Poverty Reduction, Decentralization,
and Community-Based Monitoring
Systems
By
Celia M. Reyes
CBMS Network Coordinating Team
Outline of Presentation
 Objectives
 Decentralization
and its challenges
 Poverty monitoring systems
 Role of CBMS
 Concluding remarks
Objectives
 Identifies
the challenges brought about by
decentralization
 Examines the role of community-based
monitoring systems in addressing the
demand for more disaggregated data on
the different dimensions of poverty.
Decentralization

Parallel to the poverty reduction efforts of many
countries is the change in governance structure.
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Decentralization has gained popularity within the last
two decades.
Has been advocated and practiced in several countries
in Asia.
Defined as the transfer of responsibility for
planning, management and resource generation
and allocation, from the central government and its
agencies to lower levels of government.
Rationale for Decentralization
 Seen
as an alternative to provide public
services in a more cost-effective way.
 Improve the delivery of services.
 Make the government more responsive to
the needs of the people.
 Make local units more accountable to their
constituents.
Decentralization in the Philippines
Passage of Local Government Code (LGC) in 1991
represented a major step in decentralization.
 Before the LGC, LGUs’ main functions were:
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Levying and collection of local taxes
Regulation of business activities
Administration of garbage collection, public
cemeteries, public markets and slaughterhouses
The LGC paved the way for increased local
autonomy, expenditure responsibility and revenue
authority. Principal responsibility for the delivery of
basic social services and the operation of the
facilities were devolved to LGUs.
Decentralization in the Philippines
 Devolved
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areas are:
Agricultural extension and research
Social forestry
Environmental management and pollution
control
Primary health and hospital care
Social welfare services
Repair and maintenance of infrastructure
Water supply and communal irrigation
Land use planning
Decentralization in the Philippines
 LGUs
were given taxing authority to be able
to generate allotment that they get from the
National Government.
 A new scheme has been devised to
determine the sharere of LGUs from the
revenues collected by the national
government and this is based primarily on
population and land size.
Challenges of Decentralization
 Decentralization
brings decision-making
closer to the people and consequently, may
yield programs and services that better
address local needs.
 However, this requires sufficient and
technical capacity on the part of local
government units, as well as supporting
institutional arrangements.
Challenges of Decentralization

LGUs face greater challenges with the increased
powers given to them:
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Diagnose the problems
Identify appropriate interventions and identify target
beneficiaries
Do their own planning and budgeting
Implement projects and programs
Assess their impacts
To carry out their mandated functions, it is
necessary to have the relevant information.

Institutionalizing a monitoring system at the local level
is one of the more important challenges faced by local
government units.
Challenges of decentralization
Planning units are mandated by the LGC to be
operational in every province, city and municipality.
 These planning units are tasked to prepare annual
investment plans. But there are no clear guidelines
on how the planning unit is supposed to carry out
its functions.
 Thus, we find large variations in the tasks
performed by the planning units as well as the
quality of the plans.
 One of the more serious gaps is the lack of data
that can be used in preparing the plans.
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Weaknesses of Poverty Monitoring Systems

Existing poverty monitoring systems in many
countries rely on national surveys and censuses
conducted by the national statistical offices
conducted every 3 or 5 years.
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These are too infrequent to provide regular and
updated information on the welfare status of the
population.
Many of these surveys generate national and
regional level estimates only.
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What is needed is information disaggregated at the
different geopolitical levels.
Initiatives on generation of micro
level poverty statistics
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Generation of small area estimates
 Requires linking census and survey data.
 The extent of overlap between the two sources
determines to a large extent how good the resulting
estimates are.
 Frequency of updating depends on the frequency of the
survey.
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Poverty mapping
 Through the use of some statistical techniques, poverty
indicators are mapped for smaller areas.
 Problem is the difficulty in updating the poverty maps
since censuses are conducted every 5 or 10 years.
Background of CBMS
 Started
by MIMAP-Philippines Project in
response to the need to monitor the impact
of macroeconomic policies and shocks on
the population.
 MIMAP-CBMS
is an organized way of
collecting information at the local level for
use of local government units, national
government agencies, non-government
organizations and civil society.
Key features of MIMAP-CBMS
 LGU-based
 Taps
people in the community (ex. LGU
personnel, teachers, students) as
monitors
 Has a core set of indicators
Concluding Remarks
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Many countries now recognize the emerging
demands for data brought about by the changing
structures and policies in Asia.
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Decentralization creates demand for local data
CBMS has been institutionalized or pilot tested in
selected countries in Asia to address these demands
for data.
National statistical offices cannot provide all the
information needed due to resource constraints.
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They can assume a coordinative and oversight role
particularly on CBMS implementation.
Concluding Remarks

