What is

GOVERNANCE?
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS/CONCEPTS

* Governance is broadly defined as the sound exercise of

political, economic, and administrative authority to
manage a country’s resources for development.
* It involves the institutionalization of a system through
which citizens, institutions, organizations, and groups in a
society articulate their interests, exercise their rights, and
mediate their differences in pursuit of the collective goals.
* Governance embraces the affairs of a government and the
proactive role of the private sector and civil society in
national development.
 GLOBALIZATION

INFORMATION
GOVERNANCE TECHNOLOGY

DECENTRALIZATION
* The Information Age and the resulting Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) tools have
dramatically altered the relationship between the
public sector and other actors in society. ICT has
proven to be a powerful means of disseminating
information in times of political uncertainty. More
importantly, ICT can be used in a sustainable manner
to facilitate government operations as well as engage
civil society.
* 
* Globalization has increased the role of global
institutions and has simultaneously expanded
the scope of government responsibilities.
Thus, the manner a state manages its
economy has changed, and the importance of
its regulatory role may have decreased as a
consequence of the increased
interdependence of economies.
* Finally, decentralization has also altered the
relationship between citizens and public
administration institutions. Increasingly, more
public service responsibilities are being
delegated to local governments, thereby
reducing the layers of bureaucracy between
service provider and citizen.
Tradition CITIZENS History

Private
Government
CITIZENS Sector

Mass Civil Society

Media

Technology CITIZENS Culture

Governance should not be reduced to government, as the
four aspects of governance are interdependent in a
society. Indeed, social governance provides a moral
foundation, while economic governance provides a
material foundation, and political governance guaranties
the order and the cohesion of a society.
 
However, the differences in the importance given to each
of these four actors lead to some nuances in the definition
of governance. On the one hand, considering these four
actors at the same level leaves the concept of governance
neutral. Thus, governance is the process whereby a
society makes important decisions, determines whom they
involve, and how they render account
What is GOOD GOVERNANCE ?

1. Creating a conducive economic environment

2. Protecting the vulnerable
3. Improving government efficiency and responsiveness
4. Empowering people and democratizing the political
system
5. Decentralizing the administrative system
6. Reducing gaps between rich and poor
7. Encouraging cultural diversity and social integration
8. Protecting the environment.
* The United Nations has considered
“good” governance as an essential
component of the Millennium
Development Goals [MDGs],
because “good” governance
establishes a framework for
fighting poverty, inequality, and
many of humanities’ other
shortcomings
* Without good governance or sound development
management, poverty reduction and national
development are impossible to achieve.
* Bad governance is the reason why broad economic
intervention strategies are unable to trickle down and
effect positive changes in the quality of life of the people.
* The absence or lack of good governance is manifested by
the persistence of graft and corruption and related
administrative problems, such as overregulation and red
tape.
* GOOD GOVERNANCE presents opportunities and
challenges in integration or coordinating the efforts of the
public sector, civil society, private sector, and community
members designed to evolve policies and programs and
organizational and operational mechanisms and
institutional arrangements that are responsive to the
needs of the people, ensure the judicious and transparent
use of public funds, encourage the growth of the private
sector, promote effective delivery of public services, and
uphold the rule of law
 Good Governance Through
Administrative Reform

* ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM efforts in the Philippines did not fully succeed

because of the following:
* lack of acceptance of and commitment to the need for reform by political
authorities and different affected entities
* Lack of stakeholder appreciation and agreement concerning administrative
reform being a long, strategic, and continuous process
* Lack of understanding that reform objectives are specific, measurable,
realistic, and time bound
* Lack of good reform implementation strategies and adequate resources to
carry them out
* Lack of an established central agency tasked with formulating, coordinating,
and monitoring reforms and providing corrective measures
* Media plays an important role in
ensuring good governance. While
media is willing to expose the
failures, it should also highlight the
successful initiatives for others to
learn lessons and also to encourage
those who innovate and perform
well amid several constraints.
Basic Elements of Good Governance

