The Philippine Open Government Partnership (Ph-Ogp)
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Genuine Co-Creation for Transformative Outcomes: Towards a more open government, towards a more felt government 1 2 THE PHILIPPINE OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP (PH-OGP) NATIONAL ACTION PLAN (NAP) 2019-2021 Genuine Co-Creation for Transformative Outcomes: Towards a more open government, towards a more felt government November 30, 2019 3 4 Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP) National Action Plan 2019-2021: Genuine Co-Creation for Transformative Outcomes: Towards a more open government, towards a more felt government Table of Contents Message from the Chairperson Message from the Co-Chairperson List of Acronyms I. Introduction II. Open Government Efforts to Date: Challenges, Gains, Lessons Learned A. Leading Leaders: PH as a global open government champion B. A Government That is Transparent and Accessible C. A Government That Listens and Responds D. Beyond Transparency: Moving up the Public Participation Ladder III. The Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP) National Action Plan (NAP) 2019-2021 Development Process IV. Beyond the Basics: Participation and Co-Creation During NAP Development A. Dissemination of information B. Spaces and platforms for dialogue and co-creation C. Co-ownership and Joint Decision-Making V. Operationalizing an Enhanced Co-Creation Framework: Key Dimensions of the PH-OGP NAP 2019-2021 A. From Government-Driven to a More Demand-Driven OGP Process B. Commitment Design Focus: Co-Creating Transformative Open Government Commitments C. Going Outside Usual Circles: Mainstreaming Gender and Inclusion in the PH-OGP D. The Power of Coming Together: Leveraging Convergence and Whole-of-Society Approaches VI. Monitoring, Progress Reporting, and Outreach Efforts during Action Plan Implementation VII. PH-OGP National Action Plan 2019-2021 Commitments List of Annexes A. PH-OGP Terms of Reference B. OGP Citizens Agenda C. List of Activities for the Co-Creation of the PH-OGP NAP 2019-2021 D. Stakeholder Workshop Toolkit E. Consolidated Inputs from Stakeholders and Reasoned Response F. List of all Proposed PH-OGP Commitments vis-a-vis PH-OGP Steering Committee Decision and Recommendations 5 6 Message from the PH-OGP Chairperson By Secretary Wendel E. Avisado Department of Budget and Management Being a founding country and member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) for the past eight years have taught us that OGP is about changing the culture of governance. And this change starts with the recognition that the government, and all of us public servants, exist for and because of our people. This is how we also know that the active engagement of citizens is a key ingredient in achieving the goals of any government initiative. An effective government puts the people first at the heart of all its undertakings. Recognizing that the open government framework is a powerful tool in making progressive and inclusive changes in the culture of governance, we have made unprecedented shifts towards a more strategic and inclusive process of co-creating the Philippine OGP National Action Plan 2019-2021. Responding to the Call for Transformative Impact Because this is already the Philippines’ 5th OGP National Action Plan (NAP), the call from our citizens is clear and more pronounced—the demand is to deliver more transformative impact and felt results through the next batch of the country’s open government commitments. It was a big and tough ask, but we are ready to respond. Hence, for our 5th OGP cycle, we scaled up our efforts. We went around the country and held the widest and most extensive open government consultations that we have ever done. By closely working with our indefatigable partners from the non-government sector, led by my Co-Chair, Ms. Andrea Maria Patricia Sarenas of the Mindanao Caucus of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE), we initiated a bottom-up approach that led to the crafting of the OGP Citizens Agenda. Then, through the Dagyaw: Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Townhall Sessions, we were able to successfully consult over 1,000 non-government organizations in 16 regions that provided significant inputs on proposed open government programs. Aside from the town hall sessions, we also conducted targeted sectoral consultations to ensure that our 5th OGP cycle is inclusive. Because of this, we have been able to listen to the concerns of different sectors and successfully mainstream the voices of the poor and marginalized 7 in governance—most especially our indigenous peoples, children and youth, women and LGBT sectors. As a result of our enhanced co-creation process, we now have ten (10) game-changing international commitments that leave no one behind, to be delivered by a more convergent government that will be more felt by the Filipino people in the next two years. On Building Mutual Trust Mutual trust is a governance currency that is highly valued. But as we entered the post- truth