Owning a brighter future: A millennium promise

MANILA, Philippines - Development is traditionally perceived as progression that uses a top-bottom approach — “a transfer in one direction, from rich and powerful to poor and weak, from first to last” (Chambers, 1993). Only recently have we accepted a paradigm shift to participatory or people-centered development, where the poorest stakeholders at the grassroots level identify their own needs and wants.

For Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the inclusion of indigenous knowledge does not end in development planning. The agency capacitates poor countries to fully implement projects that they themselves choose.

Created by the United States government in 2004, MCC is an innovative foreign aid agency that partners with poor countries, awarding them multi-year agreements called “Compacts” or smaller-scale grants called “Threshold Programs” using American taxpayers’ money.

The agency varies a lot from other foreign funding agencies because of its emphasis on the value of good policies, results, and country ownership. There is a strict selection process by which countries “identify their priorities for achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction” and have to pass a balanced scorecard on just ruling, economic freedom, and investing in people.

But what differentiates MCC from other foreign funding agencies is country ownership. Aside from identifying their own projects, beneficiary-countries — called Millennium Challenge Accounts or MCAs — are allowed to “set up a local accountable entity to manage and oversee all aspects of implementation.”

Thus Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P) was born. Completely run by Filipinos, it manages the $434 million MCC grant for three major projects over a five-year period. The Philippine Compact was signed by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes in September 2010 and it took effect in May 2011. The signing ceremony was witnessed by President Benigno Aquino III and US Secretary of State and MCC Chair Hillary Clinton.

A year and eight months have passed and MCA-P is steering accurately on schedule. “We have launched and awarded two of the four civil works packages of the 222-kilometer road project,” says Marivic Añonuevo, MCA-P managing director and CEO, referring to the Secondary National Roads Development Project (SNRDP), which accounts for almost half of the total grant.

SNRDP covers the rehabilitation of the road and the repair or replacement of 60 bridges from (Western) Samar to Eastern Samar, two of the poorest provinces in the country. The size of the road is almost the distance between Manila and Baguio.

By the end of February, bids for the last (fourth) civil works package shall be submitted, and MCA-P is proud of the fact that all the procurements were done above board, in an open, fair and transparent process. When completed, the road project is expected to lower vehicle operating costs and save the time of Samareños living near the roads, thus enabling them to have greater access to commercial activities as well as to their basic needs, such as education and health facilities.

The second project is the $54.3 million Revenue Administration Reform Project to address corruption and increase the government’s tax revenues. This is in partnership with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), an investigation unit of the Department of Finance.

The premise is that reengineering, simplifying and standardizing business processes in BIR will make the revenue agency more efficient and will reduce interaction between the revenue agents and the taxpayers. “In the end, it will redound to increased revenue collection because taxpayers will be more compliant and the occasion for temptation would be lessened,” says Añonuevo.

With more direct impact on poverty reduction, the third project is Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (Linking Arms Against Poverty)-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Municipalities with poverty incidence of 70 percent and above in the six regions covered by the MCC grant automatically became project beneficiaries. In the spirit of openness, fairness and transparency, a random selection process was held among municipalities with poverty incidence between 30 to 70 percent. The actual lottery was participated in by mayors and barangay captains and witnessed by congressmen and governors.

MCC-KALAHI-CIDDS is in six regions, 22 provinces, and 164 municipalities.

As of December 2012, 1,150 community projects have been completed all over Luzon and the Visayas, most of them for basic social services (such as water systems, schoolbuildings, and health stations) and for basic access (such as farm-to-market roads, small bridges, and footpaths).

“KALAHI-CIDSS is driven by the needs of the community,” says Añonuevo. “Through the philosophy of MCC, it’s the people that identify their needs, and choose among themselves which project they will pursue. MCC only acts as a grant-giver.”

“In doing their projects, community people are empowered. In the process, they get the sense of ownership such that they take care of the projects they chose and implemented,” Añonuevo adds.

Take the case of Rosalita Cajoto, 37 years old, who sieved sand for eight hours a day for six days to help in the construction of a health station which her barangay will finally have for the first time.

Cajoto was one of seven women in Barangay Qui-ong, a poor barangay five kilometers away from the town proper of La Paz in Leyte province, who contributed sweat equity to build the barangay health center. She was paid a minimum wage, a fraction of which went to a pool that became the barangay’s counterpart fund to complete the project.

“Mahirap, pero kailangang tulong-tulong kami para matapos ang center. Amin naman ito eh,” (It’s difficult, but we need to work together to finish the center. After all, this is ours.) says Cajoto, a mother of one.

Qui-ong’s health station is one of 13 prioritized barangay sub-projects in La Paz funded by MCC. Cajoto’s sentiment of “owning” the project is shared not only by her fellow residents in Qui-ong but is also common in other KALAHI-CIDSS areas and even in the other two MCC projects.

Community people along the Samar roads are employed to take part in the road rehabilitation and will later be given the role to maintain these roads. The management and staff of BIR as well as of DOF’s RIPS have embraced the necessary reforms in their respective offices.

Even the MCA-P Management Unit runs its daily operations independently but with good coordination with MCC’s Resident Country Mission in Manila. Over the long term, MCA-P is setting its sights on forging partnerships with private companies and non-government organizations to complement the infrastructures — both physical and in terms of capacity building — provided for by the MCC grant.

More than three years to go before the end of the Compact period, MCA-P’s officers and staff remain unfaltering in their commitment to achieve one main long-goal: uplift the lives of Filipinos through economic growth.

They are, however, aware that this goal cannot be achieved overnight. They are aware that a lot needs to be done to accomplish this. But this early, and with the conviction to succeed, MCA-P and their partners are already “owning” the fruits of a long journey to a prosperous and happy life.

For Rosalita Cajoto and the thousands of others like her in the country, they have taken small steps for a bigger and brighter future that they can call their own. With Andy B. Saracho

Chambers, R. (1993) Challenging the Professions: Frontiers for Rural Development, Intermediate Technology Publications, London.