The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), in partnership with Making All Voice Count (MAVC) and HIVOS International, conducted a Design Thinking Workshop and Consultation for the “Developing technology-based innovation platforms at provincial level: Supporting Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB) projects for 2015 in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to identify context specific tech-based innovations to support with making the BuB reporting and monitoring more feasible and information accessible to civil society organizations, provincial government and communities at large” project on November 27-28,2015 at Quest Hotel Cebu City, Cebu.
The first day started with Project Officer Irish Generoso together with Programs, Plans and Policy (PPP) Manager Crystal Eunice Dela Cruz and Technical Officer Norbert Peter Indunan welcoming the 25 participants from the municipalities of San Remegio, Tudela and Tabuelan as well as representatives from the provincial DILG and the province of Cebu.
The workshop utilized the design thinking process to develop technology-based platforms at the provincial level to improve relationships and increase opportunities for feedback loops between citizens and governments, with the OpenBuB portal as the basis for reporting, monitoring, and feedback of local BuB implementers and partners. The Design Thinking Process requires participants to empathize with the beneficiaries, define the problem, ideate solutions, prototype projects/programs and test the prototypes.
The first day of the workshop was designed for the first two steps. The participants were requested to share experiences of what worked and what did not work in the BuB reporting process. Grounded by their experiences, they were then asked to define the problem through an idea/problem map to identify the root causes of the problem.
Day 2 was focused on seeking innovative solutions and developing prototypes to solve identified problems. The participants had the opportunity to give feedback and improve their ideas during the workshop. It ended with a presentation of 2 proposed solutions, CEBU (Collective Efforts for BuB Undertakings, use of currently available “Barangay E-Systems & Tools (BEST)” platform for BuB monitoring and reporting) and SUGBU (Sustainable & Unified Gains on BuB Undertakings, a detailed system for project reporting, implementation and monitoring).