⮚ Accountability relates to making public officials

answerable to the citizenry for the actions and
decisions of a government and ensuring that in the
performance of their functions and their actions
public officials are responsive to and faithfully
safeguard the welfare and interests of the people
* Accountability rests on the establishment of criteria
for evaluating the performance of public sector
institutions. This includes economic and financial
accountability brought about by efficiency in resource
use, expenditure control, and internal and external
audits. Accountability improves a government’s
legitimacy. Transparency and participation are
essential ingredients in establishing accountability
* Another issue regarding accountability
is ensuring accountability for omissions.
Our system is designed to make
commission of mistakes accountable
and if someone does wrong willfully
then he is held accountable. But if
someone is guilty of omission or fails to
do something what he is supposed to
do it is difficult to fix responsibility on
him/her.
⮚ Transparency refers to the availability and
accessibility of information to the public and clarity of
government rules and regulations. It ensures swift
access to accurate and timely information about
government policies, programs, and activities.
Transparency is the availability and clarity of
information provided to the general public
about government activity. Governments must
not only provide information, but also ensure
that as many citizens as possible have access to
this information with the goal of increasing
citizen participation. A lack of transparency
creates opportunities for government
corruption and reduces public sector efficiency
* Participation refers to enhancing the people’s
access to and involvement in all levels and
facets of policy and decision making, including
facilitating processes of free and open
dialogue and building consensus between a
government and the people to ensure that
development is pursued for, with, and by the
people.
* Participation is an essential element for an
engaged civil society. The public sector can
promote participation by enacting legislation
that strengthens the freedom and plurality of
media, establishing an independent electoral
management body, and encouraging public
input into decision making on government
plans and budgeting. Participation requires
enhanced capacity and skills of stakeholders
and sustainable policies supported by
institutions of public administration
⮚ Predictability relates to the consistent and equal
application of laws, regulations, and policies. It
involves establishing and sustaining appropriate legal
and institutional arrangements to uphold the rule of
law and maintain consistency of public policies and
programs.
* Efficiency should be understood as a government’s
ability to establish predictability in the institutional
and policy environment. This is brought about by an
economically efficient system of production and
distribution as well as a fair and consistent legal
system. Efficiency is also a question of correctly
prioritizing government services to correspond with
citizen needs. This includes the provision of services
such as security, healthcare, and education.
• Lack of reform procedures and regulations that are fairly
and consistently applied;
• Lack of meaningful stakeholder participation in the entire
reform process
• Lack of strong and sustained support of political leaders
• Lack of an established and enforced system of
accountabilities
• Lack of safety nets for groups and individuals
who may be disenfranchised by interventions.
 ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• A positive trend toward strengthening existing

institutions will enhance cooperation within the
public sector and between government agencies and
civil society and government agencies and the private
sector.
• Institutional reform efforts require capacity building
strategies to mainstream good governance, not just
as an end in itself but also as a process for improving
the performance of public services.
 Issues and Challenges

• Capacity building for good governance focuses on the

process of equipping civil servants and stakeholders
with understanding; skills; and access to information,
knowledge, and training that will enable them to
work together and perform effectively.
 Issues and Challenges

• Policy support for good governance in the Philippines

exists and is embodied in various constitutional
provisions, statutes, executive orders, administrative
rules and regulations, and policy pronouncements
embedded in or putting forth national development
goals or agendas
 Issues and Challenges

• The 1987 Constitution provides strong and explicit support for good
governance, to wit:
✔ It establishes a democratic Government where civilian authority over the
military is guaranteed.
✔ It declares that the prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the
citizenry.
✔ It also mandates that public officers and employees must be always
accountable to the people
✔ Civil servants and elective officials must render full disclosure of their
financial and business interests.
✔ It encourages popular participation, and people empowerment and people
access to government documents and operations.
✔ It prohibits political dynasties and nepotism
 Issues and Challenges

• The 1991 Local Code enhances the participation and

empowerment of the local government units
• However, many policies have nonetheless missed out
in giving importance to meaningful public
consultations, constructive debate and criticisms, and
needed consensus building and development of a
sense of ownership of different stakeholders
 Issues and Challenges

• Some policy initiatives may not be ready to be

pursued because the data and analysis necessary to
make a decision may be unavailable. In these cases,
research is probably more appropriate than
formulating a new policy or draft legislation
• Some policies are haphazardly and hastily developed
and scarcely take into account deliberate and careful
planning and effective use of objective and accurate
information.
 Issues and Challenges

• COSTS OF CORRUPTION
✔ Corruption is the mother of all evils in the
government
✔ It is the major cause of poverty
✔ It is already a way of life in the government which
suggest that it pervades the entire government
including the environment
 CORRUPTION

✔ It impedes service delivery and undermines the

country’s ability to pursue its development objectives.
✔ It pulls down the economy as it distorts and deters
trade and investments, reduces revenues, increases
costs, and propagates wasteful allocation and use of
scarce resources.
 Corruption

✔ It favors vested or selfish interests that, more often than

not, are detrimental to serving the public interest
✔ It leads to poor quality of programs, services, and
projects; breeds mediocrity; and renders administrations
inefficient and ineffective
✔ It weakens implementation, encourages tolerance of
negative bureaucratic behavior, and ruins public trust and
confidence in the
Government.
 Corruption

• COMBATTING CORRUPTION
✔ Ensuring the presence of a legislative framework to
check corruption
✔ Supporting active and vigilant civil society groups
✔ Protecting a free media
✔ Forming nationally accredited citizens’ watch group
✔ Increasing public demands for more accountability in
government,
 Combatting Corruption

✔ Promoting ongoing initiatives to involve people in the

fight against corruption
✔ Accepting support from international development
agencies.
✔ Enhancing civil society’s capacity to effectively
engage the public sector in strengthening
institutional integrity, transparency, and
accountability
 Combatting corruption

✔ Strengthen the Ombudsman in the effective and

speedy prosecuting of corruption cases files against
top government officials
✔ Strengthen the COA in conducting impartial audit of
corrupt-ridden agencies
✔ Continue the life-style check on government officials
 Combatting corruption

