Philippines Design Report 2019-2021

The Philippines’ fifth 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... contains a strong focus on 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, from public monitoring of schools and infrastructure to increased participation in local governance. Admirably, a highly collaborative, bottom-up co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... led to a Citizens’ Agenda that informed action plan design. While individually, most commitments are not ambitious, the action plan’s focus on participation may be a foundation to address civic space issues more broadly in future action plans.

The Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP) is a global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. The Philippines joined OGP in 2011 as one of the co-founding members. Since, the Philippines has implemented four action plans. This report evaluates the design of the Philippines’ fifth action plan. Please note that the Philippines’ submitted a revised action plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The revised action plan includes updated commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... milestones and extends the implementation period until 2022. This report reviews the original action plan submitted in December 2019.

General overview of action plan

The Philippines’ fifth action plan seeks to deepen and further institutionalize citizen participation in government processes, local development and planning, and other areas of government. Despite evidence of shrinking civic space and threats toward civil liberties brought about by the government’s anti-drug campaign, the PH-OGP platform created a safe, productive space for government and nongovernment partners to forge a collaborative and meaningful partnership in developing the action plan.

For the first time since its participation in the OGP, the Philippines adopted a bottom-up approach to identify commitments. NGO Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... members ensured that public feedback on past commitments and current government programs were collected to build the OGP Citizens’ Agenda. The forum was also able to extend participation to include multiple sectoral and regional consultations due to grants awarded to the Caucus of Development NGO Networks by the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust FundWith the support of development partners and working together with the World Bank, OGP established the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to support World Bank client countries and local entities that part..., United States Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Development Program. Moving forward, broad consultations should be balanced with expert technical review to ensure that citizen priorities translate to ambitious commitments that have a strong alignment between the policy problem, activities, and proposed solution.

This action plan marks the first participation of several organizations and government agencies, including the Department of EducationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ..., Department of LaborTransparent workforce data and increased representation of workers in labor policy-making lead to policies that better protect workers’ rights and remove barriers for underrepresented groups in the ... and Employment, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. In the previous action plan cycle, some agencies were involved in the co-creation process, but expanded outreach enabled by donors and heightened government participation allowed for participants beyond the usual suspects.

All 11 commitments included in the action plan are relevant to, and consistent with, the OGP value of citizen participation, cross cutting different sectors, organizations, and policy areas. It is also important to note that all commitments were deliberately designed with gender-sensitive programming and an emphasis on inclusivity. This materializes through activities such as ensuring participation of disadvantaged groups, publishing gender-disaggregated government data, and introducing genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More audit tools in monitoring and evaluating government data and activities.

Potentially starred commitments have transformative potential, are relevant, and verifiable. According to these criteria, the Philippines’ has one potentially starred commitment:

• Commitment 6: Freedom of Information Law and Local Freedom of Information Program

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Recommendations

IRM recommendations aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan. Please refer to Section V: General Recommendations for more details on each of the below recommendations.

Table 3. Five Key IRM Recommendations