Riza Mae G.

Omega January 6, 2012 Political Science 66-A

ENGENDERING LOCAL GOVERNANCE

By Proserpina Domingo Tapales (Philippine Journal of Public Administration, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1-4 (January-October 2002))

Proserpina

Domingo

Tapales-

Professor,

National

College

of

Public

Administration and Governance, University of the Philippines Diliman This paper was presented at the International Conference on Public Administration plus Governance: Assessing the Past, Addressing the Future held on 21-23 October at the Manila Hotel, Philippines. SUMMARY Mainly, the article deals with the idea of engendering local governance. The study, adopting the development framework of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), defines engendering governance, as the process by which people provide for greater power of women in governance, of course, governance is not government, but the exercise of political,

economic, and administrative authority in the management of a countrys affairs at all levels. In simple sense, the study defines womens political empowerment as women and men are able to actively participate in economic and political life and take part in decision making Furthermore, the article, in modifying GEM, focuses only on women in local governance, since it is an area where efforts in political empowerment are easier studied through using micro lenses. On the other hand, to say the Filipino women are really politically potent, the article suggests that people must look at the range of political mechanisms by which women may be empowered: (1) the electoral process involving voters and candidates, and (2) civil society where women participate as program advocates. Political potency denotes in the article, is the ability to make decisions on policy formulation and program implementation. Significantly, the study looks at three main ingredients of engendering women participation in local governance: (1) national policies which serve as impetus for implementation in the grassroots; (2) active and committed advocates at the local level; and (3) local chief executives who are committed to gender concerns, be they female or male. Using the data on women local executives

and case studies on women officials and local government activities, the study posits that there is gradual increase in the participation of women in electoral politics and rapid strides in the activities of womens groups. However, more have to be done in terms of local legislation and paying closer attention to issues affecting women. Moreover, there is need to orient local officialsmen as well as women, about the need to engender local governance. CRITIQUE Looking on the authors writingmanner of writing, her syntax or grammar, word choice, and so onher article shows simplicity and thoughts-systematically arranged. Her article is simple to read and easily to understand because she moves directly from point to point, and is not given to hyperbole or repetition. The words she used are easily to understand and state her ideas as strongly and clearly as possible. Furthermore, the author able to systematically define some arguable terms related to the study, which let the reader able to understand further the topic, for instance, terms like political potency, engendering governance, womens political

empowerment, etc. This simplicity of the authors writing gives her ideas a sense of
compelling empirical clarity. In terms of content, with systematically-laying of data on women local chief executives and case studies on women officials and local government activities (Figures for 1992, 1995, 1998, and 2001) the article shows facts and impartiality in terms of the development on womens situation politically. However, the article asserts that the for the municipalities, data from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in 2001 are still incomplete, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) election results not yet included. Furthermore, the listing of COMELEC is not gender disaggregated (at this day and age), and had to take manual identification of female names, with this, though the article able to uphold truthfulness by telling this, it cannot deny the fact that the figures is not 100 percent accurate. In addition, in the data, of course, voting by women is a process of engendering, however, the article asserts that theres no availability of the data on local level voter output by LGU at that time, so thus, it is lack of information. Also, Ive observed theres a lack of enumerating the specific place/area/region where the

respondents came fromfigures (table) just laid down the number Female LCEs, its percentage, No. of LGUs reportingI think, filling up this lack would be a big help to maintain completeness and accuracy of the data. On the other hand, in the positive side, the points and discussions in the article able to replenish some flaws in the data; it cited some example LGUs (some actions/projects/programs of the LCEs, either men/women)and local government experiences, where there are noteworthy efforts in engendering local governancewhich highlighted that theres truly a gradual improvement on womens political participation; able to discuss how female respondents entered politics (the manner of entering politics) and also enumerated the positions/occupations held by respondents before their current office, it is done through survey. Finally, the authors assessment in the womens political participation that time and to the necessary ingredients in engendering governance is realistic and pragmatic, and I agree with it, however, when we put this article in the present time, since the article was published last 2002 (the data acquired 1992-2001), I think it would become somehow obsolete, since many years have passed, but not totally obsolete, in a sense that its data would serve as tracking device of the development

on womens participation in political arena, as well as basis of the current data and its assessment. CONCLUSION Public Administration is deeply intertwined with politics and dealt with the ideas of management and governance. Since this article, basically talks about those said conceptsengendering local governanceso therefore it is greatly relevant to the course. If engendering, as described in the article, is skewed towards increasing womens participation, it is because the patriarchal theme which pervades Philippine society has left women behind in many aspects of life especially in politics and governance. The study able to disseminate to the readers, particularly to the government officials, that there must a vital need of engendering local governance in order to have a good and successful public administration. To achieve that, administrators and bureaucracy, and local officials, either men or women, should push through for the integration of gender concerns in all facets of their administration; also must all be aware of the need to redress inequalities among the genders through policy and action.