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Delivering educational textbooks to schools in the Philippines: Textbook Count 1-2-3
In the 1990s, the Philippines government was corrupt, and the Department of Education among the worst offenders. In high schools, the shortage of textbooks was so great that eight children had to share a single copy. After Congress passed the Government Procurement Reform Act, the education department set to work to provide the right number of high-quality textbooks to the nation’s schools. A crucial aspect was mobilising civil society NGOs to check that suppliers were delivering what they promised, a key monitoring initiative being Textbook 1-2-3.
Cebu congressional bets bare platforms, stances on key issues
Local candidates present their programs on agriculture and fisheries development, bottom-up budgeting, conditional cash transfer, electoral reforms, and youth empowerment
Civil society gets involved in monitoring DepED’s expenditure programs
PFMP’s technical assistance encourages transparency in government’s procurement process
ASoG governance forum
DAVAO CITY — The Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) and Government Watch-Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) is holding a forum entitled “Deepening Citizen Participation in Politics and Governance Beyond 2016” on January 26, 2016, 12nn-3pm at Xavier hall, Ateneo de Davao Community Center of the First Companion, Davao City.
Participatory monitoring, Philippines
This case study pertains to an assessment conducted by the Basel Institute on Governance, in collaboration with UNDP’s Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN), of a social accountability monitoring project in the municipality of San Miguel, Bohol in the Philippines. The aforementioned project, called Bayaniham Undertaking Living in a Healthy and Organised Neighborhood or BULHON sa Panguma (BULHON), involves the monitoring of agricultural subsidies and was developed and implemented by the Government Watch (G-Watch) programme of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila.
Textbook Count in the Philippines
In the 1990s, the education sector in the Philippines faced a major crisis. The Department of Education (DepEd) was accused of extensive corruption, in particular in the field of textbooks procurement (according to Philippine law the government is obliged to provide students with free textbooks) (Ramkumar 2010). At least three forms of corruption were suspected: officials were awarding overpriced contracts to unqualified bidders, suppliers were not honoring their contracts (many textbooks remained undelivered even after the government had paid for them), and some vendors were providing books of poor quality (Ramkumar 2010).
Strategic Dilemmas in Changing Contexts: G-Watch’s Experience in the Philippine Education Sector
On 19 April 2014, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative and Hivos brought together funders, civil society organizations, and researchers to consider the opportunities and challenges of linking state and civil society efforts towards greater transparency and accountability (T/A). This short think piece (Strategic Dilemmas & Context FG SR) picks up on the conversation to encourage collective thinking, research and action.
How far can citizen participation in governance go?
'If the mechanism of our government is working towards ensuring transparency and accountability, we might not even have to do what we have been doing as a civil society organization'
Constructive engagement with government
With four cities and one municipality, the Ateneo School of Government's Government Watch (G-Watch) Pilot Run project (this is the final of seven columns on this project) had the lowest tier of Philippine government covered; the sixth site would cover an equally critical government level, provincial. Provinces, too, receive their own internal revenue allotment from the national budget; they also possess decentralized and delegated powers and responsibilities in their jurisdiction.
If they win, what should Jinkee, other local officials do?
'We hope that local politicians will not only build constituencies for elections but also constituencies for good governance after elections'