A private think tank on Tuesday underscored the need for a more inclusive participation of local government units (LGUs) in the crafting of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) that should focus on achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Roland Cabigas, managing director of the La Liga Policy Institute (La Liga), said area-based planning proposed by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to complement the MDG, should zero in on local MDG targets.
Cabigas was reacting to the appeal made by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. who called for area-based planning among LGUs.
According to Cabigas, LGUs should really get involved in the crafting of the MDGs.
But he stressed that the MTPDP should take into consideration the local economic development plans of LGUs.
According to Cabigas, area-based planning as proposed by the Neda chief, puts to fore the need to identify local MDG targets through the LGU cluster approach which allows poor LGUs to pool their available resources to implement programs that matter most in eradicating poverty.
According to Paderanga, area-based planning should determine and address the needs of a specific area on a cross-sector basis and identify the projects that should be implemented.
In the Ilocos region, Cabigas said several initiatives of LGU partners of La Liga, particularly under the project MDG Pathways—Cementing Pathways to Financing the MDGs and Accelerating the MDGs in Region 1: Making it work where it matters have successfully identified MDG-related programs that are “workable” based on the LGUs’ individual and collective capacities.
MDG Pathways, a project of the European Union, is being implemented by La Liga in partnership with Alaminos City and the municipalities of Bani and Burgos, while the project “Accelerating the MDGs in region 1” involves all the eight cities in the Ilocos region and regional line agency MDG champions representing key regional line agencies, such as the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Through the project, Alaminos City, Bani and Burgos, he said, are now in the process of integrating MDG-related programs in the annual investment plans to institutionalize funding for programs relevant to MDG targets on poverty, maternal health, education and environment.
Cabigas agreed with Paderanga that area-based planning would allow the national government and LGUs to provide the necessary resources to usher in strategic investments and enable social services to reach places where they are most needed, but emphasized the plans should be further “harmonized.”
“In Western Pangasinan and in the Ilocos region, several LGUs have come up with various MDG-related programs and identified sources of financing both internally and externally generated,” he said.
According to Cabigas, the process of identifying the programs is deemed crucial to local economic development that involves local nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and citizens’ groups, which reflects the vision of President Aquino in underscoring the need for broad citizens’ participation in governance.
According to Cabigas, in the two initiatives of LGUs in the Ilocos region, the NGOs and citizens’ group provided valuable inputs in coming up with proposed programs and projects that the LGUs will be funding starting in 2012.
The MTPDP was approved by the Neda Board in March and released in May this year. It envisions a country that has achieved inclusive growth that is characterized as high, sustained and broad-based.
The plan, which will be the country’s economic blueprint for the next six years, incorporates inputs from regional consultations that were attended by representatives from regional government agencies, government-owned and -controlled corporations, business groups, academe, civil society organizations, and local executive and legislative officials.
