DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno gave the keynote speech and led the launching of a new civic technology during one of the sessions of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia Pacific Regional Meeting held in Westin Chosun Seoul Hotel, South Korea yesterday.
In his speech during the Philippine-Government Led session on #CivicTechAsia: using civic technologies for governance innovation, Secretary Diokno emphasized the “huge potential of technology to create innovations which can improve the way that business is done in government.”
“Technology facilitates linkage-building between government and citizens, and also enables interoperability among separate government systems for a whole-of-government approach to public service delivery,” he said.
PH gov’t launches mobile app for monitoring of projects
DevLive Initiative key stakeholders(from left to right): Aurora de Guzman, Auditor, Coalition for Bicol Development; Malou Mangahas, Executive Director, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism; Ester Aldana, Assistant Secretary, DILG; Benjamin E. Diokno, Secretary, DBM; Francisco Cruz, Director, DILG; Diana Torres, Regional Coordinator, Transparency & Accountability at UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.
The breakout session also served as the launch for the Philippine Government’s newest innovation called DevLive, short for ‘Development Live’, a mobile application for government and citizens’ reporting and monitoring of the progress of government projects.
According to Secretary Diokno, DevLive currently “covers monitoring and reporting for infrastructure projects under the Assistance to Municipalities Program”. This is part of the Philippine Government’s OGP commitment to strengthen civil society participation in local planning and development to further improve delivery of basic services.
In launching the application, the budget chief was joined by representatives from various agencies and organizations involved in the DevLive initiative, including Department of Interior and Local Government, United Nations Development Programme, Coalition for Bicol Development, and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
OGP CEO praises Secretary Diokno for leadership
DBM Secretary Diokno and the Philippine Delegation in a Bilateral Meeting with the OGP leadership represented by OGP Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Pradhan and OGP Asia Pacific Lead Shreya Basu.
As head of the Philippine delegation, Secretary Diokno also attended the Ministerial Roundtable Discussion, one of the main events during the Regional Meeting.
During the meeting, Secretary Diokno shared the Philippine OGP Steering Committee’s plan to start with proposals from Civil Society Organizations for the crafting of commitments of the next Open Government Partnership National Action Plan to be published on August 2019.
“This new approach is exciting because it is all about strengthening the co-creation alliance that we have with our citizens,” Secretary Diokno exclaimed.
In the past four action plans, the process began with a call for commitments to various government agencies. After which, CSOs were consulted regarding the design of the commitments. The new development process will now start with proposed programs from civil society.
According to Secretary Diokno, the new commitments “will be built around the OGP thematic area of improving the delivery of public services”.
“[To] do this, citizens should be directly engaged in the crafting of our programs on infrastructure and on education, housing, healthcare, disaster response, and post-conflict rehabilitation, among others,” he added.
The Ministerial Roundtable discussion was attended by Ministers, civil society leaders, and key development partners from several countries, including South Korea, Armenia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kyrzyg Republic, Mongolia, Sri Lanka.
The Philippine delegation also met with OGP Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Pradhan and OGP Asia Pacific Lead Shreya Basu.
During the bilateral meeting, OGP CEO Sanjay Pradhan commended Secretary Benjamin Diokno for strongly championing OGP in the Philippines, bringing in more agencies, and raising ambition of OGP commitments of the country.
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