The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) successfully held its webinar series on Futures Thinking last 8-9 November 2021. The online lecture is part of the second season of Public Sector Productivity Webisodes, an initiative to raise awareness of public sector organizations on relevant productivity and innovation topics. Dr. Alan Cajes, vice president of the DAP Corporate Concerns Center, was the resource person for the two-day series.

Cajes presented the concepts and principles of futures thinking during the first day of the webinar series.

The first day of the webinar was mainly an overview of futures thinking and its related concepts. Cajes defined futures thinking as the use of divergent and creative thinking in creating multiple scenarios about what might happen to one’s organization given the critical uncertainties or drivers of change today. He explained further, “we can view futures thinking as a kind of wind tunnel to ensure that our respective organizations will survive and complete their respective missions, despite the uncertainties of the future. This process boosts our immune system as a civilization. It increases our inner capacity to deal with risk, uncertainties, and other drivers of change. It makes us more prepared and ready.”

Cajes quotes Cascio to describe futures thinking as “an immune system for civilization.”

Change can be seen as a threat, but it can also be advantageous if one learns to adapt faster. Futures thinking makes this possible, even considering the increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world—the prices of commodities fluctuate, global competition in the market becomes tighter, and many other variables take place with no precedents. There is also the additional challenge presented by other kinds of drivers of change, such as wildcards and black swans. The former refers to low probability events and developments that can affect the future significantly, for instance, the past world wars and the ongoing pandemic, while the latter refers to events that are not on the radar or are unlikely to occur and can only be identified after it has happened, for example, the emergence of personal computers and the 9/11 attack. Other factors, such as individual biases, blind spots, and finite resources and capacities, also contribute to the difficulty of futures thinking.

Cajes then went on to discuss the typical responses people have to future uncertainty, which may include denial, oversimplification, linear thinking, false confidence, and paralysis by analysis. Futures thinking would allow leaders to avoid these pitfalls and equip them with a more strategic response to uncertainty.

Past successes show the value in employing methods such as scenario development to deal with uncertainty, as seen for instance in a study conducted by DAP and the University of the Philippines during the mid-1970s, which probed the future of the Philippines over a 30-year time horizon. In the said study, scenarios were defined as perspectives of the future, to be used for defining potential actions in the present. As Dr. Onofre Cruz, founding president of DAP, said in the report, “if we can identify many possible futures, and reduce this to probable futures, then we can select our preferred futures.”

Cajes maintained that planning a range of futures by coming up with multiple scenarios is key to avoiding traps of prediction. Scenarios help make sense of the complexity of today’s reality, where critical uncertainties are more pronounced and disruptive than ever. By analyzing observable trends, events, and driving forces, those who practice futures thinking can then play out and choose multiple futures or scenarios.

Four types of futures are imagined in the scenario development process. First are possible futures, the widest range of possible future scenarios. Narrowing down the possibilities, there are plausible futures, which refer to scenarios that could happen given the bounds of uncertainty, and probable futures, which refer to scenarios that are likely to occur. Lastly, the preferred future, which is the ideal future state, is the type of future that is based on the aspirations of a certain individual or organization.

Cajes also elaborated three principles that must be considered in the scenario planning process. First is outside-in thinking, which entails looking at one’s organizational processes and operations from the perspective of the stakeholders, in particular, the citizens. He emphasized that, in scenario planning, it is important that decisions are made based on the customers’ needs, requirements,  and expectations. Another principle is to embrace diverse perspectives. A healthy planning process can be attained when people value the perspective of one other, even ones that are contrary to one’s own. He added that having participants with diverse perspectives when embarking on scenario planning would also substantially contribute to ensuring a rich discussion and exchange of ideas. Finally, participants in the process ought to take a long view as scenario planning is designed for planning about ten to twenty years’ horizon.

Cajes discussed three principles of Scenario Planning.


On the second day of the series, Cajes’ presentation delved deeper into the process of strategic foresight using scenario development. Here, he outlined seven steps in depth.

Adopting a process akin to problem solving, the first step is to state the strategic challenge or the adaptive types of problems an organization faces which require complex solutions that are dependent on an uncertain future. The strategic challenge serves as the basis for the framing question which, given a set time horizon, defines the scope and limitation of the scenarios. The next step is to identify the driving forces, which refer to the factors that drive a possible result, impact, or outcome of critical uncertainty. Examples of this include infectious diseases, environmental risks, weapons of mass destruction, and livelihood crises, among others. These critical uncertainties, or those driving forces that are considered highly important to the strategic challenge of the organization yet highly uncertain in terms of how they might unfold in the future, serve as the basis for constructing the scenarios. Other factors such as predetermined elements (i.e. demographic information, occupation of people, the location, the migration patterns, their age, the increase in population, among other things) and wildcards are also determined in this step.

After all the important information has been gathered, the third step is to construct a quadrant of the building blocks, consisting of the critical uncertainties, predetermined elements, and other secondary elements, arranged by their level of potential impact and uncertainty. This step is then followed by the creation of a matrix scenario with vertical and horizontal lines representing critical uncertainties and quadrants for each of the four types of futures to be identified.

