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PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE
ANGOC's program on Participatory Local Governance (PLG) puts together the Network's initiatives to enhance the participation of local communities in processes that affect them.
This Program has evolved over the years in response to changing needs and circumstances. In the mid- to late 1980s the primary concern of ANGOC in this regard was how to "broaden and improve the policy environment for NGOs and people's organizations (POs)". Essentially, ANGOC was then preoccupied with getting more NGOs and POs to participate in formulating public policies, and with development cooperation and education.
At the time, there were few opportunities, if at all, for direct community involvement in development processes. Policies supportive of people's participation had not yet been institutionalized, and the necessary mechanisms did not exist. Hence, the closest thing then to people's participation was NGO/PO representation in fora or processes that affected the communities. As a result, the initiatives focused on:
The Citizens' Campaign on MDBs
In 1989 this Program was transformed by ANGOC's involvement in the Citizens' Campaign on Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). ANGOC had recognized early on that the indebtedness of member governments to MDBs, though not as huge as that to commercial banks, will nonetheless affect communities because of the negative environmental and social impact of MDB funded projects. Another challenge posed by MDB lending to developing member countries (DMCs) is that these institutions are opaque, unaccountable and inaccessible to local people.
ANGOC started the MDB Campaign with Friends of the Earth (FoE)-US and the Environmental Policy Institute (EPI) and the main focus was the Manila based Asian Development Bank (ADB). At that early stage, the Campaign generally consisted of helping facilitate the flow of information on Bank activities to interested NGOs, and vice-versa. Thus ANGOC was concerned, on the one hand, with facilitating access by participating NGOs to project documents and other information on Bank activities and, on the other hand, bringing to the Bank's attention the social and environmental impact of their lending and other feedback from NGOs.
In 1990, ADB-related initiatives were formalized under a program called "Transforming Financial Institutions". Following the establishment of NGO focal points in a number of Asian countries--for instance, AVARD in India and WALHI in Indonesia-ANGOC launched the NGO Campaign on the ADB which today includes members from several countries worldwide. ANGOC was among the first members of the NGO Working Group on the ADB and in March 1993, was nominated to the five-person Steering Committee of the Working Group.
Sometime later, in October 1993, the NGO Working Group on the World Bank (NGOWG-WB) was established, with ANGOC again as a founding member.
In the following years, the MDB Campaign took on a three-pronged approach which included policy intervention at the level of major decision-makers; NGO networking and information sharing; and research and documentation.
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