Serving the Urban Poor through Public-Private-Community Partnerships in Water Supply

There are good reasons to believe that provision of water for the poor and poor communities can be a potent tool for poverty alleviation. As such, the special water supply programs intended for poor communities that were set up by the two private water concessionaires, after MWSS' privatization, in partnership with the communities, LGUs, NGOs, other private parties and the MWSS itself are laudable and should be considered for replication in other areas wherever possible.urban poor, private sector participation, public-private-community partnership, water services, water supply, water provision, water pricing

Assessment of Medium-Term National Action Agenda for Productivity (MNAAP) for the Agriculture Sector

To attain productivity growth it is necessary to have proper diagnosis and analysis of the sources and causes of low or stagnant agricultural productivity. This paper highlights the major issues in agriculture, examines the MNAAP agenda on productivity and identify the remaining gaps. The paper shows how government policy and institutional interventions have contributed to the erosion of the country's competitive advantage and hence to the poor performance of the agricultural sector since the 1980's. These interventions include the price and market policy interventions, policies on property rights and the public expenditure allocations which have hindered the achievement of a higher productivity in the sector. The examination of the MNAAP 2000-2004 goals, strategies, and activities shows that as government draws a map for agriculture productivity growth, no clear steps and actions are geared towards addressing the major policy constraints besetting the sector which can be considered as a prerequisite to attainment of productivity growth

Key Indicators for Public Expenditures in Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment

This paper develops key performance indicators of public expenditure allocation for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) with respect to the agriculture, natural resource and environment (ANRE) sector. To do this, the study reviews and analyzes the historical trends and patterns of public expenditure allocation and identifies strategic directions for public expenditure and related reforms. The observed faulty allocations of public expenditures, coupled with weaknesses in the budgetary process suggest major potential gains for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure program in ANRE. These areas of reform relate to whether: (a) public expenditures are being used to perform/provide public roles/goods vs. private ones; (b) choice of policy instruments (i.e., expenditure program vs. other market-based instruments) is most cost-effective; (c) public expenditures are optimally allocated across policy instruments, agencies and levels of government, regions, and type of expenditures; (d) mechanisms for funding and other related budgetary procedures promote efficient and effective allocation of public expenditures; and (e) cost-effective mechanisms for timely monitoring, evaluation, and impact analysis of public expenditures are adopted. The study finds that a thorough analysis, monitoring and evaluation of expenditure programs are therefore crucial in ensuring that policy objectives are attained though efficient and effective public resource allocation. The paper concludes with a list of key public expenditures indicators recommended for monitoring and evaluation of the MTPDP

Water in Metro Cebu: The Case for Policy and Institutional Reforms

Over the past decade, Metro Cebu has been rapidly moving toward growth and industrialization contributing as much as 70 percent to Visayas’ industrial output. However, associated with this progress are the concerns of various sectors about the quality of water services. Only 23 percent of the total households and a very small portion of industrial and commercial sectors are serviced by the Metro Cebu Water District. Hence, the large majority of households, industrial and commercial firms have to rely on private wells and private water vendors. This paper examines the policy and institutional factors that may be preventing the efficient, equitable and sustainable Metro Cebu’s water resource management. It also provides policy areas through which policy and institutional reforms can be implemented.water sector, water allocation, governance

Urban Water Pricing: The Metro Manila and Metro Cebu Cases

Water is a critical commodity for human survival and a scarce resource that must be appropriately priced to ensure that it is not wastefully and unsuitably consumed. This Notes offers an optimal pricing scheme, together with suggestions on the improvement of the overall water resource management that could provide the proper environment by which such pricing scheme can succeed.urban management, water sector, water demand

