“You measure what you treasure”: key lessons from Australia’s My School

by Dondon Parafina

The 3-member Philippine delegation (Ana, Don, Deo)

"You measure what you treasure,” says a co-delegate in the study visit to Australia sponsored by UNESCO and hosted by Australia’s Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

When it comes to public access to data, you should ask for what matters. No just any data, but something that impacts people’s lives.

In the education sector, it’s the learners who matter the most: whether they are learning or not; whether they are being equipped with the right facilities to learn or not.

In this sense, Australia's open data for education platform, MySchool.edu.au, got it so right. "My School”, which has information about over 10,000 schools in Australia, features students’ growth in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy based on the result of the National Assessment Program - learning and numeracy (NAPLAN). It’s a nationally administered test for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The results are out there for everyone to see. It has students' test performance results, but they are de-identified to protect the students’ privacy.

The government can pay for citizen participation

by Dondon Parafina

Note: This is part 2 of the blog titled, “The government should pay for citizen participation”.

All throughout the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit 2015, which was held in Mexico last October 27-29, I tried to steer discussions around the idea of government financing of citizen participation. I purposely used this opportunity to sound off this idea.

The feedback was promising. In one session, an African noted that it is ideal but would not happen in their country in the immediate future. Perhaps in 50 years, he added. A Sri Lankan remarked that he never thought of that track of support for civil society work on accountability, but it made a lot of sense. The American moderator praised the idea and agreed that institutionalization of citizen participation logically entails financing by the government itself. The Indian moderator in another session opined that it’s a viable arrangement that will require a policy and systems study.

Let me level up the discussion and bravely claim that there are indications that the government can actually pay for citizen participation in public governance. I do not mean only that it should pay in principle; I believe there are also practical reasons  that it can do so.

The government should pay for citizen participation

by Dondon Parafina

Citizen participation and citizen engagement in governance are buzzwords in the civil society and non-profit sector.

Citizen participation takes place when citizens attend government consultations, observe processes, monitor projects, respond to surveys, gather and analyze data and report findings, etc. A government agency can claim to be inclusive, attentive and responsive to citizens’ needs when it features one or two or a combination of these tools in their processes, whether it’s planning, budgeting, spending or auditing. These tools for participation help improve the quality of government services because the authorities can hear direct feedback from the citizens, know what the service users or citizen customers want, and fix reported problems. Any government manager genuinely concerned with the agency's  performance should be interested in citizen participation, in the same manner that private businesses make sure they understand and get feedback from their customers to be competitive in the market.

On the citizens’ side, participation also translates into empowerment to exact accountability from government. Such approach to participation is what we have come to know as social accountability.

Lower Mekong countries could take on social accountability as a sub-region

by Dondon Parafina

Countries in the Lower Mekong sub-region, composed of Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, are slowly but decisively making strides in social accountability. ANSA-EAP is happy to be part of this process.

Cambodia, for instance, has been a priority for ANSA-EAP since 2008. Despite the challenges in its socio-political setting, we saw great potential in pursuing the social accountability agenda for the country, at least as a learning exercise for both government and civil society. And indeed for the past seven years, ANSA-EAP’s presence in Cambodia has thrived; our social accountability initiatives have continued to gain ground.

Why Philippines wins in OGP

By Dondon Parafina

The Philippines has two internationally recognised programs in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and both fall under the "Citizen Participation" commitment. These are the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA), which won the Bright Spots prize in London last 2013, and the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB), which bagged third gold award in New York this year. I realized the Philippines' global strength and contribution in citizen participation while preparing a presentation for an OGP regional event in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last October 16. I joined this event on the invitation of Indonesian organizers-- Indonesia is taking leadership in the region-wide mobilization of East Asia and Pacific countries to join OGP since the conclusion of its OGP chairmanship.

From eight member countries in 2011, the OGP now has 65. This is the collective body that has bestowed honors on the innovative governance ideas from the Philippines in two consecutive years.

Reflections: Governance to Drive Development in ASEAN Countries

by Dondon Parafina

It feels good and very fulfilling when you return from a mission with a very tangible take-away. In the case of my recently concluded Jakarta trip, my take-away was a book and, less tangible but equally important, the insights it gave me about our regional work in East Asia.

While on the plane, I read and finished the book I got from a meeting with the ASEAN Secretariat. Entitled "Narrowing the Development Gap in ASEAN: Driver and Policy Options", by Mark McGillivray and David Carpenter. The book presents a clear picture of where the countries are in various aspects of development and how they, together as a region, can help each other achieve inclusive development.

Even for people who are not familiar with ASEAN, the book is informative and eye-opening. It allows one to take a regional view and go beyond individual country concerns. It clearly articulates – in practical terms – the regional development discourse of ASEAN and points to sensible policy options.

Taking CMS Public: Accountability & Constructive Engagement

This piece is a slightly edited version of a speech that Executive Director Dondon Parafina delivered during the Checkmyschool.org’s public presentation, held 15 April 2013 in Manila, Philippines.

Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of ANSA East Asia & Pacific, I welcome you to this event, where the Checkmyschool (CMS) team will present to the bigger public the results of its undertakings in the last 12 months. They will share with us the accomplishments and lessons of efforts to advance transparency and social accountability (SAc) in various public schools in the country.

ANSA-EAP is very fortunate to have the opportunity to incubate the CMS initiative since 2010. As a regional platform for SAc networking and learning, it has seen the value of utilizing ICT for transparency and SAc work. There are still very few initiatives of this type and I really hope that the experiences of CMS are providing good lessons to inspire more groups to follow.

Social Accountability in EAP: The search for common ground

"When I accepted the leadership role in ANSA-EAP and started to reflect on the work and responsibilities awaiting me, I was confronted once more with the question of our regional mandate. If the organization is to truly serve its purpose, which will, of course, define and determine its sustainability, it has to offer something that could be regionally shared and communicated, understood and applied."

by Dondon Parafina

I call it a new adventure! Taking on the Executive Director’s post for a regional organization covering East Asia and Pacific is, to say the least, challenging because to me, the region remains an unfamiliar terrain.

I am not new to ANSA East Asia-Pacific. I was the Network Coordinator for four years, right at the time when we were establishing partnerships in the four countries we prioritized in the initial project phase—Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, and the Philippines. In many forums and conversations we had, I would always hear myself and others remark that the countries in the region are too varied—in language, political structure and dynamics, economic status, religion, historical influences, and perhaps even in their favorite sports! And note here that I only had East Asia in mind. It gets even more complex when the Pacific becomes part of the picture.