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Coalitions for Change in the Philippines

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Coalitions for Change in the Philippines 1 John T. Sidel and Jaime Faustino 1 July 2019 Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines Copyright © 2019 by The Asia Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. THE ASIA FOUNDATION Unit 2001 Greenfield Tower Mayflower corner Williams Street, Greenfield District Mandaluyong City, Philippines 1550 Telephone: +63 (2) 8722-9999 www.asiafoundation.org While the publication of this material is supported by the Australian Embassy and The Asia Foundation, the opinions expressed in this publication should not be construed as those of either the Australian Government or The Asia Foundation. First printing, January 2020 Graphic Design by Cathlene Samiano and Meriam Otarra Cover photo by Marikit Castillo. (25 August 2015). Residents of city of Tarlac, the capital of Tarlac province, proudly display their new land titles. Inside photos by Conor Ashleigh, Marikit Castillo, Karl Grobl, Holger Mette/ iStock.com, Ben Nabong/Rappler, and King Ocampo The National Library of the Philippines Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Recommended entry: Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines / John T. Sidel and Jaime Faustino. Pasig City : 2019. 240 pages ISBN 978-971-95652-6-0 Printed in the Philippines This book is dedicated to the memory of Adrian Leftwich (1940-2013), with gratitude for his friendship, for his role in inspiring Coalitions for Change, and for bringing us back together after so many years. CONTENTS MESSAGE Chapter 1 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 31 BEYOND BACKSTOPPING: OPPORTUNISM AND EXCISE TAX REFORM Chapter 3 53 SOWING SEEDS, REAPING HARVESTS: LAND GOVERNANCE REFORM Chapter 4 89 ORIGINAL NEW INITIATIVES: EDUCATION REFORM Chapter 5 119 CAMPAIGNS AND CONSPIRACIES: LOCKING IN ELECTORAL REFORMS Chapter 6 157 UNLOCKING LOGJAMS: DISASTER RISK REDUCTION Chapter 7 183 GOING LOCAL: MINDANAO AND SUBNATIONAL GOVERNANCE Chapter 8 209 CONCLUSIONS Chapter 9 221 AFTERWORD BY GRAHAM TESKEY MESSAGE In 2011, I had an opportunity to take part in conceptualizing a program that aims to improve policy creation and implementation in the Philippines. The result of that work was the Coalitions for Change (CfC) program, which has been running continuously since that time. Under the partnership with the Australian Government, the Asia Foundation team in the Philippines has implemented Coalitions for Change alongside partners from civil society, academe, coalitions, and individual experts. Employing diverse approaches in navigating political complexities and challenges, CfC has succeeded in bringing about some genuinely transformative policy reforms, alongside lessons from its failures. With this book, John T. Sidel and Jaime Faustino dig deeper into CfC’s diverse streams of reforms and approaches in the past seven years. Reflecting on its body of work on land, tax, local infrastructure governance, education, electoral reform, disaster risk reduction and management, and conflict resolution, the authors assert that CfC has been at the forefront of recent trends in aid effectiveness and development around thinking and working politically, doing development differently, and adaptive programming. As an academic who has carefully followed CfC since its inception, John Sidel’s independent and objective perspective on the program’s initiatives, outcomes, and impact has been valuable. Jaime Faustino, who leads CfC’s implementation, meanwhile offers a front-row view of doing policy reform – both its political and technical dimensions. The result of their collaboration is a book constructively reflective of what worked and did not work in pursuit of rule-altering, sustainable, and transformative reforms in the Philippines. Aside from the diligent research of the authors, The Asia Foundation is also grateful for the rigorous external review of experts for this publication, including an excellent and intriguing Afterword by Graham Teskey. We hope that this book serves as a valuable resource not only for aid and development practitioners, but also for scholars, policymakers, bilateral agencies, think-thanks, and anyone interested in successfully maneuvering the shifting dimensions of development in the Philippines and elsewhere. The last recognition goes to all those who have invested their passion, expertise, and perseverance in shepherding these reforms to fruition. Those Filipino leaders from government, civil society, academe, and business are the foundation upon which CfC is able to build such a fascinating program. Mabuhay! Sam Chittick Country Representative, Philippines The Asia Foundation 8 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Since early 2012, the Coalitions for Change (CfC) program has been operating in the Philippines under a partnership between the Australian Embassy and The Asia Foundation in Manila. Over the first six years of the program, it has provided support for successful initiatives in excise tax reform, electoral reform, and land governance reform; for substantive improvements in education, disaster risk reduction and management, and the management of local roads; and for the formal peace process and more broadly conceived conflict resolution efforts in the southern Philippines. As suggested by its very name, CfC has worked by encouraging and enabling the formation and mobilization of coalitions and networks which combine reform “champions” in different agencies, branches, and levels of government with allies in civil society, including academic institutions, advocacy groups, business associations, the media, NGOs, “think tanks”, and religious institutions. Through the efforts of these coalitions, CfC has worked to promote “transformational change” through substantive, self-sustaining, rule-altering reforms in various spheres of public policy in the Philippines. This program thus stands as an interesting and potentially important example of new modalities for development assistance to address complex challenges in countries across the developing world. This book provides a careful, critical, and comparative analysis of the diverse streams within the CfC program in the Philippines. Over successive chapters, the book chronicles the activities of the program in promoting excise tax reform (Chapter 2), land governance reform (Chapter 3), education reform (Chapter 4), electoral reform (Chapter 5), disaster risk reduction and management (Chapter 6), decision-making processes over local road and other infrastructure investments, and the peace process in the southern Philippines (Chapter 7). Looking across 2 these different streams of CfC, the book provides both a descriptive account of the variegated activities of the program and a comparative analysis of the diverging trajectories and outcomes of its efforts in these various policy arenas. By including both achievements and disappointments in CfC’s activities and initiatives over the past five years, the book suggests – and substantiates – a strong set of arguments on the impact of different approaches based on the varying effectiveness and outcomes of the program’s efforts. Its contents will hopefully inform both the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and The Asia Foundation as they consider the lessons and legacies of the CfC program in the Philippines for future programs in the years ahead. This book will also hopefully prove to be instructive for a broader audience in the development community interested in exploring and experimenting with new modalities for promoting positive, transformative change elsewhere across the developing world. Before turning to the diverse activities and initiatives of CfC, this chapter provides a holistic account of the program from its inception in 2012. First, the chapter situates CfC against the backdrop of the emergence of new ideas within the development industry over the preceding decade – ideas which informed and impelled the establishment of the program in 2012. Secondly, CfC is placed within the context of the Philippines, identifying in broad terms the set of imperatives and opportunities that have enabled – and constrained – the activities and initiatives of the program since its inception five years ago. Thirdly, this chapter provides a brief outline of the original design and organizational structure of the CfC program as a whole. Finally, it concludes with a short discussion of the empirical sources and research methods informing the book, as well as a brief summary of the overarching argument that is elaborated and substantiated over the chapters that follow. The Context of the Development Industry The Coalitions for Change (CfC) program in the Philippines began in 2012 against the backdrop of the diverse strands of new thinking that were emerging across the development industry since the turn of the 21st century. To fully appreciate the groundbreaking nature of CfC, it is essential to consider broad trends in development thinking during the decade prior to its establishment. Here, it is 3 important to consider mainstream development thinking alongside “alternative” perspectives that more directly influenced CfC. In the 2000s, the watershed event for mainstream international development was the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.1 The agreement was intended to improve the quality of aid and its impact on development by moving from donor-recipient relationships to partnerships between international development agencies and developing
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