era, the level of public trust has also been on a global decline, and as civic spaces continue to shrink in several corners of the world, it makes our work in OGP very unique and all the more important. OGP facilitates the mining and exchange of mutual trust—trust among and between government agencies, and more importantly, trust between government and citizens. We form a high-trust society by embedding good governance principles in all phases of the policy cycle, at all levels of bureaucracy - from planning, budgeting, and implementation down to monitoring, evaluation and accountability. By putting a premium on efforts toward building public trust, we also build an effective government that leads us to our vision of a sustainable, peaceful and comfortable life for all Filipinos. It is important to emphasize that a good government is one that actively listens and effectively responds. But most importantly, a good government is one that is highly trusted and felt by the citizens. At the end of the day, what matters the most is for our citizens to know and truly feel that the government is there for them. And so, with this Action plan, we aim to restore the people’s trust and faith in government by listening better and doing the most that we can to deliver on government’s promise to provide more efficient and effective public services to the Filipino people. Importance of following through: Beyond Lip Service, Beyond a Well-Designed Action Plan We are finally done co-creating our new Action Plan, but our open government efforts shall not waiver. The open government principles of transparency, accountability, citizen engagement, and technology for openness and innovation constantly remind us that if we truly want transformative impact, our efforts have to be above and beyond business as usual. Now that we have successfully developed an ambitious PH-OGP NAP 2019-2021, we know that it will be important to continue our proactive and strategic partnerships with our people. So, for the next two years, the Philippine OGP’s way forward is to ensure that government efforts will lead to transformative impact through meaningful citizen participation: deepening existing good governance reforms, localizing our open government agenda and closing feedback loops. Rest assured, our open government commitments are not and will not be empty promises. We shall remain steadfast in our mission to make government work better for our people. So, we call on each and every Filipino: please join us as we continue with our OGP journey-- onwards to more partnerships, onwards with implementation and sustained follow-through! Mabuhay at maraming salamat po! 8 Message from the PH-OGP Co-Chairperson By Ms. Andrea Maria Patricia M. Sarenas Chairperson, Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE) It has been an exciting journey for the Philippine OGP. We have come to the end of the implementation of the fourth National Action Plan for 2017-2019 and commenced on the development of the fifth National Action Plan for 2019-2021. Even though this is already the Philippines’ fifth Plan, this Plan is a Plan of “many firsts”. For one, this is the first time that we adopted a bottom-up approach in identifying commitments. The crafting of the OGP Citizens Agenda that became the basis for the government’s commitments is already a milestone in itself. This would not have happened if not for the strong demand of the non-government sector to make OGP a platform for a responsive government. This is also the first time that we have gone to more places and reached more people to let them know about OGP. Our co-creation process is I think one of the most extensive and inclusive—conducting non-government consultations in all the sixteen administrative regions of the country is no easy feat. By our participation in the regional consultations, we and the thousands of citizens have truly embodied what we call a genuine co-creation process for this 5th National Action Plan. I am also proud to say that this is the first plan where development of commitments has been initiated by us, the non-government sector. Through the pro-active engagement with government of my colleagues in the Steering Committee, namely, Unang Hakbang Foundation (UHF) and the Public Services Labor Confederation (PSLINK), we saw the birth of three important commitments: 1) Department of Education’s participatory monitoring of last mile schools, 2) Department of Social Welfare and Development’s participatory action research to contribute in addressing early pregnancy and malnutrition, and 3) Department of Labor and Employment’s institutionalization of social dialogues for the public sector. Finally, this is the first time in Philippine OGP where we have not only embarked on the co-creation process—meaning, the identification of commitments—but we have also co-created the implementation and monitoring plans of these commitments. This intentional process ensured that our well-crafted Plan will be efficiently monitored so that it can bring about positive, concrete, and felt results by 2021.