“By introducing new stakeholders into the governance equation, we make room for new ideas” — ANSA-EAP

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Barangays in the Philippines - the smallest unit of government

Start date
May 2015
End date
April 2016
Period: 12 months

Issue

President Aquino of the Philippines has made a nation-wide commitment of “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” or “No Corruption, No Poverty” to help deliver effective public services across the country.

As a founding member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the government has also pledged to make their services inclusive, with a commitment to ensure that civil society organisations are consulted in the planning of at least 70% of government poverty reduction projects.

However, while national-level implementation of these commitments are evident in more open data, increased public platforms for feedback, citizens are still excluded from local policy issues. Budgeting responsibilities largely remain at the municipal level, with organisations and citizens in the local-level barangays excluded from taking part in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of how public funds are spent.

Project

This project, managed by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability–EAP Foundation (ANSA–EAP), helps community members to monitor budgeting and planning for the first time at a barangay level.

The team have created CheckMyBarangay, piloting a multi-platform approach that makes the local Barangay Development Plan easy for people to understand and engage with. Through the data aggregated on the CheckMyBarangay site, the team are able to work online, through SMS and in face-to-face meetings to help local groups discuss their barangay's budget allocations, projects for the year and priority areas of implementation.

Working alongside barangay government and community representatives, the project helps to support a culture of communication and feedback, building trust barangay citizens and the people who plan and deliver their public services.

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Partner

ANSA–EAP connects citizens and governments to improve governance. Its business is anchored in the organization's identity as a "networking and learning facility" in South East Asia, and it reaches out to citizen groups (non-government organizations, civic associations, academic institutions, business sector, and community-based groups), government institutions, media, international development partners, and various other stakeholders.

ANSA–EAP promotes constructive engagement with and citizens’ monitoring of the performance of government, specifically, the quality of public service delivery and the transparency of public transactions.

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