As part of its commitment as member of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee, and in support of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Union of Local Authorities (ULAP) is conducting a project in partnership with Making All Voices Count (MAVC) and Hivos International entitled “Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries in the Sub-National Level through the Use of Context Specific Technology-Based Platforms by Mutli-Stakeholder Groups”. This project, which will run from June 2016-May 2017, is a product of ULAP’s Gold Prize win during the Global Innovations Competition Week in Accra, Ghana in July 2016, besting 370 project ideas from Asian and African countries.
This is considered to be the first in the Philippines to implement extractive industry transparency initiatives at the sub-national level that goes beyond the transparency in datasets of all sectors, but provides for an avenue for localization of the decision-making and agenda-setting in the project sites.
ULAP has just completed its research in order to identify (3) partner provinces for the project. The Provincial Local Government Units (PLGUs) were shortlisted based on their (1) compliance with the EITI and participation to the initiative’s last two country reports, (2) receipt of shares from national wealth and (3) presence of indigenous communities that have been affected by EI operations.
The ULAP team is scheduled to have the first series of consultation meetings with the Local Chief Executives this July 2016.