Good Governance is Local Governance:
Building Strong Local Institutions since 1989.
The Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF) is the first non-government organization working on local governance since 1989. It is a development organization and a major institutional partner of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) whose primary aim is to strengthen local authorities and promote local governance in the country, hence the axiom “good governance is local governance.” The Fou
ndation is working in close coordination with the various local government stakeholders especially the leagues, DILG, and other NGAs with related functions and the policy-making bodies, including the academe and civil society. The Foundation has set standards for governance, especially at the local level, contributing significantly in the formulation of the 1991 Local Government Code (LGC). Decentralization proved to be pivotal in furthering democracy as a key element of expanded representation and deterrent to consolidated national political power crucial in establishing dictatorships. It also brought about much needed development in the countryside, providing drivers of investment and industry with the leeway given to new and creative local political leaders. With this new environment, the need was to transition local government officials from largely following and implementing what the national government provides and directs to that which they are to shape their own future and therefore determine the best policies and programs for their people. To this end, LOGODEF formulated various capacity building programs and promoted the latest technologies available to help local governments. LOGODEF also made sure that research is made integral to policy making and established the Strategic Studies Council. With all these initiatives, it also led to the establishment for the first ever awards system for local governments, which was subsequently officially recognized by the Senate of the Philippines, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Medal of Excellence (KAME). This recognized trailblazing local governments represented by the chief executives who were then also recognized nationally as models of good governance like the former Naga City Mayor, the late DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, former City of San Fernando La Union Mayor Mary Jane Ortega and other leaders who went on to receive more awards from various organizations proving the indispensable role local governance plays in the country’s development. Since 2008, LOGODEF has been perfecting a new program for GIS-based Comprehensive Development Planning and a Database Management Monitoring, Evaluation and Benchmarking (DMMEB) System. The system will allow the right attribution of a particular program or intervention to a local government’s development. Mapping, which is essential to any local government initiative, whether revenue generation, program formulation and implementation and or even disaster risk reduction and management has since been promoted as a key capacity of local governments instead of depending on the maps and even census undertaken at the national level intermittently. All in all, this initiative is called “Spatially Rendered Baseline Data” approach by LOGODEF. LOGODEF has also worked closely with other international development organizations such as the European Union (EU), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asia Foundation (TAF). We have also done work with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in the Philippines, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) based in Ottawa, Canada and the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT) of Japan. We are one of the institutional cooperators of the United Cities and Local Governments, Asia Pacific (UCLG-ASPAC) based in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2005, LOGODEF collaborated with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Pathumthani, Thailand and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to be part of an institutional network in the Asia Pacific region on the promotion of environmental management related to the Southeast Asia Urban Environmental Application Project (SEA-UEMA). From 2010 – 2012, it served as the Philippine Partner of the “”Partnership for Democratic Local Governance in Southeast-Asia (DELGOSEA), a five – country project co-funded by the European Commission that created a network for the replication of success stories in local governance between cities and municipalities within the region.
