Real World Challenges in Communicating Governance Reform PREM Learning Week April 2007 Caby Verzosa Development Communication Division External Affairs WORLD BANK STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING PROGRAM

Managing the Politics of Reform: A Case Study on Public Procurement Reform in the Philippines The World Bank

Getting from “bad” to good”?: Creating a Well Oiled Machine How tounify the Executive branch? How to unify the Executive branch? How tomobilize civil society groups? How to mobilize civil society groups? How tolink CSOs and reformers in government? How to link CSOs and reformers in government? How torecruit “champions” in the Legislature? How to recruit “champions” in the Legislature?

Reaching Out Radio: The swath & the dagger The Media Campaign: The Communication Strategy Advertising: Creating a ‘brand name’

The Government Procurement Reform Act Consolidates more than sixty laws pertaining to public procurement Covers all national agencies, government owned and controlled corporations, all government entities and instrumentalities; and all Local Government Units Institutionalizes transparency measures in the competitive bidding process through: wide public dissemination of bid invitations and awarding of winning bids through advertisements in newspapers, publications of general circulation and procurement website mandatory use of the Government Electronic Procurement System (G-EPS) for the procurement of common supplies establishment of a central government procurement web site as primary source of information on all government procurement transactions participation of civil society as observers in the bidding process

Targeting Strategies Unmovable opponents OpponentsUncommitted and Uninvolved Uncommitted and Involved AlliesHard-core Allies Copyright © 2001 by Gary Orren Minimal persuasion De- activate or convert Minimal persuasion Activate Reinforce Minimal persuasion

Targeting Strategies Unmovable opponents Congressmen linked to contractors, mostly at the provincial, municipality level Opponents Local government -- LGUs will now be bound to a uniform code Uncommitted and Uninvolved The general public and the poor were all indirectly involved in the reform campaign Uncommitted and Involved Church, business community, general media Budget and procurement government officials Cabinet members Legislative staff Allies NGOs, esp. in anti- Corruption College students Big contractors, Contractors Association Most donor agencies Hard-core Allies Government reform team Procurement Watch Philippines Anticorruption Commission Investigative media

Timeline Law Passed Jan 2003 Presentations to NGOs /Civil Society Business Media Training on Procurement GPPB Website Government e-Procurement Implementing Rules & Regulations Monitor Procurement Practices Train Trainers from Ministries Trained 83% of LGUs GPPB Help Desk responded to 4000 Questions Train Civil Society for Bids & Awards Committees

Public Awareness of the Procurement Law A surprising statistic ?…

Attitudes toward the Law Question 105 : We have a law that provides for the standard rules in public bidding for government projects to guarantee that all contractors are given equal opportunity to join and win a government contract. This is called the Government Procurement Reform Act or RA9184. Have you heard or read something about it? Despite low public awareness of the law… … majority believe the law will help reduce corruption. Question 106 : Do you think this law will help reduce corruption in government contracts?

Support for Provisions of the Procurement Law

Attitude towards Corruption

Willingness to take Action

Lessons Learned Lesson #1 –Anticipate RISK, go beyond technical aspects of reform

Lessons Learned Lesson #2 –Build a coalition for support

Lessons Learned Lesson 3# –Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

Lessons Learned Lesson #4 –Tap available resources For Risk analysis Stakeholder mapping Political economy issue identification