Philippine Cities Show the Way to Dynamic Development

Since the World Bank introduced its Cities Development Project in the country in 1999, Philippine cities have become a hub of creative development activities, demonstrating the willingness and ability of local governments to take the development agenda into their own hands.

A dynamic development process has been taking place in the nation’s cities, led by the League of Cities of the Philippines. Since the World Bank introduced its Cities Development Project in the country in 1999, Philippine cities have become the hub of creative development activities that have demonstrated the willingness and ability of local governments to take the development agenda into their own hands. Nine years later, the League’s commitment to sharing the benefits of the City Development Strategies (CDS) program with as many local cities as possible is bearing fruit.

Poster Child for CDS

The Philippines has, in fact, become the poster child for the City Development Strategies program. According to Christopher Pablo, the World Bank’s Task Team Leader for CDS, the country has the highest number of cities—61 out of 120—under CDS. Worldwide, there are 150 cities under CDS.

Under CDS, the World Bank provides technical assistance to help cities addresses four key issues: livability, good governance, bankability and competitiveness. These four pillars are based on the realization that cities are “engines of growth” and therefore require integrated and comprehensive development approaches, drawn up with the participation of all stakeholders in order to ensure long-term commitment and sustainability.

“The Philippines has the most well-established, broad-based, locally-grounded CDS program in the world,” said R. Mukami Kariuki, the World Bank’s Local Government Program Coordinator in Manila.

And the success factor, she said, is “local ownership of CDS by the League of Cities”.
The LCP runs the CDS program with funding from the Cities Alliance and the Japanese Government coursed through the World Bank. “The League’s leadership role is strong and it has a very positive attitude towards strengthening its members’ knowledge and capacity,” Mukami asserted.

At the start of the CDS program in 1999, the World Bank met with seven Philippine cities and made them choose among themselves which one would be the pilot CDS city in the country. Without hesitation, the mayors asserted that all seven of them should be in the program. “From the start, they decided this was something they would do together as a group,” said Mukami.

Public Policy Forum in Manila

Annually, the Cities Alliance, a coalition of cities around the world and their development partners who are committed to promoting successful approaches to poverty reduction, brings cities together in a Public Policy Forum for a direct dialogue with bilateral and multilateral agencies and financial institutions. The Forum is also a venue to promote the developmental role of local governments and helps cities obtain coherent international support. The Philippines became a member of the Cities Alliance in October 2007.

The Public Policy Forum is held in different cities as a platform for the host country to share its best practices and lessons learned in development, and to learn from the experiences of other cities in the world.

Last year, the forum was hosted by the Philippine Government through the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and organized jointly with the League of Cities. The theme was “Leveraging Resources for Livable Cities”. Co-sponsored by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UN Habitat, the League of Cities of the Philippines and Cities Alliance, the forum showcased the transformation of dying cities into livable communities.

Rapid Urbanization

In her keynote speech at a dinner that marked the start of the country’s membership in Cities Alliance, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cited the role of the nation’s cities in national development: “We have moved this nation forward—I'm glad to say—on the strength of our partnership with city mayors and other local government executives who form the backbone of our government.”
Noting that the Philippines is among the most rapidly urbanizing countries in the region, she warned: “This is a double-edged challenge. On the one hand, rapid urbanization drives high economic growth; but on the other, it can also aggravate poverty and social inequalities.”

By 2050, the urbanization rate is expected to reach 80%, said LCP Secretary General Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento of Calbayog City in his presentation at the Forum He observed that, “unplanned and uncontrolled, many urban areas are performing far below their potential.” It is essential therefore that cities are prepared for rapid urbanization, which is precisely what the CDS program aims to support.

“Through the CDS, cities have adopted a new approach to managing their cities,” said Mayor Sarmiento. “First and foremost is the realization of the city as an economic space. Cities are identifying their competitive advantages and maximizing these in promoting local economic development.”

Cities have also come to recognize their role in provincial, regional and national development and the importance of cooperation with other cities and municipalities in their areas, said Mayor Sarmiento “in order to build synergies among their development initiatives”. Thus, access roads have been built between cities. Calbayog in Samar and San Fernando in La Union, have even cascaded the CDS process to surrounding municipalities for better integration and coordination. For their part, Naga and Iloilo are taking the lead in creating metropolitan-type arrangements with their neighbors.

Mayors now see that they are not mere service providers but enablers of development. Said Mayor Sarmiento, “Now local chief executives are running their cities more like corporations, focusing on their core competencies and mandates and outsourcing tasks which may be done by others.” They are exploring new ways of doing things and networking to learn from each other new ways of doing business.

LGUs have also realized that governance must be participatory, meaning, that it includes partnerships with local NGOs, business groups, church and other sectors of the community to ensure that their plans and programs are supported by those who are most affected by them. Naga City, under Mayor Jesse Robredo, has demonstrated a successful model of good governance which includes the establishment of a People’s Council and the drafting of a People’s Charter, that is now being adopted by other cities.

Scaling-up CDS

Since 2001, the Cities Alliance has given more than $1.5 million in grants for the preparation of city development strategies to 61 Philippine cities and the implementation of slum upgrading programs in 10 cities.

According to Mayor Sarmiento, since 2001, the Cities Alliance has given more than $1.5 million in grants for the preparation of city development strategies to 61 Philippine cities and the implementation of slum upgrading programs in 10 cities. Various multilateral and donor agencies have given more than $4 million to CDS cities in terms of technical assistance grants to support LGUs that have coherent and comprehensive development plans. Moreover, more than $8 million have been invested in CDS cities from re-lending programs of multilateral agencies. Other sources of funding for CDS projects are the LGU budget, private banks, the private sector and national government agencies. In all, CDS cities have secured over $20 million in investments from local and international sources.

At present, the League is seeking more assistance from Cities Alliance and its development partners in order to “scale-up” CDS in the Philippines. The League of Cities wants to extend CDS coverage to all of the country’s 120 cities. It would also like to see more initiatives by cities in bringing the CDS process downstream to the barangays and upstream to the provincial level.

Mayor Sarmiento said that the League is now working with the national government to ensure that the CDS process is institutionalized in the national planning framework, as an essential step in building “coherence of efforts” among the national government and donor and financing institutions in support of local government priorities.

Speaking to participants of the 2007 Public Policy Forum in Manila five years after he first came to see CDS in action in the Philippines, Christian Delvoie, World Bank Director for Sustainable Development for East Asia and the Pacific Region, was all praises what he called the “dynamism of the development process” led by LGUs in the country. He spoke of the need to bring Philippine cities up to the next level of development by establishing benchmarks that will enable them to compete more effectively in the region and worldwide; helping cities get international credit rating to improve their bankability; improving the business environment and investment climate to enhance competitiveness; and ensuring the delivery of public services through partnerships with the private sector and civil society.

“Mayors must now be CEOs,” Mr. Delvoie said, “The competition is not among countries but cities.”

Source: Paulynn Sicam, World Bank consultant, World Bank Manila Country Office website
http://www.worldbank.org.ph