A DECADE OF GOVERNANCE INNOVATIONS AND GAPS IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION VICTORIA A. BAUTISTA U.P. National College of Public Administration and Governance

INNOVATIONS Shift from sectoral to intersectoral/ convergent process in planning  Philippine Strategy to Fight Poverty under Ramos, first time to have a comprehensive plan for the poor  National Anti-Poverty Action Agenda under Pres. Estrada was launched 2 years after he sat into office  Under Pres. Arroyo, KALAHI (Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan) was launched

INNOVATIONS  Convergent planning has the following advantages:  Thresh out duplications to avoid waste of resources  Facilitate diffusion of information  Strengthen commitment and solidarity among the different offices

INNOVATIONS 2. Shift from sectoral to intersectoral structure in poverty alleviation through the creation of the National Anti-Poverty Commission or NAPC— enabling marginalized sectors (basic sectors) to sit parallel to the government sector Basic Sectors Government Sector NAPC

INNOVATIONS  14 basic sectors officially recognized to sit in the NAPC  fisherfolks  women  children  youth and students  persons with disabilities  victims of disaster and calamities  urban poor  senior citizens  farmers  informal labor  formal labor indigenous peoples

INNOVATIONS 3. Mobilization of the poor not only as targets of projects but to enable them to participate in governance  Adoption of Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) where the poor or marginalized interface in the different phases of management as:  Situation analysis  Planning  Implementation  Monitoring/evaluation

INNOVATIONS 4. Incorporation of social dimension in the macro-level assessment of poverty from mere focus on economic indicators—enabling one to view quality of life of the people  Human Development Index  Annual Poverty Indicator System

INNOVATIONS 5. Measurement of poverty for and by the community shifted from sectoral to integrated approach  Sectoral focus such as Community Health Through Integrated Local Development in Region XI and Community-based Child Monitoring System by the NSCB  Integrated approach in Urban Basic Services Program and Minimum Basic Needs Monitoring System applied by the CIDSS  Shift enables wider application of the measurement for planning and targeting purposes by the different stakeholders

INNOVATIONS 6. Targeting the poor from sectoral to convergent mode; area to family/individual mode  Targeting through convergent mode avoids waste of resources as the ones sought by different sectors lead to the same locations and persons  Targeting individuals/families, not only localities, assures careful screening of persons who are marginalized

INNOVATIONS 7. Setting up community information system with the assistance of residents themselves  Enables community to become aware of their situation and to do something about their problem  Fosters team effort to address the problem

INNOVATIONS 8. Undertaking national programs in partnership with LGUs  Partnership for Community Health Development (DOH) developed alliances with chief executives for the formulation and implementation of projects in health  CIDSS also continues to build capacities of local implementors and chief executives on the essence of participatory governance and the value of collecting information using social development indicators  National leaders respect the role of local executives in committing to the program

INNOVATIONS 9. Advocacy to local government units by DILG of the importance of formulating a poverty alleviation plan (in the initial stages of implementation) 10. Resource disaggregation of national government, LGU and civil society commitment to poverty alleviation undertaken by the Ramos administration—enabled the identification of actual investment to poverty alleviation by the different stakeholders.

INNOVATIONS 11. Contributions of private sector to poverty alleviation expressed by League of Corporate Foundations (with 55 business foundations as members)  Pledged P1.3 billion for next two years

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 1. Inconsistency in policies  President Estrada’s Lingap sa Mahirap launched after he sat into office, was top-down in approach and contradicted the participatory approach of CIDSS.

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 2. Changing the name of a successful program to signal a new administration  Many features of the Social Reform Agenda were adopted by Presidents Estrada and Arroyo but each one labeled his/her program differently  Implementors take time to relearn the program advocated by the new administration.

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 3. Sectoral character of poverty alleviation agenda in the Local Government Code  Poverty is lodged in the social welfare sector such as the mandate to uplift the condition of women, children, youth, elderly, disabled, vagrants, beggars, street children, scavengers, juvenile delinquents and victims of abuse  There is no perspective to target poverty in an intersectoral manner

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 4. Failure to sustain tracking resources for the poor to determine the extent of commitment to address poverty 5. Need to monitor the situation of communities nationwide, not only in program areas, and the possibility of shifting to having literate families fill up the form like Thailand

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 6. Need to consolidate community-based indicators which have mushroomed—a possibility is the adoption of Community-based Poverty Indicator Monitoring System (CBPIMS), an improvement over the Minimum Basic Needs Information System  CBPIMS gets information on each family member vs. household as the unit of analysis in MBN

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 7. Need to widen the organization of the different basic sectors at the local level to strengthen the base from where national representatives will be selected

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 8. Need to thresh out the issues concerning the engagement of basic sectors with government and other sectors of civil society  Extent to which government can provide support to basic sector representatives to the NAPC without compromising the latter’s independence  Capacity of basic sector organizations to support their representatives  Parity in decision-making between government and basic sector representatives  Right of NGOs to represent marginalized sectors they serve in the NAPC

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 9. Need to widen options for other groups in civil society to participate in decision-making—should not only be confined to NGO & cooperatives groups 10. Need to have representation from private business sector in the NAPC—to know where they could invest their resources more rationally

WHAT ARE THE GAPS? 11. Need to steer LGUs to make a commitment to poverty alleviation  This constitutes a big challenge for the national government

CONCLUSION The biggest challenge for me is the need to:  To ensure that the poor are involved in decisionmaking and not mere beneficiaries of service delivery—need to widen implementation of CIDSS; To make local government executives know how to use objective indicators in targeting the poor to ensure equitable decisionmaking process; and,  For national and local governments: to commit and use resources judiciously for poverty alleviation programs to be a success.

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