“From previously being identified with the political protest and opposition movement, civil society organizations (CSOs) should now function as the government’s partners for political reform,” declared International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov) Executive Director Tanya Hamada at the start of the three-day workshop for forty-nine Luzon-based CSO representatives on how they may engage with provincial, city, and municipal local government units (LGUs) on matters of budgeting. “The power of the purse is the most concrete tool for the government to address the needs of its constituencies,” added Hamada.

The workshop aimed to strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to understand and utilize LGU financial and other reports which must be publicly made available under the “Full Disclosure Policy (FDP)” requirement of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for all LGUs. A program of the late DILG Secretary and Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient Jesse Robredo, the DILG’s FDP promotes honest, transparent, and orderly management of public funds; helps minimize corruption and misuse of public funds; and increases the public’s awareness of the availability of funds for development projects.

Held from November 27-29, 2012 in Angeles City in Pampanga Province, the workshop is the second of three planned prior to the development of “trainers training modules” for use in training local CSOs and ordinary citizens to effectively institutionalize their participation in the local budgeting process and to strengthen the constituency both inside and outside the local government for democratic and good governance. The first workshop for the Visayas was held in Cebu City, with the third to be held this month in Butuan City for the Mindanao-based CSOs.

The DILG provides material resources for the conduct of the training activities while its CSO partners INCITEGov, and the People Power Volunteers for Reform (PPVR) manage the activities, the latter selecting participants from its network of citizen volunteer assemblies (CVAs) and affiliate groups. As a national coalition of volunteer groups advocating good governance, PPVR’s broad membership of seven national volunteer organizations and thirty-six geographic-based CVAs serve as strategic partners for LGUs in the budgeting and governance process.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) in partnership with PPVR supports the activity through the provision of experts to train the participants to understand the local budgeting process and to develop the “trainers training modules” for use in future training activities.