The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) aims to build up and strengthen the citizens’ demand for improved and sustained implementation of the government’s bottom-up budgeting (BUB) and push for transparency and accountability of public institutions involved in the program. It works with the “BUB 383” coalition, an informal group of NGOs, people’s organizations and cooperatives which have been participating in and monitoring national government agencies and their LGUs for the BUB process since the program started in 2012. BUB 383 started engaging in the BUB processes in 383 municipalities in 2012, and has now expanded to 453 cities and municipalities in 52 provinces in 16 regions, including NCR.

With support from the Commission on Human Rights and UNDP under their “Empowering Citizens to Deepen Democracy Project”, the BUB 383 coalition is organizing island cluster consultations and learning exchange among CSOs to evaluate the implementation of BUB approved projects.

Last June 16-17, 2015 in Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, the BUB 383 Luzon Conference convened 42 CSO and community leaders from Ifugao, Pampanga, Rizal, Quezon, Sorsogon and Metro Manila, as well as CODE-NGO’s partners from Cardona in Rizal, Labo, Basud and Capalonga in Camarines Norte, and Pasay City, which are monitoring BUB projects that support children’s rights and welfare. The CSO and community leaders shared their experiences and challenges as watchdogs of BUB projects in their communities, particularly focusing on assessing the implementation of BUB 2014 projects.

On the other hand, the BUB 383 Visayas Conference was conducted on July 6-7, 2015 in Cebu City. Seventeen (17) CSO leaders from Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Leyte, Samar and Eastern Samar participated in the BUB 2014 assessment forum.

In both conferences, a representative from CHR was invited to give a bird’s-eye view of the Human Rights and Development Framework, which were much appreciated by the participants.

Representatives from the national government were also invited for both conferences to give updates on the implementation on BUB projects. For the BUB 383 Visayas Conference, the DILG Regional Coordinator for BUB in Region 7, Teresa Dizon, updated the participants on the initiatives of government to fast track the implementation of BUB projects.

Though BUB is a good reform initiative, it is not without challenges. Challenges are identified in every step of the process, from selecting members of the local poverty reduction action team (LPRAT), to planning the local poverty reduction action plan (LPRAP), to implementing approved projects and providing support to monitor the approved projects. In most cases, challenges in planning and participation in the LPRAT are addressed proactively in the latest policy issuances of national government.

The pressing challenges remain to be the slow rate of implementation of BUB projects and its related issues. As of February 2015, a dismal 11% of BUB 2014 projects have been completed, 15% were still being implemented and the remaining 74% had yet to be started. While budgets are allocated, NGAs and LGUs apparently have weak absorptive capacities to implement BUB projects and some agencies do not prioritize these relatively smaller projects. One major agreement from the two BUB assessment conferences conducted are to identify projects that are priorities of the CSOs in the municipality and track the implementation of the identified projects using a (simple) monitoring tool developed by CODE-NGO. The main purpose of tracking the implementation is to get the local CSOs involved in the monitoring efforts for BUB and be proactive in having the projects implemented well and on time.

Other key recommendations arising from the BUB 383 conferences are as follows:

• Provision for support from LGU to citizen monitors for monitoring of BUB projects.
• For national government agencies to relax guidelines to respond to the demand of projects approved.
• For CSOs to conduct a pre-CSO Assembly conference or forum to form a unified agenda to bring forward to the CSO Assembly and LPRAT.

Sandino Soliman is the Advocacy Officer of the Citizen’s Monitoring of LGU Performance Project of CODE-NGO and the European Union.