Helvetas Philippines supports development projects as a means for mobilizing marginalized people to actively participate in local governance and for establishing new and creative forms of cooperation between communities, civil society, and local governments.

Since the early period of the Philippine Republic, socioeconomic and political inequalities dominated Philippine society. The stark within-nation disparities and widespread poverty are mainly the result of unfavorable political power structures. These are dominated by a small elite and oriented towards power preservation and self-privileging. In this situation, there is not much scope for equity reforms, effective and transparent management of the public sector, and strong participation of the civil society and communities in development efforts. This despite the fact that the Local Government Code of 1991 – which foresees a farreaching decentralization – provides for the people to participate in and reform governance so that it becomes more accountable and responsive to the needs of the population.

Linking development initiatives with Good Governance: In 2002, Helvetas launched the Program for Governance and Rural Empowerment Support Services (PROGRESS) in two provinces of the Philippines. It offers local governments and NGOs financial and technical assistance for short-term development projects which are jointly planned, implemented, and controlled by local government units (LGUs), civil society organizations, and communities. By conducting common development initiatives, PROGRESS aims at establishing participatory structures and mechanisms and promoting good governance principles at local level in accordance with the Local Government Code. Special emphasis is placed on setting up processes for cooperation between LGUs (at provincial, municipal, and commune level) and NGOs, strengthening development councils, and assisting them in preparing development plans. By linking practical development projects with local governance issues, decentralized participatory structures and processes are introduced in a fast and tangible manner and participation mechanisms are practiced concretely.

Fields of interventions: The local governments units, NGOs, and communities involved in PROGRESS attend thorough training in local governance and the Local Government Code, decentralization, democracy principles, the rights and duties of the citizens and the LGUs. Furthermore, they undergo theoretical and intensive hands-on training in participatory planning and preparation of commune development plans. The governance education events are complemented with technical training (e.g. water supply, sustainable agriculture and fisheries) that is directly related to the content of the development projects. The latter are co-funded by Helvetas and the LGUs which have to cover up to 40% of the project costs.

Fervent response to the progressive program: In the first two years, out of 52 proposals submitted 27 projects were chosen for implementation. The selection was done – based on clearly defined criteria and standardized procedures – by special provincial boards which were established by PROGRESS. They are composed of both, civil society and local government representatives, and function as arenas for participatory prioritization of the needs of the provinces. The jointly planned projects were implemented and monitored commonly by the communities, NGOs, and LGUs. The majority of the local NGOs and governments has maintained the established cooperation arrangements beyond the one-/two-year PROGRESS project phase and continues their collaboration on their own. In addition, development councils were introduced or re-activated in the major part of the project communes and municipalities. The councils – consisting of civil society and government members – also prepared commune/municipality development plans as requested by the Local Government Code.


SELECTED REFERENCE LIST

Where Helvetas is specifically engaged in the area Civil Society and the State:

• Bhutan, improvement of the financial manage-ment of decentralized government units through education support to the National Finance Service; support of rural self-help initiatives and strengthening of farmer associations and agricultural cooperatives; assistance for communities in participatory management of forest resources (PFM) – mandated by Swiss Agency for Devel-opment and Cooperation (SDC) of the Swiss Federal Government
• Kyrgyzstan, Legal Assistance to Rural Citizens (LARC) through 22 offices which offer legal in-formation and support in the area of land and water rights, tax and trade laws – mandated by SDC and USAID
• Nepal, Conflict Mitigation in Practice (CMP) which is conducted in conflict-affected areas and links conflictrelated problems and devel-opment work – mandated by SDC; Local Initia-tive Support Program (LISP) covering special local government and NGO strengthening pro-grams – Helvetas program co-funded by the Department for International Development UK (DFID)
• Philippines, Program for Governance and Rural Empowerment Support Services (PROGRESS) link-ing local governments and civil society – Helvetas program
• Sri Lanka, four civil peace-building and devel-opment projects concentrating on the eastern part of Sri Lanka but also covering regional and national interventions – Helvetas programs and a SDC mandate
• Vietnam, Enhance Local Government Capacity (ELGC) providing training to public servants and promoting grassroots democracy for effective decentralization – Helvetas program; support to a commune for installing participatory, efficient and accountable decentralized structure – mandated by SDC
• Ethiopia, support to participatory effective and efficient local governance in two districts of the South Wollo zone – Helvetas program
• Cameroon, Council Support Program (CSP) strengthening local governments in their cooperation with the civil society and private sector by capacity-building measures – Helvetas program
• Mali, support program for the national decen-tralization program (PAD) through information and awareness-raising, capacity-building for lo-cal governments, and support in public project implementation; strengthening of the decentrali-zation of the state water sector – mandated by SDC; conflict prevention and transformation pro-gram addressing clashes between graziers and farmers (SIGUIDA) – Helvetas program
• Dominican Republic, support to the network AROMA consisting of eleven communes coop-erating with farmers in natural resource management matters – Helvetas program
• Guatemala, collaboration with the private insti-tute MUNI-K’AT in providing capacity-building for local governments and strengthening the civil society; support to INFORPRESS CENTROAMERI-CANA for operating the information system for local governments; peace-building promotion through cultural activities – Helvetas programs
• Paraguay, support to the creation and farmer-based networks (TTR webs) for expanding their capacities and strengthening the social capital – Helvetas program