Poverty Reduction, Decentralization, and Community-Based Monitoring Systems

1
Poverty Reduction, Decentralization, and
Community-Based Monitoring Systems

• By
• Celia M. Reyes
• CBMS Network Coordinating Team

2
Outline of Presentation

• Objectives
• Decentralization and its challenges
• Poverty monitoring systems
• Role of CBMS
• Concluding remarks

3
Objectives

• Identifies the challenges brought about by
  decentralization
• Examines the role of community-based monitoring
  systems in addressing the demand for more
  disaggregated data on the different dimensions of
  poverty.

4
Decentralization

• Parallel to the poverty reduction efforts of many
  countries is the change in governance structure.
• Decentralization has gained popularity within the
  last two decades.
• Has been advocated and practiced in several
  countries in Asia.
• Defined as the transfer of responsibility for
  planning, management and resource generation and
  allocation, from the central government and its
  agencies to lower levels of government.

5
Rationale for Decentralization

• Seen as an alternative to provide public services
  in a more cost-effective way.
• Improve the delivery of services.
• Make the government more responsive to the needs
  of the people.
• Make local units more accountable to their
  constituents.

6
Decentralization in the Philippines

• Passage of Local Government Code (LGC) in 1991
  represented a major step in decentralization.
• Before the LGC, LGUs main functions were
• Levying and collection of local taxes
• Regulation of business activities
• Administration of garbage collection, public
  cemeteries, public markets and slaughterhouses
• The LGC paved the way for increased local
  autonomy, expenditure responsibility and revenue
  authority. Principal responsibility for the
  delivery of basic social services and the
  operation of the facilities were devolved to LGUs.

7
Decentralization in the Philippines

• Devolved areas are
• Agricultural extension and research
• Social forestry
• Environmental management and pollution control
• Primary health and hospital care
• Social welfare services
• Repair and maintenance of infrastructure
• Water supply and communal irrigation
• Land use planning

8
Decentralization in the Philippines

• LGUs were given taxing authority to be able to
  generate allotment that they get from the
  National Government.
• A new scheme has been devised to determine the
  sharere of LGUs from the revenues collected by
  the national government and this is based
  primarily on population and land size.

9
Challenges of Decentralization

• Decentralization brings decision-making closer to
  the people and consequently, may yield programs
  and services that better address local needs.
• However, this requires sufficient and technical
  capacity on the part of local government units,
  as well as supporting institutional arrangements.

10
Challenges of Decentralization

• LGUs face greater challenges with the increased
  powers given to them
• Diagnose the problems
• Identify appropriate interventions and identify
  target beneficiaries
• Do their own planning and budgeting
• Implement projects and programs
• Assess their impacts
• To carry out their mandated functions, it is
  necessary to have the relevant information.
• Institutionalizing a monitoring system at the
  local level is one of the more important
  challenges faced by local government units.

11
Challenges of decentralization

• Planning units are mandated by the LGC to be
  operational in every province, city and
  municipality.
• These planning units are tasked to prepare annual
  investment plans. But there are no clear
  guidelines on how the planning unit is supposed
  to carry out its functions.
• Thus, we find large variations in the tasks
  performed by the planning units as well as the
  quality of the plans.
• One of the more serious gaps is the lack of data
  that can be used in preparing the plans.

12
Weaknesses of Poverty Monitoring Systems

• Existing poverty monitoring systems in many
  countries rely on national surveys and censuses
  conducted by the national statistical offices
  conducted every 3 or 5 years.
• These are too infrequent to provide regular and
  updated information on the welfare status of the
  population.
• Many of these surveys generate national and
  regional level estimates only.
• What is needed is information disaggregated at
  the different geopolitical levels.

13
Initiatives on generation of micro level poverty
statistics

• Generation of small area estimates
• Requires linking census and survey data.
• The extent of overlap between the two sources
  determines to a large extent how good the
  resulting estimates are.
• Frequency of updating depends on the frequency of
  the survey.
• Poverty mapping
• Through the use of some statistical techniques,
  poverty indicators are mapped for smaller areas.
• Problem is the difficulty in updating the poverty
  maps since censuses are conducted every 5 or 10
  years.
• Another alternative is the community-based
  monitoring system (CBMS).

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Background of CBMS

• Started by MIMAP-Philippines Project in response
  to the need to monitor the impact of
  macroeconomic policies and shocks on the
  population.
• MIMAP-CBMS is an organized way of collecting
  information at the local level for use of local
  government units, national government agencies,
  non-government organizations and civil society.