While poverty reduction remains to be a national
concern, decentralization has shifted greater
responsibility to the local government units to carry
out the policies and programs.
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CBMS enables the local government to formulate policies
and programs more responsive to the needs of the people.
CBMS increases the capacity of LGUs to meet the
challenge of improving the lives of their constituents.
This will facilitate faster and sustained
reduction in poverty and help us attain the MDG of
halving extreme poverty incidence by 2015!
Salamat po!
Key features of MIMAP-CBMS
 LGU-based
 Adopts the concept of mobilizing and developing the
capability of communities for data generation and
utilization.
 Reports the data collected to higher geopolitical level
for immediate intervention and ultimately reaches
macroeconomic planners in order to influence
adjustment programs.
 Utilizes the information generated by other
monitoring systems already in place as a support.
 Creates and maintains databank at each geopolitical
level.
CBMS Experience in the Philippines
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Pilot-tested in two barangays in Pandi, Bulacan
 A second round was conducted in 1999 to analyze the
impact of 1997 Asian financial crisis and El Niño
phenomenon.
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Implemented province-wide in Palawan.
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Implemented in 7 out of 12 municipalities in Camarines
Norte.
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Discussions are on-going for the replication of CBMS
work in the province of Bulacan, in the cities of
Mandaue, Makati and Pasay and the remaining 5
municipalities of Camarines Norte.
Key features of MIMAP-CBMS
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Taps existing LGU personnel as monitors
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Local personnel do the data collection, processing and
analysis of the data.
Has a core set of indicators
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Based on multi-dimensional aspects of poverty.
Confined largely to output and impact indicators.
Can accommodate community-specific indicators to
reflect other concerns of the community.
CBMS Experience in the Philippines
 At
the national level, the CBMS work has led
to the issuance by the DILG of a
memorandum circular advocating for the
institutionalization of a CBMS and the
adoption of the CBMS core indicators.
 Following,
the successful implementation of
MIMAP-CBMS in the Philippines, several
initiatives in other countries were undertaken
under the MIMAP Program.
CBMS in NEPAL
Background

Decentralization measures in Nepal allow local
initiatives and development interventions to be
conceived, designed and implemented at the VDC
level, the lowest political unit.
 These create demand for local level information.
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The available source of information is Nepal
Living Standards Survey, which is conducted
every five years.
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It does not provide for district level statistics.
CBMS in NEPAL
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In addressing the problem, MIMAP Project in Nepal
started to implement information gathering at the
local level.
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Sixty-two (62) indicators are collected through
focus group discussion at the ward level
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Results served as inputs to the planning
preparation at the VDC level.
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At present, CBMS is being operationalized in five
districts in Nepal.
CBMS in Vietnam
Background

Decentralization measures in Vietnam provide authorities
to local leaders to deliver services in their respective
territories.
 These create demand for information at the local level.
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Existing sources of information provide data on income
alone.
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Data is difficult to synthesize at the national level.
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Identification of poor households has room for
subjectivity.
CBMS in Vietnam
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CBMS was implemented to address these problems.
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Local people themselves collect information from the
households.
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Aside from income, other relevant information
relating to other aspects of poverty is also collected.
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Data is available at the village and commune levels
 These can be used immediately by local people in
development planning and poverty monitoring.
Other CBMS initiatives in Asia and Africa
 In
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Asia
Pilot tested in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
Implementation is in progress in Pakistan, Lao
PDR , India and Cambodia
Africa:
CBMS work is ongoing in Burkina Faso and
Senegal
Work has started in Ghana and Benin