Once through with the scenario framework, the participants may now proceed to storytelling. Cajes underlined how powerful the role a story can play in the scenario development process. As he put it, “[stories] can affect us because they can be so powerful and so clear and, therefore, vivid and they can move us into thinking about possible solutions in order to prevent them from happening.”

Moreover, the final steps are to determine the implications and options in terms of key activities and robust strategies and, from these, name the indicators and signposts to be tracked along the way.

To better explain the relevance and application of scenario development in the public sector, Cajes illustrated a matrix of hypothetical future scenarios for a provincial local government unit (PLGU). In his example, the critical uncertainties that he identified were about their adaptive capacity and their stability in terms of global, regional, and national economic performance. The image below shows the given scenarios A, B, C, and D, which represent the preferred, ideal, business-as-usual, and better-than-current scenarios, respectively.

Cajes shows a hypothetical scenario matrix for a provincial local government unit.

Towards the end of the lecture, Cajes laid down the main difference between the scenario planning process and the traditional planning approach. Overall, the traditional planning approach zeroes in on the partial reality, while the scenario planning process takes on a wider lens in analyzing the dynamic VUCA reality. The former assumes that the future is simple and certain, while the latter views the future as having multiple dimensions and a high level of uncertainty. Scenario planning, thus, entails active and creative imagination of the future.

Furthermore, what lies ahead may be unclear yet but one thing for certain is that one can do his or her part in preparing for future challenges. Strategic foresight may hence prove to be one vital gear to ensuring that organizations, especially the public sector, can thrive in this VUCA world.


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Screen capture of the program’s panelists

Trust is one of the foundations upon which the legitimacy of public institutions is built and is crucial for maintaining social cohesion. Lack of trust compromises the willingness of citizens to respond to public policies and contribute to sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19. And in the fifth installment of the World Bank’s Disruptive Debates, conducted last 29 September 2021 via Zoom, the question of citizens’ trust in general and its possible effects on government productivity were raised in the discussions on the theme of the Future of Government.

To begin with the discussion, Raj Kumar, President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex elaborated that trust has been the frequent issue arising during the Disruptive Debate series and to retort that issue, panelists will address that during the forum discussion.


How will the citizen’s trust in the government be affected?

A screen capture of all the speakers and the host in the middle of a discussion


Aidan Eyakuze, Executive Director of Twaweza East Africa, a civil society group, shared that governments should respond to two fundamental questions that are always being asked by their citizens. The first asks whether governments have the best interest of their constituents at heart—“does the government really care about me, or are they more interested in staying in power?” The second inquiries into the capacity of the government to deliver services that benefit their citizens—“does the government have the competence to make good on your good intentions?”

Eyakuze also shared other considerations previously raised by Tim Besley of the London School of Economics and Political Science, particularly that there are three capacity components. First is fiscal capacity, which pertains to the ability to raise the necessary resources. Second is legal capacity, which is simply the legal ability to perform. He then framed the third not as a concept but as a question: “do you have the ability to provide citizens with what they need and when they need them?”

Discussing how distrust can lead to corruption, Michael Muthukrishna, an Associate Professor of Economic Psychology and STICERD Developmental Economics Group  Affiliate at London School of Economics identified the role of the dynamics of smaller social units in feeding back into even greater distrust for government. He shared that when trust in the national government fails, that’s when citizens fall back on family, friends, ethnic groups, religious communities, and even local government. This tendency results in the necessity of relying on trading favours with friends and family, effectively creating a kind of vicious loop from which a corrupt society emerges.

Jamie Boyd, National Digital Government Leader and Partner of Deloitte Canada, then shared how trust is reinforced by making citizens aware of what the government is doing. She mentions that trust has changed in the internet age and with it the context for government serving the people has as well. Trust can be cultivated through digital services and it can even be a facilitator of access to government services. For instance, Canadians can use video calls or FaceTime with government officials to validate their identity. Even in such a mediated interaction, the presence of a human element can reinforce citizens’ trust—that there is an actual person behind the management of citizens’ data, and that, ultimately, the government exists to serve people. She also points out that the digital age we are living in has brought us an unprecedented suite of tools for providing trustworthy services while maintaining transparency and accountability from the government.


How can the government rebuild citizens’ trust?

Screen capture of poll results from webinar attendees


Results from a poll conducted during the forum showed that most of the attendees trust their local government more than their national and regional governments. When asked how trust in the national government could be rebuilt, most respondents cited the need to deliver quality services. 

In response to the poll results, Sonia Cooper, a member of the Ipswich City Council in Queensland, Australia, shared that it is not surprising that citizens trust their local governments more as citizens’ engagements with the government are often through the initiatives of their local government rather than any other body of government. Local government activities tend to be more stable and easier to sustain because citizens tend to trust people they know and interact with regularly, and local government has control over citizen interaction in a way that the national government does not.

