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Pork to Performance: Public Disclosure Authorized Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines

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Pork to Performance: Public Disclosure Authorized Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines Report No: AUS11831 . Republic of the Philippines Philippines Open Government Support, Phase II Pork to Performance: Public Disclosure Authorized Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines . June 30, 2016 . GGO14 EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC Public Disclosure Authorized . Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank . Standard Disclaimer: . This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Copyright Statement: . The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA, telephone 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, http://www.copyright.com/. All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, fax 202-522-2422, e-mail [email protected]. World Bank and AidData. June 2016. From Pork To PerFormance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines Samantha Custer Hanif Rahemtulla Kai-Alexander Kaiser Rogier van den Brink This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Copyright Statement: The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank encourage dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA, telephone 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, http://www.copyright.com/. All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, fax 202-522- 2422, e-mail [email protected]. Citation: S. Custer, H. Rahemtulla, K. Kaiser, and R. van den Brink. From Pork to Performance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines. World Bank and AidData. June 2016. II From Pork to Performance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines. 2016. S. Custer, H. Rahemtulla, K. Kaiser, R. van den Brink Abstract From Pork to Performance illuminates the politics of how public resources are spent and the difficulty of the “last mile” of service delivery. Crumbling facilities, absentee teachers, and roads to nowhere waste resources and retard development in many countries around the world. These failures in last mile service delivery underscore a more intractable development problem – a breakdown in accountability relationships – as politicians and civil servants act with impunity to extract private benefits at the expense of public goods. This study examines the extent to which technology and transparency can disrupt this low accountability status quo through turning information into collective action to improve government performance by strengthening the accountability relationships between politicians, service providers and citizens. In 2010, a new president came to power in the Philippines with a compelling message – “no corruption, no poverty” – and embraced open government as a vehicle to burn avenues of retreat and advance governance reforms. This study features examples from five sectors - education, reconstruction, roads, municipal development, and tax collection – where government champions sought to open up the black box of service delivery and use digital platforms to disclose data and strengthen accountability. This research provides guidance for public, private, and civil society leaders committed to using technology and transparency to curb pork-barrel politics and create digital dividends for their communities. The study combines rigorous political economy analysis with practical diagnostic tools and recommendations for open government initiatives to go deeper in the Philippines and around the world. From Pork to Performance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines. 2016. S. Custer, H. Rahemtulla, K. Kaiser, R. van den Brink III Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgments About the Authors Figures, Tables, and Boxes Acronyms Overview Can Online Technologies Help Offline Politics & Performance in the Philippines? i 1 Service Delivery: When Politics, Transparency & Technology Collide 1 1.1 Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis 2 1.2 Political Economy Drivers of Public Sector Service Delivery 3 1.3 Digital Accountability Platforms for Five Performance Challenges 13 1.3.1 Ghost Schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 15 1.3.2 Post-Disaster Recovery to Help Communities “Build Back Better” 17 1.3.3 Bottom-Up Budgeting to Strengthen Local Service Delivery 20 1.3.4 Increasing Scrutiny, Aligning Incentives for Local Road Investments 22 1.3.5 Curbing “Lost Revenues” and Tracking Compliance in SinTax Reforms 24 1.4 Technology, Transparency & Politics of Public Service Delivery 25 1.4.1 Causal Logic: Realistic Assumptions or Fatal Flaws? 28 1.4.2 Generating “Minimum Viable” Content for End Users 28 1.4.3 Extending Reach and Ensuring Inclusivity with an Online Channel: 29 1.4.4 Creating the Conditions for Choice & Opportunities for Action 30 1.4.5 Digital Meets Analog: The Consequences of Digital Platforms 33 2 Public Sector Performance: How Do Digital Accountability Platforms Measure Up? 35 2.1 The Perils and Promise of Measuring Performance 35 2.2 No More Flying Blind: Better Tools to Monitor Progress and Assess Impact 37 2.3 Methodology: Assessing Current Performance, Forecasting Future Trajectories 38 2.4 OpenARMM: Improving Schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 42 2.4.1 Performance Challenge 43 2.4.2 Technical Solution 43 2.4.3 Progress to Date 43 2.4.4 Institutionalization 44 2.4.5 Preliminary Assessment 45 2.5 OpenReconstruction: Helping the Philippines Build Back Better with Reconstruction Projects 46 2.5.1 Performance Challenge 46 2.5.2 Technical Solution 46 2.5.3 Progress to Date 47 2.5.4 Institutionalization 48 2.5.5 Preliminary Assessment 49 IV From Pork to Performance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines. 2016. S. Custer, H. Rahemtulla, K. Kaiser, R. van den Brink 2.6 OpenBUB: Getting the Most from Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) for Municipal Development 50 2.6.1 Performance Challenge 50 2.6.2 Technical Solution 51 2.6.3 Progress to Date 51 2.6.4 Institutionalization 52 2.6.5 Preliminary Assessment 53 2.7 Open Roads: Ensuring Local Roads Lead to Greater Prosperity for All 54 2.7.1 Performance Challenge 54 2.7.2 Technical Solution 54 2.7.3 Progress to Date 55 2.7.4 Institutionalization 55 2.7.5 Preliminary Assessment 57 2.8 SinTax: Mobilizing Public Participation to Enforce the Law 58 2.8.1 Political Context 58 2.8.2 Technical Solution 58 2.8.3 Progress to Date 59 2.8.4 Institutionalization 59 2.8.5 Preliminary Assessment 60 2.9 Early Progress: Are Digital Accountability Platforms on the Right Trajectory? 61 3 Conclusion: Lessons Learned and Recommendations 64 3.1 Taking Transparency Online to Get From Pork to Performance 66 3.2 Agile Approaches and Big System Reforms: Is Small Indeed Beautiful? 66 3.3 Can Digital Transparency Help Close the Feedback Loop? 67 3.4 Problem-Driven Political Economy: Where Digital Meets Analog 68 3.5 Ingredients to Take Philippines Open Government to the Next Level 69 3.6 Final Words: Deepening Philippines Open Government in 2016 and Beyond 74 APPENDICES 76 REFERENCES 82 From Pork to Performance: Open Government and Program Performance Tracking in the Philippines. 2016. S. Custer, H. Rahemtulla, K. Kaiser, R. van den Brink V Foreword Roads, schools, and taxes are public goods that citizens depend upon every day. While there is a complex pipeline of decisions involved in delivering a service, for the vast majority of people their singular impression of government performance is at the “last mile” – on the road, in the classroom, and at the tax office. When governments fail to deliver accessible, predictable, and high quality public goods, we can all relate to the pain points, from disconnected roads to absentee teachers. The report Pork to Performance describes breakdowns in the delivery of public goods that are symptomatic of a deeper root issue: a stunted feedback loop where poor information creates friction and perpetuates anemic performance.
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