✔ Reporting and prosecution of officials to exact

accountability for unethical or unlawful conduct is
hampered by weak institutional mechanisms to
protect whistleblowers, systemic inadequacies, and
investigative and prosecutorial agency inefficiencies
ranging from meager resources to incompetence and
the intractability of rules and procedures that
confound prospective complainants and delay, rather
than facilitate, investigation and prosecution
OTHER ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Presence of collaborative links in programs

implemented on the environmental protection front
such as the Bantay Kalikasan (Environment Watch) is
spearheaded by the ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.
• The Government needs to institutionalize effective
mechanisms for planning, agenda setting, and policy
making.
 Other Issues and Challenges

• There is a need for GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION

because the scope of responsibility and
accountability of agencies and instrumentalities in the
Government is very difficult to determine which may
be due to unclear delineation of functions among
agencies, which leads to duplicated and overlapping
programs and activities, uncoordinated policy and
program implementation, poor sector management,
and wasteful use of resources.
 Other issues and challenges

• The civil service system remains vulnerable to political

influence that compromises its role as an
independent institution.
• Appointments and promotions to senior and other
key career positions are influenced by patronage
politics. A World Bank study cites the Philippines as
the only country where political appointees in the
public bureaucracy extend down to the director level
 Other issues and challenges

• The bureaucracy lacks the required managerial and

technical competencies to successfully carry out its
functions due to negative recruitment procedures,
low morale and unrealistic compensation
• The bureaucracy is top-heavy, and it is too
concentrated at the national level.
 Other issues and challenges

• Reforms should strengthen capacities of government

agencies in planning, coordination, monitoring,
revenue administration, programming and budgeting,
and delivery of frontline services that meet the basic
needs of Filipinos
 Other issues and challenges

• The civil service system must move toward a new

work culture that emphasizes a strong client
orientation and excellence, integrity, and
management that is knowledge based.
• The bureaucracy must adopt institutional behavior
that values less paper work, minimum waiting time,
simplest procedures for transacting business, and
public participation in providing feedback on how to
improve public policies and frontline services.
 Other issues and challenges

• Recreating the civil service system requires a

comprehensive, pragmatic, and workable program of
action, with corresponding policy support aimed at
upgrading all facets of personnel administration,
such as recruitment and selection, training and
development, personnel relations, compensation, and
employee security and safety
 Other issues and challenges

• Results-based management necessitates a results-

and service-oriented public sector that allows civil
servants to realize that they are accountable not to
their supervisors or the organization but, more
importantly, to the general public.
• The bureaucracy finds it difficult to weed out
incompetent and erring public employees, due to the
weaknesses in systems for the disposition of
administrative cases.
 Other issues and challenges

• Streamlining the bureaucracy is an imperative. Redundant

structures in the Government should be abolished or
subsumed or consolidated with other entities. Agency
functions must be clearly delineated to minimize overlaps
and duplications.
• Equal, fair, and consistent application of laws, rules, and
policies to attain predictability in governance cannot be
ensured by a judicial system afflicted with organizational
and systemic weaknesses that impair its capabilities to
deliver justice swiftly and fairly.
 Other issues and challenges

• Regarding transparency in governance, institutional

arrangements, systems, and processes generally limit
public access to timely, complete, and clear
information on government programs and policies.
• Good governance is, at the end of the day, an open,
committed, accountable, and collaborative
engagement of all social forces in the pursuit of the
common good.
 Other issues and challenges

• While the future of electronic governance in the

country looks bright, the continued adoption and
promotion of electronic governance may lead to the
electronic form of corruption
 Strategic Framework For Good
Governance
* In response to these challenges, this
Plan aims to promote effective and
honest governance, to create an
enabling environment for citizens and
the private sector to reach their full
potential. Effective and honest
governance will be promoted and
practised through the following four
strategies:
* 1. Ensure high-quality, efficient,
transparent, accountable,
financially and physically
accessible and nondiscriminatory
delivery of public service;
*2.Curb both
bureaucratic and
political corruption;
*3.Strengthen the
rule of law;
*4. Enhance citizens’
access to information
and participation in
governance.
 MINI-WORKSHOP ON
GOOD GOVERNANCE: THE
CASE OF THE LGUs
 FOCUS QUESTIONS ON GOOD
GOVERNANCE

* 1. How much corruption do you think there is in

your local government unit (province or
municipality)?
* ( ) Very high (Alarming)
* ( ) Moderate (Tolerable)
* ( ) Low (Negligible)
2. Which of these two statements is closer to your
opinion?

( ) 2.1 Corruption is a part of the way my LGU

works
( ) 2.2 My LGU can be run without corruption?

WHY?
3. Majority of the people in my LGU accepts
corruption as a “way of life” therefore, it has no
solution?

( ) Yes
( ) No
4. Is your LGU transparent or very secretive in the
implementation of LGU projects?

( ) Transparent
( ) Very Secretive

WHY?
 
5. Do you know any official in your LGU terminated
because of corruption?

If No, why?
6. In a continuum of 1-10, please rate the
performance of your mayor or governor in terms of
GOOD GOVERNANCE?
( ) 9-10 - Outstanding
( ) 7-8 - Good
( ) 5-6 - Passing/satisfactory
( ) 4 - INC (Conditional)
( ) 1-3 - Poor (Hopeless)