The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) played a major role in the recently concluded Seminar-Workshop on Automated Government Service Management System for the Regulatory Agencies under the Department of Agriculture.

The five-day event, which kicked off on 8 November 2021, was held at The Bayleaf Cavite and was simultaneously broadcasted online via Webex. The workshop aimed to help the regulatory offices under the Department of Agriculture (DA) to streamline and harmonize government processes, procedures and requirements through digitalization and automation.

DAP President and CEO Atty. Engelbert C. Caronan, Jr., along with other distinguished officials of the bureaucracy, delivered their respective Welcome Messages during the kick-off event. President Caronan, in his message, expressed his warmest support to this very important undertaking of the DA as it embarks on capacitating DA personnel with new ideas, concepts, studies, and best practices to modernize the current agricultural services. He highlighted the need to be more creative and to think out-of-the-box in order for our lives and livelihoods to survive as we move to the “new normal.”  Moving forward, he encouraged the participants to have the mindset of constantly improving in order to make things more efficient for the organization and become more responsive to the needs of our fellow citizens. He expressed his belief that mainstreaming innovations and regulatory reform initiatives largely depend on the manner by which regulatory bodies steer the direction of their regulated entities to adopt smart approaches in operations and policies that underpin these regulations.

DAP President Caronan delivered a Welcome Message during the Opening Program

As one of the main speakers, DAP Vice-President Arnel D. Abanto  shared the results of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries or PCAF-commissioned study on the “Review of Laws and Regulations to Enhance Policy Environment Towards Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization.” Prior to his presentation, he commended the DA management for gathering the whole agency to review its existing operations and policy issuances. He stressed the need to remove the burdensome regulations and requirements, including the existing flaws, inefficiencies, and “red tape” as the DA embarks on automation.

VP Abanto also highlighted that the results of the study as well as the ongoing study on the Full-blown Assessment on the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) are good reference materials of the DA as it moves towards its goal of being “OneDA” in its quest for streamlining and service process improvement. It is high time that the DA management considers the recommendations of these studies.

The DA acknowledged this as the event host referred to the said studies, along with other DAP publications on “Enhancing Regulatory Management in the Agriculture and Fisheries Sector: A Benchmarking Study” as the “bible” or reference of the DA regulatory agencies in their regulatory streamlining initiatives to improve the delivery of service processes and ultimately promote economic growth for the agriculture sector. 

Vice-President Arnel D. Abanto presents the results of a DAP study before the OneDA family | Development Academy of the Philippines

The five-day DA event is in support of the Republic Act 11032 or an Act Promoting Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Delivery of Government Services. The workshop was attended by more than 200 participants from OneDA family comprised of DA-Central regulatory offices, regional field offices, bureaus and attached agencies and corporations via in-person and virtual modalities. The workshop was concluded on 12 November 2021 as the DA launched its first-ever Digital Agriculture Command Center.

This article was originally posted at http://pdc.dap.edu.ph/index.php/dap-supports-da-initiative-to-streamline-and-improve-its-regulatory-service-processes/

A person accomplishing the survey questionnaire about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on MSMEs in Asia


Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India have been a major contributor to the socio-economic development of their country, contributing 18.5% to its 2019 to 2020 Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector has also contributed immensely to entrepreneurship development, especially in the semi-urban and rural areas of India. However, the global pandemic has affected every sector in the world indiscriminately, albeit in varying degrees, and MSMEs have proven to be more vulnerable to income and asset losses than larger firms.

To better understand and address this issue, India’s National Productivity Council (NPC), in association with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), decided to conduct an online survey to look into the pandemic’s size, aspects, incidence, and how it has impacted MSMEs in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Lao PDR, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. They combined elements of qualitative and quantitative research approaches in their study design to ascertain the level of sectoral distress at the peak of the nationwide lockdown in May 2020. The results were concerning, as they showed that production levels fell from an average of 75% capacity to just 13%, firms retained only 44% of their workforce, and 69% of firms reported an inability to survive longer than three months. 

The study had some notable findings on the state of MSMEs since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, they found out that MSMEs in developing Asian countries experienced considerably reduced employment and sales revenues in the first few months after the outbreak. The reduction in employment was, of course, more severe for the employment of non-permanent employees, but the employment of permanent or regular employees was also significant. Although there are considerable differences among countries, one-fourth to one-half of the sample MSMEs experienced a temporary close down during this period and one-third to two-thirds were facing a cash shortage at the time of the survey. Thus, the impacts of the pandemic on employment and the sustainability of business were quite severe.

Figure 1: Percentage of Firms that Reduced the number of Permanent Employees after the Outbreak of the Pandemic
Figure 2: Percentage of Firms that Reduced the Number of Temporary Employees after the Outbreak of the Pandemic

Second, some enterprises were earning from online sales before the pandemic, many of them were either 1) young firms, 2) export-oriented firms, 3) even firms facing a cash shortage, and 4) those who have already been using online sales. Moreover, these firms are also planning to increase their utilization of online sales amid the pandemic. 

