Caravan on Good Governance

The World Bank - Knowledge for Development Center (WB-KDC), in cooperation with Kaya Natin is currently undertaking a Good Governance Caravan from June 23-29. For the University of San Carlos, June 29, 2009; 9:00AM - 4:00 PM at the CAFA Theater in the Talamban Campus with the Speaker: Hon. Jesse Robredo (Naga City and Good Governance Champion)

Aside from Hon. Robredo sharing his piece about good governance, the forum was a venue for gathering the youth and soliciting from them their thoughts about governance in the Philippines. The brief workshop in the afternoon where answers to the questions will help generate the "Youth Agenda". The same will be used for future youth engagements especially with the upcoming 2010 elections.

Hon. Robredo talked about naga city's best practices regarding good governance:

Accountability - capacity to take public officials to task for their actions
Transparency - the availability and accessibility of relevant info. that people need
Predictability - the uniform and effective enforcement of laws and regulations
Participation - the people's capability to participate in governance processes themselves.

With regards to accountability, "TRUST" is its foundation and what they did is that they have a Citizen's Charter. It is a 315-page guidebook on the 140 or so front line services of the city government. It's location and procedures are documented step-by-step with requirements, maps, contact number w/ personnel and related fees. (I WANT THIS IN CEBU WAAAAAAAA)

Transparency is manifested in their award winning and always updated website with full disclosure of proposed budget, minutes of meetings and bid requests/results with email and SMS contacts of related government officials.

Predictability and Participation is shown through the NCPC (Naga City People's Council)which is a city level federation of lose to a hundred NGOs and POs with Biz institutions. In which they vote and deliberate with regards to city's legislation, bids, proposed projects and the like.

Naga City's Achievements:

19% poverty incidence to the region's 40%
5.2% unemployment rate which is lower than the national average
115% higher than the national average per capita gross product
A comparable family income which is 126% higher than the average family in Bicol and 42% higher than the national average.

2007 housing Rights Protector Award in Geneva Switzerland
2007 Hall of Fame, best City Website
2007 Hall of Fame, Most Biz Friendly by PCCI
2006 UNDP Galing Pook Special Citation on Local Capacity Innovation for the MDGs
2005 Most Cost effective City in Asia, by london based foreign direct investment magazine of financial times group
Global 107 Best Practices, 2004 Dubai int'l Awards
UN Public Service Award, 2004
Woman Friendly City Award (UN-Habitat), Fukuoka, japan
and many more!!

The event was nice even though I was late ehehehe..but how I wish we could make cebu's governance more "people friendly" wherein we not only the youth but most of the citizens participate in helping cebu move forward and help enhance the lives of its poor people and cebu as a whole.

We, the people, do not even realize how powerful we are. The solution lies in the local community and its people. If local governments are not up to the task, then the local community leaders must emerge to lead and show the way.

A government is not just comprised of elected officials but citizens who exercise there rights and freedom to participate in building a better community, country and world.
Caravan on Good Governance Caravan on Good Governance Reviewed by Vernon Joseph Go on Monday, June 29, 2009 Rating: 5

3 comments

  1. graft and corruption starts at home.. dapat unta khbaw sad ta sa ilang family background chuva. heheeh

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  2. Nosebleed na ayo kag posts Iggy. Pang-Masters na ayo. ^:)^

    ReplyDelete
  3. @bugs yes...pampamilya nakau ka, paghimo na!

    @bryan mas maay ghapon ka, patudlo gud ko nimo pirmi

    ReplyDelete