IRM releases Philippine report for public comment
The Open Government Partnership’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) has launched its fifth of eight reports; this one is on the Philippines and can be found below.
IRM progress reports are carried out by an independent researcher under the guidance of an International Experts’ Panel. In the Philippines, Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism authored the report. The researcher carried out a consultative process, reviewing government progress with robust consultation with civil society. The IRM’s goal is to deliver a credible, non-partisan description of the OGP process, summarize results of commitments, and provide technical recommendations based on the input of government, civil society, and the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat....
The Philippines has been an enthusiastic founder of OGP since 2011. Its first OGP action plan focused on the challenges of more effectively managing public resources and increasing public integrity, along with commitments to improve public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio....
The researcher cited a number of positive findings in the report. First, the Local Poverty Reduction Plans offer an opportunity to deepen citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More while improving the delivery of key services. The open budget portal, Budget Ng Bayan, is a great start to creating an interactive site where the public will be able to trace government expenditures. A number of other internal control systems, such as the two commitments on performance management, are also helping to clarify the type of service that the public can expect from officials.
That said, many of the commitments from the first action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... remain to be fulfilled. Notably, there is still plenty of scope for the Philippines to improve the implementation of existing commitments or to move forward with the commitments that remain partially implemented. Many of the commitments do have the potential to greatly improve management of key government services.
Another area for improvement cited in the Philippines Progress Report is civil society consultation during the development and implementation of the first action plan. Of key importance to the success of OGP in the Philippines will be to constitute and make legitimate the multi-stakeholder coordinating body for the initiative in the country. At the same time, the researcher found that civil society did not cooperate to articulate common goals for OGP or expectations of the Government. Fortunately, early signs indicate that the Philippines is improving the consultation process for its second OGP action plan, which will be announced at the upcoming OGP Summit.
This progress report is a draft for public comment. All interested parties are encouraged to comment on this blog or to send public comments to IRM@opengovpartnership.org until November 14. Comments will be collated and published, except where the requester asks to be anonymous. Where comments identify substantive factual errors, comments will be integrated into a final version of the report.
Photo credit: by Tomas Tam via Wikimedia Commons