Figure 3: Percentage of Firms that Reduced Sales in the First Half of 2020 in a Year-to-Year Comparison (Data Are Available Only for the Six Countries)
Figure 4: Percentage of Firms that Experienced a Cash Shortage and Temporary Exit

Third, the share of online sales has a nonlinear relationship with employment. As the share increases until it reaches about 40% of the total sales, its relationship with employment is negative, suggesting that the use of online sales displaces labor input. Fourth, MSMEs tend to prefer tax payment deferral, tax rate reduction, and loan repayment deferral to many other possible forms of government support for MSMEs, even though considerable differences exist among countries and among firms regarding which type of support they prefer

Figure 5: Percentage of Firms that Expected Negative Growth in the 2020 Annual Sales


The lessons presented by these findings are of significant use to the public sector as well. The difficulties faced by MSMEs, as seen in the study’s overall findings of sectoral distress across the board during the height of the pandemic, should be taken into consideration by the public sector in its development of interventions to drive recovery from COVID-19. Especially concerning is the widespread layoffs among MSMEs, which could have widespread ramifications that the public sector will have to address.

As the Philippines makes the transition to digital government, a delegation of senior public sector officials participated in the Individual-country Observational Study Mission (IOSM) on 18 to 19 October 2021 via Zoom. The delegates learned about digital innovation in Taiwan through the initiatives of the New Taipei City-Amazon Web Services (NTPC-AWS) Joint Innovation Center and the Public Digital Innovation Space (PDIS). The study mission was a joint effort between the  Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), the China Productivity Center (CPC), and the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), and attended by officials from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Civil Service Commission (CSC), and Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Participants from the Philippines and Taiwan during the culminating activity of IOSM 2021

The shift to digital transformation

Nicole Chan of the Joint Innovation Center opened the first day of IOSM with the benefits of digital transformation. She explained that when information and communications technology (ICT) is used to optimize services, resources are maximized and the productivity of human and capital resources is increased. This results in improved public satisfaction, which leads to increased patronage and a higher net profit margin.

Nicole Chan of the NTPC-AWS Joint Innovation Center explains the benefits of digital transformation.

However, it is not enough to simply go digital, as public sector organizations with limited resources should think twice about transforming from one system to another. Chan explained that digital transformation needs to be anchored on three important keys: identifying the problem, upgrading to digital technologies, and changing the culture. While the first two are critical for improving public services and establishing a data-driven environment in the public sector, Chan highlighted that the “real challenge is the change of mindset” in shaping a culture of digital innovation, which would entail a shift from traditional values to new innovative thinking.

Nicole Chan explains three keys of digital transformation to guide organizations in the journey to going digital.

Senior Vice-President Magdalena Mendoza of the DAP asked about the social impacts of this digital transformation. Chan replied that while legislation can be too slow in catching up with the speed of ICT development, there should be a mechanism for self-regulation in place.

After establishing the need for a paradigm shift, Chan then presented the work of the NTPC-AWS Joint Innovation Center, a public-private partnership between New Taipei City (NTPC) Government, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and First China Capital (FCC) Partners Inc. She explained that this partnership integrates government, industrial, and economic resources to create a world-class ecosystem with the goal of accelerating startup incubation and contributing to digital public solutions.

She detailed that the Joint Innovation Center has an intensive program for startups and traditional enterprises on step-by-step digital transformation. AWS provides digital services and technology expertise while the NTPC provides government support through the National Development Fund. Finally, partners from the FCC offer business courses and consultation on fundraising initiatives. The Center also holds social activities where startups exchange experiences and create business opportunities.

Nicole Chan explains the collaboration of parties making up the Joint Innovation Center.

Chan shared that currently, the Center houses 70 startups, including Heroic Faith Medical Science and VEYOND Reality Technology, that help build niche solutions in various sectors such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education, and tourism.

Nicole Chan presents innovations from Heroic Faith Medical Science and VEYOND Reality Technology.

PPP for public service

On the second day of IOSM, Zach Huang and Yi-Wen Chan discussed the origins and activities of PDIS, which was itself established in 2016 as a PPP with the goal of introducing digital innovation in the public sphere. Huang emphasized that digital innovation is “not only the responsibility of the government but also the responsibility of the private sector,” and this requires that everyone is involved in the process through Open Government, Social Innovation, and Youth Engagement. Chan further expanded this by discussing her organization’s new approach to public-private partnership, which seeks to involve stakeholders in the earliest stages of government planning in order to garner wider acceptance and support from citizens.

Yi-Wen Chan discusses innovations in the Public-Private Partnership process.

Chan then proceeded to further discuss the collaborative approach that PDIS employs, which promotes open dialogue between the government and the public on social problems requiring government attention. Through the JOIN platform, a mobile application developed by the National Development Council (NDC) of Taiwan, a citizen can voice out their opinion publicly or initiate a proposal. A Participation Officer from the government will then find competent public sector authorities that will respond to the topics raised by the public. PDIS ensures that the public is well-informed before attending by publishing major facts relevant to the topic for discussion. At present, over a hundred of these collaborative meetings with citizens have been conducted. 

