The Philippines is leading the charge in Southeast Asia in terms of hiring more women in government, according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The report, titled Government At a Glance: Southeast Asia 2019, the country also did well compared to its peers in terms of having autonomous human resource (HR) units in various line agencies.
Hiring more women increases the ability of the government to provide more employment in the country, while having autonomous HRs bodes well for transparency.
“The Philippines as you see is comparing quite well. There is a sense of commitment for reforms and I would like to highlight [these] two points that…definitely, you will see through the data, [that] are coming out quite impressively,” ADB Chief Thematic Officer Chiara Bronchi said in a briefing on Tuesday.
Based on the report, between 2009 and 2016, the share of women in public-sector employment increased to 53.7 percent from 50.7 percent. This is close to the OECD average of 58.4 percent in 2016.
Further, the number of women in politics also increased to 29.5 percent in 2018, from 20.5 percent in 2008. The share of women ministers also increased to 25 percent in 2017, from 9.1 percent in 2008.
In terms of HR, data showed the country ranked first in the region in terms of the extent of delegation of human resources management practices to line ministries.
The Philippines scored 0.6/1 when the average in the region was 0.5/1. The Philippines’s score stated that this indicated a high number of human resource management decisions that are delegated to the ministry or agency level.
“Such delegation can help organizations better meet their needs. In order for HRM [human resource management] autonomy to be successful, HR staff in ministries and agencies need to have the requisite skills to support HR decision-making,” the report stated.
The joint report, ADB said, saw governments in Southeast Asia strengthening their governance structures and institutional capacity to deliver better services to their people.
The Government at a Glance: Southeast Asia 2019 provides internationally comparable data on government resources, processes, and outcomes on public governance in member-countries of the Asean.
The report covered 34 indicators in areas, such as public services, including promoting digital government, creating more transparency, and providing better work opportunities for women.
“Strengthening public institutional capacities is critical to all operations, and ADB remains committed to supporting our developing member-countries in improving public-sector management functions and financial stability, while promoting more effective, timely, corruption-free, and citizen-centric delivery of public services,” said ADB Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Bambang Susantono.
The report also found that seven Southeast Asian countries have introduced digital identification tools and only two have fully integrated their online portals to improve public services and make government services more accessible to the public.
Budget transparency, a key component for open government, allows citizens to access information on how public money is raised, allocated and used. All Southeast Asian countries published their approved budget.
The report stated eight countries publish citizens’ guides to the budget, which explain in plain language the objectives of the budget and provide information to help citizens understand the budgeting process and assess its impact on their lives.
However, ADB said only half of them provide economic information, such as the methodology and economic assumptions of the fiscal projections supporting the budget.
All countries are working closely with the private sector to build new infrastructure through public-private partnerships, but only half perform relative assessments to evaluate whether PPPs are more efficient than the traditional infrastructure procurement system.
The report suggests further analyses and assessments are needed for informed decision-making to improve infrastructure management.
Assean members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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