The Philippines-Canada Local Government Support Program: A Case Study of Local Government Capacity Development in the Philippines
This paper – a case study prepared for the project ‘Capacity, Change and Performance’ organised by ECDPM – explores capacity development and related performance improvement within the context of local governance in the Republic of the Philippines over a 13-year period.
It focuses on the development of 'local government units' (cities and municipalities) that in the Philippine political structure are a second tier of government with specific functions devolved to them by the central govern- ment. The paper describes the local government units and the enabling and regulatory environment in which they function as a system that is evolving and becoming stronger at the same time as the individual local government units are developing.
The concept of capacity development presented in the study is an open systems model that considers capacity development as an ongoing process that in the case of Philippine local governments has led to related improvements in local government performance that in turn have resulted in better services and benefits to citizens.
