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G-Watch goes PRO-Health!
PRO-Health or Promoting Rights Organizing for Health is a health organizing initiative of the Government Watch (G-Watch) that aims to improve public health governance to make quality reproductive, maternal and newborn, children and adolescents health services accessible to all.
On 9-11 March 2023, the G-Watch Center will hold a learning exchange with Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipinong Pantawid (SNPP) in Baguio City. A national organization of beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), SNPP was formed alongside the successful campaign to pass the 4Ps Law with SNPP leaders being at the forefront of the campaign.
An awareness-raising campaign of Government Watch (G-Watch) began in 2012, Ako, Ikaw, Tayo, May Pananagutan (AIM-P) is undertaken by its sites and partners to promote the importance of accountability in improving governance and advancing democracy.
Now on its fifth straight year, AIM-P 2023 has the theme “More Pananagutan sa Post-Pandemic Pilipinas,” which aims to create awareness on the importance of strengthening accountability to improve governance in the delivery of basic services, such as education and health, as the country transitions to the new normal.
2nd National Learning Exchange with Accountability Frontliners
Iloilo City | 6-9 January 2022
Government Watch (G-Watch), in cooperation with Accountability Research Center (ARC), is undertaking an initiative to learn with, from and for accountability frontliners. Entitled Accountability Frontliners Learning Initiative (AFLI) in the Philippines, the aim of the said effort is to reflect, learn, document and share the innovative, adaptive and/or effective approaches employed by G-Watch during the pandemic.
In September this year, Government Watch (G-Watch) marks its 22nd anniversary. Established in 2000 in the wake of EDSA Dos and Joseph Estrada’s removal from the presidency, G-Watch began as the governance program of a university. Meant as a response to the plethora of corruption scandals involving senior government officials, Government Watch began one of the country’s earliest attempts at social accountability—training hundreds of citizen-volunteers to monitor the delivery of various public services.
G-Watch localities
The start of the new administration once again brings up the question of what should be the role of civil society in the country’s development and governance. In the recent decades, Philippine civil society has championed advancing transparency, participation and accountability (TPA) reforms in governance, arguing it’s an effective and responsive solution to inefficiencies and corruption in government as well as a way to promote human rights and ensure citizen entitlements.
G-Watch views the upcoming polls in 2022 as an extremely important terrain that has to be engaged, and that would complement other accountability efforts that are being undertaken before, after and beyond elections. In this light, G-Watch is undertaking a citizenship education initiative that aims to Make Elections an Accountability Platform (MEAP).
When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the world stood still. The ill-preparedness of the Philippine national government to handle a pandemic as huge as COVID-19 was very clear from the onset. The country’s health workers ended up taking most of the brunt of the pandemic because they were at the frontlines. Yet, health workers persevered to provide the badly needed health care and assistance to the people, especially those who were sick.
Accurate, verifiable, complete and clear information is a pre-requisite of accountability. It is a potent tool for citizens to hold power to account. Even in the accountability field, there is the notion of ‘clear’ and ‘opaque’ transparency, and it is clear transparency that likely leads to ‘hard’ accountability.
The next national election is once again just around the corner. With the COVID-19 crisis, there are a lot of uncertainties in today’s politics and governance. For sure the 2022 polls will be very different given the ongoing health crisis.
While health threats will be a new critical concern that will change the way we campaign and vote, the continuing and worsening threats to democratic processes and values are issues that would also have to be confronted as we prepare for the 2022 elections.
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G-Watch completes its series of PRO-Health briefing-orientation seminars, trained a total of 277 volunteer-monitors
Government Watch (G-Watch) completed its series of PRO-Health briefing-orientation seminars on August 13-14 in Naga City, concluding its eighth and last seminar that trained 277 volunteer-monitors, most of whom currently on the field monitoring health services in their localities.
The seminars that started in late April were co-conducted with G-Watch partners for Promoting Rights Organizing for Health (PRO-Health) in the following localities:
Multiply-Ed Philippines holds its National Multisectoral Conference
The Multiply-Ed National Multisectoral Conference was held in Pasig City on August 7-8.
Duty bearers from key offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Youth Commission (NYC) and representatives from the Education Commission 2 attended the event. The Commission on Audit (COA) was also there as an accountability ally. Multiply-Ed (X-Ed) government allies from schools, DepEd division offices and local governments were also present to show solidarity and support.
G-Watch Convenor-Director Discusses Strategic Citizen Action for Accountability with Bangsamoro Civil Society
“Accountability initiatives should be vertically integrated because the power that we are checking is also vertically integrated.”
G-Watch Convenor-Director Joy Aceron shared this insight in a gathering of Moro and lumad civil society leaders held on 26 June 2023 in Davao City. Organized by Coalition for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) and the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), the event brought together grassroots organizers, NGO workers and academe from the Bangsamoro region and Zamboanga Peninsula.
Moving Up to Make Government Respond: Multiply-Ed convenes 450 education stakeholders in 5 Regional Multi-Sectoral Conferences
From May to June, 450 students, teachers, parents, government officials, and representatives from CSOs and private sector were gathered for the Multiply-Ed Regional Multi-Sectoral Conferences (RMSC) held in Bicol, NCR, Mindanao, Palawan, and Cebu.
All of them have one goal: to improve the public education system.
Barangays are put to task, indigenous people enfranchised in monitoring health
Government Watch (G-Watch) completed two more briefing-orientation seminars to add to the growing citizens and localities involved in PRO-Health or Promoting Rights Organizing for Health.
G-Watch makes first move for PRO-Health in Pasig CIty
Last April 29 and 30, 2023, Government Watch conducted its first briefing orientation seminar for their Promoting Rights Organizing for Health project (PRO-Health) in the Pamantasang Lungsod ng Pasig Hotel with the Pasig City CSO Help Desk.
G-Watch is PRO-Health! Doing the Groundwork for a New Health Initiative, G-Watch is Already Filling Gaps
As the rest of the Philippines suffered from the sweltering summer heat, Baguio remained relatively cool at 20 degrees Celsius. That day early March, 12 leaders of the Samahan ng mga Nagkakaisang Pamilyang Pantawid (SNPP) were huddled in a modest-sized hall, listening intently as Faith Santos and Victoria Maglanque of Government Watch (G-Watch) presented the situation of health governance in the Philippines.
G-Watch program for OJT and NSTP students delivers
“I saw how wide or how narrow the human heart can be.”
This was the reflection of Xianne, a student of the College of Maasin, during the G-Watch sharing session held on April 23, 2023 in Tacloban City.
Bangsamoro Youth Commission and Multiply-Ed convene BARMM Ministries in a Policy Forum
A policy forum was recently held The Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC) and Multiply-Ed (X-Ed) on April 18, 2023. It was attended by the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE), Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD), Ministry of Health (MOH), and Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG).
G-Watch Holds Awareness-Raising Campaign to Promote Accountability in Post-Pandemic Philippine Governance
For the fifth straight year, Government Watch (G-Watch) again conducted its awareness-raising campaign called Ako, Ikaw, Tayo, May Pananagutan (AIM-P). Held on the second week of February 2023, G-Watch and its partners adopted the theme for this year “More Pananagutan sa Post-Pandemic Pilipinas” to highlight the importance of strengthening accountability in the delivery of basic services, such as health and education, as the country transitions to the new normal.