Metro Manila and Metro Cebu Groundwater Assessment

This paper describes the methodologies adopted and the results obtained in assessing the groundwater resources of Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Also some early and recent studies on the aquifer systems in the two metropolis are presented to draw some comparisons on the assessment and data acquisition methods and identify some gaps involved and the improvements needed. Some of the indicators used in assessing groundwater potential and associated problems include storage coefficient, transmissivity, safe yield, and salt water intrusion. The complex and expensive nature of actual field monitoring and analysis has encouraged the use of mathematical models in this study. Specifically, models adopted by NHRC and JICA were used and their respective capabilities, data requirements and modeling results for water balance are described. Although the two models have specific inputs unique to each model and the NHRC model used secondary 9 year data (i.e. 1982-1990) while JICA used one-year actual data (1990), the models gave similar results as far as recharge to groundwater and piezometric heads are concerned. It was found that Metro Manila gets an annual recharge of 206 MCM which is basically due to the high rainfall events during the wet season. Inflows from Laguna lake and leakage from MWSS distribution systems have been also identified as contributors to the recharge. It was also found that due to the over pumping of wells in some coastal areas in Metro Manila, sea water intrusion of aquifers is now becoming a serious problem. The same holds true in Metro Cebu where water for all types of uses comes from groundwater. That is why the annual recharge from rainfall to the aquifer of the Maghaway valley in Cebu amounting to be 1.4 MCM plus an additional inflow of 1.1 MCM coming from riverbeds, are believed to be insufficient to cover the increasing demand for water from all sectors of the society. It is envisioned that a regional scale groundwater and environmental planning scheme for the two metropolis needs to be developed by linking the models with GIS so groundwater data base maps can be overlaid with land use, management practices, recharge distribution and mass loadings of chemicals. A follow-up study which will incorporate this methodology will provide a useful management tool for developing water resources on a regional scale

Groundwater Supply in Metro Manila: Distribution, Environmental and Economic Assessment

Early studies on the groundwater supply of Metro Manila have indicated inefficient resource use that could lead to the eventual decline in the groundwater level, salt water intrusion, and other similar negative externalities. Based on the preceding premise, the paper intends to present a review and assessment of how groundwater resources are developed and utilized in Metro Manila. The study has evaluated technical reports and published literature. It has also adopted water balance models as well as Long-Run Marginal Cost methodologies in calculating the groundwater potential and cost of groundwater pumping. Through these methodologies, the study requires the incorporation of environmental externalities in valuing the unit cost of groundwater extraction. Specific suggestions concerning monitoring systems, aquifer characterization, Geographic Information System application, environmental costs of groundwater pumping, and policy enforcement have been raised. The paper identifies the need to refine the methodology and data set for instituting both supply and demand relationships and projections

The Brazilian Network for HIV-1 Genotyping External Quality Control Assurance Programme

The Brazilian network for genotyping is composed of 21 laboratories that perform and analyze genotyping tests for all HIV-infected patients within the public system, performing approximately 25,000 tests per year. We assessed the interlaboratory and intralaboratory reproducibility of genotyping systems by creating and implementing a local external quality control evaluation. Plasma samples from HIV-1-infected individuals (with low and intermediate viral loads) or RNA viral constructs with specific mutations were used. This evaluation included analyses of sensitivity and specificity of the tests based on qualitative and quantitative criteria, which scored laboratory performance on a 100-point system. Five evaluations were performed from 2003 to 2008, with 64% of laboratories scoring over 80 points in 2003, 81% doing so in 2005, 56% in 2006, 91% in 2007, and 90% in 2008 (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.003). Increased performance was aided by retraining laboratories that had specific deficiencies. The results emphasize the importance of investing in laboratory training and interpretation of DNA sequencing results, especially in developing countries where public (or scarce) resources are used to manage the AIDS epidemic

The Murciano-Almerian non nitrophilous therophytic grasslands

Se presenta la primera aproximación global al conocimiento e interpretación de los pastizales terofíticos no nitrófilos murciano-almerienses, realizada desde la óptica de la fitosociología integrada. El análisis se llevó a cabo con 190 inventarios fitosociológicos, utilizando métodos de ordenación clásicos y multivariantes (análisis de correspondencias), así como una profunda revisión bibliográfica. Se han reconocido 25 comunidades o asociaciones vegetales pertenecientes a las clases Helianthemetea guttati (18), Saginetea maritimae (3), Thero-Salicornietea (3) e Isoeto-Nanojuncetea (1). Se proponen como nuevas las cinco asociaciones que se recogen en el resumen en inglés.The present paper is the first approach to the global synthesis of the murciano-almerian, non nitrophilous therophytic grassland, belonging to the classes Helianthemetea guttati, Saginetea maritimae, Thero-Salicornietea and lsoeto-Nanojuncetea. These communities have been studied according to the methodology of the Integrated Phytosociology. Tables have been ordered by means of the manual method and also multivariate analysis (Correspondence Analysis). 25 plant communities have been recognized, the following are proposed as new associations: Stipo capensis-Diplota.xidetum lagascanae, Plantagini ovatae-Diplotaxidetum ilorcitanae, Leysero leyseroidis-Rumicetum gallici, Campanulo fastigiatae-Chaenorhinetum rupestris and Polypogoni maritimi-Teucrietum campanulati