Yi-Wen Chan explains how collaborative meetings work in the early stages of government policymaking.

Another example of PDIS’ collaborative efforts is the creation of the Mask Map, a mobile application that details the location and current face mask inventories of pharmacies throughout Taiwan. This addresses supply chain issues and the possibility of cluster infections created when agitated citizens begin panic buying during shortages, thus ensuring the equitable and safe distribution of face masks. The app even has an option to reserve face masks for purchase, allowing otherwise busy citizens to be able to ensure their personal supply.

Yi-Wen Chan presents the features of Mask Map and its use in helping people find nearby pharmacies with available face masks.

To close the IOSM, Huang discussed Taiwan’s road map towards digital transformation and how it could relate to the Philippines’ own ongoing transition. He emphasized that while Taiwan’s approach was far from perfect, they quickly learned that the only way it could work was if there is true partnership between the public and the private sectors. He reminded the delegation that “the Philippines, as a developing country, would not be in any disadvantaged position when it comes to social innovation as long as everyone feels that they can do something to make a difference, as long as everyone believes they can be part of the solution.”

The Development Academy of the Philippines’ (DAP) Modernizing Government Regulations (MGR) Program formally launched its 2021 Regulatory Review on 6 October 2021 via Zoom.  The event was attended by 56 members and officers of private organizations/associations and officials from regulatory agencies involved in the prioritized government-to-government/agency-to-agency (G2G/A2A) and government-to-business (G2B) transactions.

This year, the MGR Program is focusing on the following transactions that are supportive of reviving the industries that were heavily affected by the current pandemic: a) G2G/A2A regulations affecting the streamlining of service processes; b) G2B regulations covering the digital economy; and c) G2B regulations covering food logistics.

DAP Study Team and participants during the 2021 MGR Regulatory Review Launch

During the Launch, the study team research fellows presented the sectoral background, initial regulatory issues and research questions of their respective industries through breakout groups. After the presentation, participants shared their comments and experiences on what regulations/processes contribute to the difficulty in compliance and high transaction cost. The activity also brought to fore initial recommendations on how to address said issues. Among the key issues that were validated and gathered during the activity were as follows:

a. G2G/A2A Regulations Affecting the Streamlining of Service Processes Non-submission of Citizen’s Charter compliance report of about 2,000 agencies, despite the existence of streamlining law – ARTA report

  • Regulations on procurement, PBB guidelines, financial and audit regulations, pandemic-related requirements of LGUs, regulations related to Data Privacy Act, and tax payment are perceived to hinder process performance and efficient delivery of services – DAP perception survey initial results
  • Inconsistent enforcement of regulations and unreasonable delays in the release of requested documents.
  • Inadequate personnel to process a transaction, unclear requirements, and difficulty in accessing the concerned agencies.
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b. G2B Regulations Covering Digital Economy

  • Application of traditional policies which do not reflect rapid changes, innovations and technology advancements to digital businesses due to prolonged process of law-making
  • Difficulty to regulate online businesses due to Department of Trade and Industry’s limited manpower and increasing number of unregistered and unscrupulous businesses online
  • Need for coordination and discussion between government agencies to adapt to changes involving government digitization and the shift to online G2B transactions (e.g., recognition and use of electronic signatures)
  • Inadequacies in our current laws on the liability of online buying and selling platforms to protect consumers
  • Possible challenges on implementing regulatory sandbox framework for financial technology innovations

c. G2B Regulations Covering Food Logistics

  • Overregulation of food manufacturing sector and agriculture and LGU restrictions on the delivery of produce during pandemic resulted to wasted produce.
  • Low productivity in provinces that were traditionally centers of productivity or food baskets.
  • Absence of standards/guidelines/regulations on importation non-traditional products (e.g., rabbit) and stringent requirements of Good Animal Husbandry Practices
  • High price of fruits and vegetables due to logistics problem, food safety and other regulatory measures
  • Difficulty in implementing viable recommendations of various researches (e.g., DAP Benchmarking Study on Regulatory Management) to effect regulatory reform in the sector
  • Additional cost and potential operations delay caused by changes in documentary requirements (e.g., Bureau of Animal Industry’s Certificate of Analysis annual submission compared to previous process of every five years)
  • Tedious and unwieldy end-to-end process of online payment, i.e., the need for traditional hard copy of receipts instead of electronic receipt
  • Difficulty in obtaining permits to transport livestock and poultry due to sudden change of area condition that gives inconsistent information and entails additional costs to companies.

Following the launch, the next step will be for the study teams to take a deep dive and prioritize issues gathered from the activity by conducting separate focus group discussions and industry dialogues with the participants from the public and private sectors.

