City in Cebu, Cotabato City Zamboanga City, San Jose de Buenavista in Antique, San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan, and the National Capital Region, specifically Quezon City.
The project components include community organizing and networking, women political leadership formation, capability-building, documentation and replication of best practices, project development and monitoring and policy research and advocacy starting on its second year.
The project runs from 2006-2011.