Citizens’ Participation in Governance

For the period of August 2012 to July 2013, CODE-NGO’s Participatory Governance (PG) initiatives have supported the conduct of 42 capacity-building activities and training programs on poverty analysis, understanding the national and local government participatory planning and budgeting processes, and citizen’s monitoring of government performance and evaluating the implementation of government programs and projects. They also organized 152 consultations among CSOs and dialogues with government at the local and national levels so that CSOs would be prepared to engage government in crafting local anti-poverty plans, to lobby for local and national policies and budget support for projects that truly address communities’ needs, and to monitor government performance and implementation of government programs and projects.

Collectively, these processes have mobilized 956 CSOs and basic sector groups in 45 municipalities, 19 provinces and in 9 regions all over the country and involved at least 3,422 CSO leaders. While the local anti-poverty plans vary depending on the area’s conditions, the CSOs participating in these initiatives generally agree on the importance of influencing government to become transparent and accountable, to improve the delivery of basic social services and to prioritize asset reform. They also agree that there is a need for CSOs to continue working together and building their capacities to understand and participate meaningfully in local planning and budgeting processes and demonstrate own good governance practices as well.

These PG initiatives of CODE-NGO have been supported by several development partners, including the European Union in the Philippines, Misereor of Germany and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) of the USA.