Organization
Department of the Interior and Local Government Cagayan Provincial Office
Best Practice Focus Area/s
Leadership Strategy Citizens / Customers
Year Implemented
2018
This is a GBPR entry
Summary
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) noticed that many of its projects lack the involvement of local stakeholders, leading to many problems in their implementation. As such, the Institutionalized Community Awareness and Responsibility Enhance (ICARE) Program was an initiative toward involving and empowering local stakeholders in the implementation of projects. As a result, stakeholders became more involved, and projects were completed in compliance with standards.
Background and Problem
In 2017, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Cagayan Provincial Office implemented the Local Government Support Fund-Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (LGSF-ADM). However, upon the inspection and monitoring of the Provincial Project Development Management Unit (PDMU), it received various complaints such as the alleged corruption by local officials, construction of substandard projects, and the lack of sustainability and maintenance measures for ongoing and completed works; all of which were attributed to the lack of involvement of local stakeholders.
Solution and Impact
To address the aforementioned issues, the Institutionalized Community Awareness and Responsibility Enhance (ICARE) Program was launched in tandem with the Local Government Support Fund-Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (LGSF-AM).
The ICARE Program is an initiative towards involving and empowering local stakeholders–municipal functionaries, barangay officials, civil society and non-government organizations, and even the beneficiaries in implementing projects. It does this by informing them of their roles and capacitating them to perform their functions.
The program considers interventions for the whole lifecycle of a project, even before the project is started, during the implementation, and until the project has been completed. The following are some of the highlights of the ICARE program’s typical implementation:
- Conduct of ICARE Forum and Ground-Breaking Ceremony
- Conduct of Stakeholder’s Dialogue
- Re-organization of the Municipal Project Monitoring Committee
- Municipal Project Monitoring Committee (MPMC) Strengthening
- Conduct of Inauguration and Turn-Over Ceremony
Upon completing this program, DILG Cagayan Provincial Office found that it had achieved its objectives. Notably, the following were the most significant benefits of the ICARE Program:
- Aware and Responsive Local Stakeholders – The conduct of the ICARE Forum led local stakeholders to be more aware of the LGSF-AM and how these programs should be implemented. Also, having made them responsible for monitoring made them responsive to implementation issues. Notably, they quickly reported violations and non-compliance to the Municipal Government or the DILG.
- On-time Implementation of Most LGSF-AM Projects and Compliance with National Standards on Project Implementation – Because of the vigilance of the local stakeholders, the Municipal Government and the contractors of the LGSF-AM projects became more committed to completing projects following the approved and submitted implementation schedule. Notably, the required material testing and construction logbooks were also observed by some municipalities. Moreover, most of the projects that had been implemented in tandem with the ICARE program were observed to be of better quality.
Milestones
After launching the ICARE Program for LGSF-AM projects, ongoing 2017 ADM Projects also underwent the program; likewise, they were also thoroughly completed. Moreover, the program also helped slow-moving 2018 LGSF-AM projects to be fast-tracked, and it had led these projects to be completed on time, and some even ahead of time.