This article is originally posted at http://pdc.dap.edu.ph/index.php/mgr-program-launches-its-2021-regulatory-review-of-prioritized-industries/

As the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity, the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) held a Webinar Series on Productivity and Quality Frameworks in the Public Sector last 13-15 October 2021.

The webisode was attended by over three thousand participants from various public and private sector agencies. Speakers included Engr. Charlie A. Marquez, DAP resource speaker; Dr. Ralph Sherwin A. Corpuz, director of Quality Assurance at the  Technological University of the Philippines; and Dr. Juliet J. Balderas, head of Management Services Department at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC).

Webinar speakers answer questions from the participants during the program forum. 


Lean Management

Engr. Marquez, who is a certified QMS Lead Auditor and a Lean Six Sigma practitioner, gave a general overview of Lean Management. It is a philosophy based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) that is focused on improving process performance. He explained, “when we say Lean, the objective is simply eliminating everything that does not add value to the customer’s eyes… Meaning, who defines quality is the customer, not us as service providers.”

He briefly touched on the history of the TPS and Toyota’s 4P’s, namely Problem Solving, People and Patterns, Process, and Philosophy. Engr. Marquez also expounded on the Lean Management Framework. 

Stability and standardization serve as the foundation of the Lean Framework. He added, “If there is no standardization, bawat office kanya-kanya [each office will vary in their ways of doing things]… We do not want that. We want standardization.”

Engr. Marquez expounds on the Lean Management Framework.


Engr. Marquez underlined some principles of Lean and mainly discussed the eight (8) wastes in Lean Management, namely defects, overproduction, waiting, transport, inventory, motion, extra processing, and skills. He also highlighted a few benefits of Lean, which include an increase in sales and profits, improvement of quality and lowering of costs, optimal utilization of resources, and most importantly, improvement of customer satisfaction. As he pointed out, “in everything that we are doing—Total Quality Management, ISO 9000, Lean—at the top is ultimately customer satisfaction. That’s what we are here for.”

In his conclusion, Engr. Marquez recommended that participants perform an 8-Waste Analysis, using the Check Sheet that he shared in the talk. He also gave other practical suggestions such as the creation of Value Stream Maps (VSM), Root-Cause-Analysis (RCA), and formulation of solutions and prioritization of projects or activities.


TQM and Business Excellence

On the second day of the webinar series, Dr. Corpuz presented an overview of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Excellence. His topic zeroed in on the application of the approaches in the public sector.

To start his talk, Dr. Corpuz outlined some of the needs and challenges faced by the public sector such as inconvenient and tedious government transaction processes and unsystematic queuing. He added that in order to meet the needs of the public, the Government must exert greater efforts to provide more citizen-focused services, invest in innovation and emerging technologies to improve services, push for a smart government through the integration of ICT with management systems to address red tape, provide seamless connection among processes and governments toward one-stop-shop services, and partnership with the private sector in the country and abroad.

Quality service is what public servants have sworn to deliver and hence should be the prime focus in all government endeavors, Dr. Corpuz pointed out. To realize this, the biggest hindrances to public sector productivity must be dealt with through a solid management solution such as TQM. These barriers include security of tenure which may result in the complacency of government employees, a culture of resistance to reforms in the organization, and a complex political environment.

The speaker discussed principles and tools of TQM such as cause-and-effect diagram, check sheet, control chart, histogram, Pareto chart, scatter diagram, and flow chart. He also explained business excellence approaches that evolved from TQM and its models, including the Malcolm Baldrige National for Performance Excellence and the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model. Additionally, Dr. Corpuz described business excellence as more than a mere award but, more so, a journey of building a competitive nation.

Dr. Corpuz also shared his insights into other TQM tools, including Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases that infect an organization’s culture, Ishikawa’s Diagram and Total Quality Control, and the Philippine Quality Award Framework.

Dr. Corpuz outlines Demings’s Seven Deadly Diseases of Management


Philippine Heart Center Best Practices

On the last day of the webinar series, Dr. Balderas presented the best practices of PHC to help flatten the curve amid the past COVID-19 surges. She also shared about the center’s quality journey in the new normal, which dates back to 2010 when the center was awarded the PhilHealth Center of Excellence. To improve its hospital processes, the PHC has also been undergoing multiple internal accreditations since 2011. In 2015, it received national recognition for good governance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. Dr. Balderas noted, “our history of quality is stronger than COVID. If we look back at the history in 10 years, we have improved ourselves so much that probably, what we evolved over the years could be something that we can use productively against COVID.”

Dr. Balderas looks back at PHC’s excellence journey over the years.


Dr. Balderas discussed one of PHC best practices when the pandemic started—the creation of an Incident Command System, which is a standardized emergency response management structure comprising an incident commander, liaison officer, public information officer, safety/security officer, and operations, planning, logistics, and finance divisions. According to Dr. Balderas, the chain of command members meet every month to discuss all the operations in the hospital. They also hold multidisciplinary daily COVID-19 meetings to ensure that COVID-related problems are addressed as they happen. Additionally, new COVID-19 policies by ISO standards on patient admission and on the cohorting of COVID and non-COVID patients among other policies were implemented. These policies were also made accessible to the staff and the patients through its Intranet. The speaker also put forward other best practices of PHC such as stricter compliance to safety protocols, observance of ICP policies for healthcare workers in terms of daily symptoms monitoring and electronic health declaration every fourteen days, and expansion of GeneXpert PCR Testing.

