What do the Philippine nursing profession, the Philippine Military Academy, and the City of San Fernando Pampanga have in common? They share a strong commitment to improving governance in their respective jurisdictions and are following a common path to this end. All three have taken important steps to advance along the “governance pathway” conceived by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a CIPE partner. The governance pathway offers participating institutions a sequence of constructive steps and incentives for them to achieve their reform goals.
ISA’s initiative is transforming the Philippines step by step for the benefit of its citizens, and in the process overcoming corruption and apathy. Rather than throwing up its hands at the challenges in reforming national government, ISA has identified promising localities and sectors in which to nurture pockets of good governance, involve citizens, and create anchors for future results.
The City of San Fernando, for instance, has literally risen from the ashes of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. In December 2005, with ISA’s assistance, the city crafted a roadmap and a set of well-defined targets that it committed to meet. It’s vision: to become the gateway to the northern Philippines by 2015. In January 2006, the city invited leaders from the community to comment on and buy into the vision. Since then, San Fernando has been putting its plan into effect, producing improvements in health care, education, flood mitigation, traffic control, and waste management. The city renovated its market and has attracted 481 million pesos ($10 million US) in new investments.
On August 30, 2007, ISA declared San Fernando to be one of the “proficient” cities—or “Dream Cities”—in its public governance system, signifying that San Fernando has: performed rigorous strategic planning using scorecards; aligned its organization and resources with the strategy; and implemented a mechanism to report on its performance.
One of the real strengths of the public governance system is the participation of representatives from all major segments of civil society. Citizens take part in setting objectives and performance measures for governing institutions as well as for themselves. Following through on the planning, civil society groups make their share of contributions to the results and hold government accountable for reaching collective goals.
Another reason why the governance pathway works so well is that it combines administrative professionalism with political incentives. Mayors and institutions that reach ISA’s milestones—and that pass audits by ISA and their peers—are duly recognized for their achievements. In the latest round of elections, 18 of the 20 mayors that were in compliance with ISA’s standards (or the candidates they endorsed) were re-elected.
New mayors, governors, professional associations, and national institutions are signing onto ISA’s governance pathway. They have seen the benefits to the public of a concerted, focused, and participatory approach to improving governance.
Published Date: September 06, 2007