Civil Society Organizations and aid effectiveness issues in the Philippines can often be as diverse and thriving as the thousands of islands they involve. To connect, unite and strive towards a common goal is often more difficult than one might think, yet with respect to lobbying on official development assistance (ODA), this has been largely achieved under the wings of AidWatch Philippines.
AidWatch Philippines traces its beginnings to the Philippine Aid Watch Network organized in 2003 in response to the need for a strong civil society formation on aid and development issues. The network supported its members’ advocacy campaigns through information exchange, facilitating informed dialogues and international networking.
Today, AidWatch Philippines is a broad national network of grassroots-based and -oriented NGOs working on ODA issues in the country. It has over 150 members in more than 60 provinces nationwide, including 10 national networks. IBON Foundation was part of the core group that formed AidWatch in 2005 along with civil society networks from the country’s three main island groups: Luzon (Cordillera People’s Alliance), Visayas (Solidarity People’s Advocacy Network) and Mindanao (Mindanao InterFaith People’s Conference). The national character of AidWatch is significant in itself and there is no equivalent civil society group involved in ODA issues in the country. It is also particularly unique in how its activities bring together an unusually wide range of development stakeholders: civil society groups from different ends of the political spectrum, national and local government officials, donor agencies, and parliamentarians.
Philippines CSOs and ODA
Philippine’s CSOs include a wide range of organizations of different sizes from across the country. As such, they operate in very different circumstances, engage in varied development programs, projects and advocacies, and have different roots in farmers, workers, women, youth and children, national minorities, Bangsamoro peoples, migrants, and other sectors.
CSOs as a whole have a vital role to play in the country’s ODA system because of their specific character as civil society independent and distinct from the government. The greatest strength comes from the solid grounding in basic sectors and local communities as Filipino CSOs either evolved from the grassroots themselves or engaged directly with these stakeholders. This strong foundation in the grassroots itself underpin CSOs’ vital role as development actors and of civil society as a pillar of good governance. The capacity to efficiently and effectively deliver services and implement development projects along those lines has been well-established over time. CSOs in the Philippines have also been effective in monitoring government use and misuse of aid. This kind of aid monitoring has developed into practices that are essential in empowering society’s most vulnerable and marginalized groups, and that promote the full realization of human rights.
Read the whole story, here.
No comments:
Post a Comment