By Justine P. Castellon
Good governance is one of today’s public policy buzzwords. All over the country, citizens are demanding good governance from our public servants and leaders. They want their voices heard and acted upon. Some citizen groups are even working with the government (or sometimes against it) to build a more citizen-centric approach to governance in the Philippines.
“Citizens are at the heart of good governance, and governments are genuinely more effective when they listen to and work with citizens to solve the developmental challenges, especially in local governance,” said Dr. Eddie Dorotan, executive director of Galing Pook, a foundation that conducts the national search of local-
governance programs.
For ordinary citizens, the term “good governance” is something one usually expects to refer exclusively to government’s commitments and its responsibilities to its residents. “It’s about time it becomes more than that. When citizens expect something from the government, they should be willing to do their share to make it more successful,” Dorotan added.
To enable citizens to participate and engage in policy-making and program implementation of the government or state, the public should understand what is “good governance”?
There are differing definitions and understanding of what this term actually means. From the United Nations Development Programme, it is “…among other things participatory, transparent and accountable. It is also effective and equitable. And it promotes the rule of law.”
The World Bank defines good governance as, “…epitomized by predictable, open and enlightened policy-making; a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of government accountable for its actions; and a strong civil society participating in public affairs; and all behaving under the rule of law.”
Simply put, good governance makes public administration more open, transparent and accountable, and it makes engagement of citizens in the government’s public
affairs possible.
Citizens as partners
Strengthening the relationship between the government and its citizens is one of the essentials in governing a nation. By engaging citizens in the formulation and implementation of governance programs and even in policy-making, we allow our government to tap new sources of ideas, information and other resources in making decisions.
Dorotan explained that integrating citizen engagement in the project designs can help improve transparency and accountability of public policies; promote citizens’ trust; and forge consensus around important reforms necessary to sustain the country’s development.
“Moreover, it should be more than the participation of the people. Local government should empower them and encourage ownership of the programs they developed collaboratively. Experience has shown that the absence of these throughout the development and implementation processes, even the best programs will have little practical
effect,” he added.
Government’s strong capacity to design and implement programs
To engage people effectively in local governance programs, government must invest adequate time and resources in building robust process frameworks or the systems and methods for the programs to be developed and implemented. Local knowledge, such as technical how-how cascaded to the people, proved to be valuable during project design and implementation.
“When people have access to the program blueprint, objectives and goals are agreed upon; their roles are clearly defined; transparency in terms of budget and timeline, and evaluation processes are in place—the success factors are higher,” Dorotan said.
Citizen engagement will also be more successful when the local- government counterparts have sufficient implementation capacity and operate in a transparent manner, and possess the capability to act on the feedback. Local government leadership and its strong capacity to design and implement programs matter for sustainable engagement processes. This will also include greater legitimacy and the potential to achieve improved results.
Dorotan said the effective projects that institutionalize citizen engagement should be acknowledged, as well, and shared to the general public as best practices that other local government units can learn from.
“For years, Galing Pook, together with the civil-society organizations, the private sector and the local and national governments helped promote innovation, sustainability, citizen empowerment and excellence in local governance,”
Dorotan added.
He explained that through Galing Pook, it recognizes the unique initiatives of local government units. The Galing Pook winners have become models of good practices in local governance. Their programs provide benchmarks for good governance that even the national government can learn from.
The foundation is conducting an annual search for 10 outstanding local governance programs. “The winners are considered based on the following criteria: positive results and impact; efficiency of program- service delivery and creative use of powers provided under the local government code; transferability and sustainability; promotion of people participation and empowerment; and innovation,” Dorotan said.
The Galing Pook generates public awareness of outstanding local leaders and their communities. It continuously educates citizens on what good governance means, and what are the impact of their participation and involvement to make it more successful. This inspires them to compete with other local leaders, and eventually they find themselves trying to outdo their past performances.
“It even challenges them to attain higher standards and cross the barrier between convention and innovation,” Dorotan said.
The recognition signifies affirmation of the local government leaders’ dedication to public service and the influence of citizen engagement to attain good governance in public service.
“We should ask ourselves: “What do we demand from the government? What can we do for the country?” Dorotan ended.