In the first three quarters of the Aquino administration (July 2010 to March 2011), many government agencies established CSO desks or partnership offices to facilitate and strengthen engagement with civil society organizations and other stakeholders. Many CSOs welcome this openness for participation and are taking a “constructive engagement” approach in working with government. CODE-NGO in particular has entered into partnership agreements with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Department of Agriculture (DA). While there have been disappointments over the past months, hope remains as derived from surfacing of and action on various corruption cases, some agencies, e.g. DILG and DBM setting policies for transparency, accountability and participation and the continued dialogue of CSO leaders with cross-over leaders in government.

In the first three quarters of the Aquino administration (July 2010 to March 2011), many government agencies established CSO desks or partnership offices to facilitate and strengthen engagement with civil society organizations and other stakeholders. Many CSOs welcome this openness for participation and are taking a “constructive engagement” approach in working with government. CODE-NGO in particular has entered into partnership agreements with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Department of Agriculture (DA).

As such, CODE-NGO deemed it timely to undertake an initial assessment of constructive engagement with the Aquino administration and thus organized a two-day round table reflection workshop last 29-30 March 2011. The reflection workshop was organized together with International Center for Innovation, Transparency and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov) and Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (AsiaDHRRA0, with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSI), as part of efforts to develop a curriculum on Constructive Engagement with government for ASEAN countries. More than 20 national and regional CSO leaders participated in the workshop.

When President Benigno S. Aquino III assumed office, many of the participants had high hopes for the administration given the administration’s openness to participation, promise of good governance and reform, and the significant number of civil society leaders who had crossed-over and taken on critical positions in government. While there have been disappointments over the past months, the participants continue to remain hopeful in the administration. This hope is derived from surfacing of and action on various corruption cases, setting policies for transparency, accountability and participation (e.g. DILG’s full disclosure policy and DBM’s participatory budget formulation initiative), and the continued dialogue of CSO leaders with cross-over leaders in government. On the side of civil society organizations (CSOs), there was also a realization that many CSOs have become less arrogant in dealing with government bureaucrats, taking on a more constructive approach to engagement.

However, participants coming from outside Metro Manila shared that many of these partnership initiatives are not yet felt at the local level, except for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) which seems to be the most advanced in operationalizing its partnership with CSOs at the grassroots level. While there have been memorandums-of-agreement signed with different departments at the local level, these have not yet resulted in any clear activity or partnership engagement. Furthermore, there have been experiences of resistance against deeper CSO participation in a number of regional and local government offices.

At the same time, national level CSOs feel stretched as the various demands for participation from different government agencies are pulling CSOs in different directions, leading to another realization that there is a need to strengthen and expand the ranks of CSOs engaging government for good governance and development.
 
Even with these challenges, participants of the reflection workshop expressed their continued commitment to constructively engaging the Aquino administration and helping push for much needed reforms. – by Patrick Lim, CODE-NGO Advocacy Specialist.