Dr. Balderas also presented PHC’s Beyond Better Strategy Map for the year 2017 to 2022. The map outlines the center’s support and core processes, strategic position, and impact areas that are geared towards its change agenda, which are to become a leader in cardiovascular care that is at par with global benchmarks and to be a leading advocate in the prevention of cardiovascular disease in the country.

Maintaining a high standard of quality is doubly difficult due to the ongoing health crisis, but PHC’s performance governance system, which includes unit scoreboards that help monitor the staff’s individual performance and breakthrough results, has made it possible. Dr. Balderas explained, “when there was little budget for the Heart Center, [our question was] how do we go towards development? We only know that we have to remain the best heart hospital and we are the heart hospital referral center. Our strategy was to improve the performance, so performance monitoring despite COVID was a PHC Culture.”

Despite changes in leadership every five to six years, the center has achieved outstanding breakthrough accomplishments yearly until 2016. And even amid the ongoing COVID surge in 2021, the scoreboards guided the center in decreasing patient safety incidents and the number of healthcare workers diagnosed with COVID 19 by 50 percent.

Dr. Balderas shares the major institutional breakthroughs of PHC in 2020.


The use of scoreboards has been recognized as a best practice in all of PHC’s external audits. In 2019, the center was awarded by the Philippine Quality Award as the leader in upholding standards of cardiovascular care. PHC’s quality and performance excellence have also led the center to be recognized as a “Leader in Upholding Highest Standards of Cardiovascular Care” in 2018 at the 21st Cycle Philippine Quality Awards. Dr. Balderas noted that despite the hurdles brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, good governance and pursuit of excellence in quality improvements must continue.

The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), through its Modernizing Government Regulations (MGR) Program, completed the Capability Development Assistance on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the Intramuros Administration (IA) which commenced on 15 September with the conduct of a Basic Course on RIA and culminated with the conduct of an Advanced Course on RIA on 7 October 2021.

Basic Course on RIA for the Intramuros Administration conducted on 15-17 & 20-24 September 2021
Advanced Course on RIA for the Intramuros Administration conducted on 28 September – 1&4-7 October 2021

With the primary objective of developing the capability of the IA key officers and technical staff to undertake RIA, the participants were able to perform RIA using various analytical methods and produce their agency’s Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) for the following identified regulations:

  • Amendment to an existing regulation: Efficiency of the Processing of Building Permit for Intramuros Constructions through the City of Manila
  • Amendment to an existing regulation: Issuance of the IA Development Clearance (PD No. 1616 as amended and its IRR: Rule III, Section 1.3 and Rule VIII, Sections 2 and 5)
  • Proposed regulation: Pedestrianization of General Luna Street
  • Amendment to an existing regulation: Proposed online application of permit for photography and video in Intramuros (Section 6 of PD No. 1616)

As part of the commitment and advocacy of the DAP MGR Program for wider application of good regulatory practices, the DAP Project Team is offering to provide a sponsored RIA Clinic/follow-up assistance to help the IA enhance further the RIS produced during the training. Upon enhancement of output, the IA is encouraged to present their revised RIS to a panel composed of IA senior official(s) and DAP representatives to solicit further feedback.

This article was originally posted in http://pdc.dap.edu.ph/index.php/dap-completes-the-capability-development-assistance-on-ria-for-the-intramuros-administration/

At the heart of public service is the citizens’ interest, and with resources in short supply, organizations must reassess their efficiency and productivity. The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), as the Asian Productivity Organization Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity, trains public sector agencies through the Designing Citizen-Centered Public Service Improvements (DCCPSI) Program to evaluate government service delivery, identify inefficiencies, and develop solutions to adequately address clients’ needs and expectations using the approach on Service Design.

The second batch of the DCCPSI Program was conducted on September 13-15 for Phase I and on September 20-24 for Phase II. Participating agencies included the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Energy (DOE), National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). Participants could also avail of additional project incubation interventions to prepare for implementation.

First day plenary, Ms. Adona San Diego of DENR shares their agency’s critical service and the experience of citizens in service delivery.


Service delivery in the shoes of our citizens

The first phase, Citizen-Centered Service Design and Data Gathering, asks public sector agencies to consider their services from the perspective of a typical citizen. By having a picture of the client journey, agencies can empathize with the citizens on the end-to-end service experience. Mr. Peter Dan Baon, COE-PSP Program Manager, emphasizes the service design principle of human-centeredness because it gives “perspectives of the clients, their emotions and pain points when availing of the service.” As a result, agencies are able to evaluate the efficiency of their services and redesign areas for improvement according to clients’ insights.