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Key features of MIMAP-CBMS

• LGU-based
• Taps people in the community (ex. LGU personnel,
  teachers, students) as monitors
• Has a core set of indicators

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Concluding Remarks

• Many countries now recognize the emerging demands
  for data brought about by the changing structures
  and policies in Asia.
• Decentralization creates demand for local data
• CBMS has been institutionalized or pilot tested
  in selected countries in Asia to address these
  demands for data.
• National statistical offices cannot provide all
  the information needed due to resource
  constraints.
• They can assume a coordinative and oversight role
  particularly on CBMS implementation.

17
Concluding Remarks

• While poverty reduction remains to be a national
  concern, decentralization has shifted greater
  responsibility to the local government units to
  carry out the policies and programs.
• CBMS enables the local government to formulate
  policies and programs more responsive to the
  needs of the people.
• CBMS increases the capacity of LGUs to meet the
  challenge of improving the lives of their
  constituents.

This will facilitate faster and sustained
reduction in poverty and help us attain the MDG
of halving extreme poverty incidence by 2015!
18
Salamat po!
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Key features of MIMAP-CBMS

• LGU-based
• Adopts the concept of mobilizing and developing
  the capability of communities for data generation
  and utilization.
• Reports the data collected to higher geopolitical
  level for immediate intervention and ultimately
  reaches macroeconomic planners in order to
  influence adjustment programs.
• Utilizes the information generated by other
  monitoring systems already in place as a support.
  
• Creates and maintains databank at each
  geopolitical level.

20
CBMS Experience in the Philippines

• Pilot-tested in two barangays in Pandi, Bulacan
• A second round was conducted in 1999 to analyze
  the impact of 1997 Asian financial crisis and El
  Niño phenomenon.
• Implemented province-wide in Palawan.
• Implemented in 7 out of 12 municipalities in
  Camarines Norte.
• Discussions are on-going for the replication of
  CBMS work in the province of Bulacan, in the
  cities of Mandaue, Makati and Pasay and the
  remaining 5 municipalities of Camarines Norte. 

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Key features of MIMAP-CBMS

• Taps existing LGU personnel as monitors
• Local personnel do the data collection,
  processing and analysis of the data.
• Has a core set of indicators
• Based on multi-dimensional aspects of poverty.
• Confined largely to output and impact indicators.
• Can accommodate community-specific indicators to
  reflect other concerns of the community.

22
CBMS Experience in the Philippines

• At the national level, the CBMS work has led to
  the issuance by the DILG of a memorandum circular
  advocating for the institutionalization of a CBMS
  and the adoption of the CBMS core indicators.
• Following, the successful implementation of
  MIMAP-CBMS in the Philippines, several
  initiatives in other countries were undertaken
  under the MIMAP Program.

23
CBMS in NEPAL

• Background
• Decentralization measures in Nepal allow local
  initiatives and development interventions to be
  conceived, designed and implemented at the VDC
  level, the lowest political unit.
• These create demand for local level information.
• The available source of information is Nepal
  Living Standards Survey, which is conducted every
  five years.
• It does not provide for district level statistics.

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CBMS in NEPAL

• In addressing the problem, MIMAP Project in Nepal
  started to implement information gathering at the
  local level.
• Sixty-two (62) indicators are collected through
  focus group discussion at the ward level
• Results served as inputs to the planning
  preparation at the VDC level.
• At present, CBMS is being operationalized in five
  districts in Nepal.

25
CBMS in Vietnam

• Background
• Decentralization measures in Vietnam provide
  authorities to local leaders to deliver services
  in their respective territories.
• These create demand for information at the local
  level.
• Existing sources of information provide data on
  income alone.
• Data is difficult to synthesize at the national
  level.
• Identification of poor households has room for
  subjectivity.

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CBMS in Vietnam

• CBMS was implemented to address these problems.
• Local people themselves collect information from
  the households.
• Aside from income, other relevant information
  relating to other aspects of poverty is also
  collected.
• Data is available at the village and commune
  levels
• These can be used immediately by local people in
  development planning and poverty monitoring.

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Other CBMS initiatives in Asia and Africa

• In Asia
• Pilot tested in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
• Implementation is in progress in Pakistan, Lao
  PDR , India and Cambodia
• In Africa
• CBMS work is ongoing in Burkina Faso and Senegal
• Work has started in Ghana and Benin