Ms. Jodellie Pacala of DSWD leads conversation of their agency’s Client Journey Map.


To further develop a citizen-centered design, agencies supplement their ideas with local examples of design initiatives. Agencies draw inspiration from concrete examples of local government units like Valenzuela’s Paspas Permit and Pasig City’s Ugnayan sa Pasig (UsaP) as good examples of public service despite the hindrances that come with battling the pandemic. They also look at design fails as caution for what to avoid when implementing citizen-centered services. With these observations on design initiatives, they paint together a picture of what citizen-centered design should look like.


Redesigning services to improve citizen satisfaction

Once agencies understand the principles of service design and use the same in empathizing with clients’ perspectives, they engage in an ideation process to brainstorm solutions to their clients’ pain points. The Design Sprints look into many angles of the problem and explore even the most radical ideas on how the agencies might resolve them. Using tools and strategies prepared by the program, agencies develop prototypes of potential solutions. Ms. Elizabeth Alladel of DOST appreciates the ideation process as “it is very useful especially when you want to modify or develop an improvement in the existing system or operations.”

Mr. Mohammad Victor of OWWA shares their agency’s proposed approach to solving the observed problems in Balik Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay Program for OFWs.


Following the development of their prototypes, agencies identify and invite users to test their solution. After days of analyzing problems and brainstorming solutions, they finally test their prototypes. Day 4 of the Design Sprints is an exciting stage for the agencies as they uncover hits and misses based on the experience and feedback of real live users. 

One of BIR’s test participants, Mr. Jalandoni, appreciates the prototype since “somehow, personnel are focused on the system because face-to-face transaction consumes time and prolongs queuing.” He adds that “it’s a big step for BIR to improve the business registration process since less stress for the frontliners, and saved time is diverted to other office work.” 

Ms. Janette Cruz of BIR instructs test users on how to go about their prototype.

        

Ms. Glenda Pua of NCIP demonstrates their prototype to the test users.


After their participation in the program, the agencies developed the following solutions:

  1. OWWA – OFCs (Overseas Filipino Circles) as site inspectors of Balik Pinas, Balik Hanapbuhay Program for OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers)
  2. NWPC – Revision of evaluation forms to cater to clients’ demands on learning sessions related to wages and productivity
  3. NEDA – Web-based self-assessment tool on completeness of project proposal documents
  4. DOST – User-friendly online submission of collaborative research proposals
  5. BIR – Web-based system on end-to-end business registration process with collaborative interface with other government agencies
  6. DOE – Online application of Notice To Proceed (NTP) for Downstream Natural Gas Facility
  7. NCIP – Integration of an information system on the NCIP official website for tracking of application requests
  8. DILG – Delegation of authority to regional offices in processing of multi-purpose vehicle requests
  9. DMB – Tracking system for client agencies to access the status of requests
  10. DENR – User-friendly online tree cutting permit application process
  11. DSWD – Accessible online application of Minors Traveling Abroad (MTA)

Efficiency of iterative design

In a span of less than two weeks, agencies understand their unique inefficiencies, brainstorm possible solutions, develop prototypes, test their solutions with real users, and redesign their processes. The principles of service design help agencies respond to challenges in government service delivery with the least amount of time and least possible use of resources. The outcome is a noticeable improvement of critical government services. Ms. Yvette Batacandolo of NEDA said it best, “we have a tendency to create programs without asking users how it will affect them.” With the help of the DCCPSI Program, agencies know better how to improve efficiency in government service delivery.

In closing, agencies are strongly encouraged to join project incubation interventions. In this phase, agencies relish opportunities for focused coaching and guided implementation from beginning till end. Ms. Lucita dela Pena of DILG shares her realization, “this is the reason why there is alpha, beta, gamma in product testing, to keep on remodeling until we reach an ideal model where issues are resolved.”

The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), through its Modernizing Government Regulations Program, completes the Phase II: Capability Development Assistance on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for Priority Agencies of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) which ran on 31 May 2021 and culminated with the conduct of ten-panel presentations on the results of the RIA on 19 July 2021.

With the primary objective of developing the capability of selected regulatory agencies’ personnel to undertake RIA, the participants were able to produce their agencies’ Regulatory Impact Statements (RIS) that would help them analyze identified regulations. Twenty-three priority agencies presented their agencies’ RIS results to a panel of experts from the DAP, representatives from the ARTA, and officials from the respective beneficiary agencies.  The panel presentations of the agencies aimed to enable further analysis of the following draft RIA to identify opportunities for improvement: proposed implementation of the electronic tracking system and automated processing of certificates/permits, as well as, amendment of guidelines on online registrations and streamlining application processes.

Panel Presentation of the Results of RIA

The next step would be for the agencies to integrate the feedback received during the panel presentations and finalize their respective RIS.

This article is originally posted in http://pdc.dap.edu.ph/index.php/dap-completes-the-capability-development-assistance-on-ria-for-priority-agencies-of-the-arta/