Urban Transition, Poverty, and Development in the Philippines

Draft report to be presented at the IIED-UNFPA research meeting on population and urbanization issues, London. September 2009. This country demonstration paper is part of a broader five-country study on urbanization. The paper describes the urbanization pattern in the Philippines, with the aim of improving our understanding of trends/patterns and their relationships to other social, economic, political and demographic processes. It analyzes the historical and structural forces that have shaped the urbanization of Philippine cities. Briefly, it describes the growth and expansion of cities particularly their roles and functions in urban and national development for the last 50 years, with special focus on the last 15-20 years. The paper highlights the intersections of socio-political, economic and demographic forces and how the interplay of local-global forces during the last decade or so have shaped urban development patterns. In particular, it depicts the dominance of the national capital region (Metro Manila) over other Philippine cities and the consequences of this relationship to urban and national development. This study also attempts to clarify rural-urban linkages, evaluate urban-related policies, and identify more proactive approaches towards upcoming urban growth and development. Finally, the paper outlines the key challenges facing cities within the context of national, regional, and global processes. In particular, it highlights the key challenges faced in promoting in promoting inclusive and sustainable cities. Hopefully, this can serve as blueprint for the subsequent promotion of analogous studies in the Southeast Asia and the Philippines, in a second stage that would be carried out under the auspices of UNFPA’s country offices

Risk Governance in Metro Manila: De-Politicising State-Civil Society Relations in Crafting Housing Resilience for/with the Poor

The 1990s decentralization and democratization movements saw the rise of civil society engagements with the state in crafting/implementing its social reform agenda. Partnership with civil society was the key in making urban governance an effective foil for the rising informality in Metro Manila and other rapidly urbanizing areas (Karaos 2018; Porio 1997, 2004). But the increasing climate disasters (e.g., Ketsana 2009, Haiyan 2013) that inundated millions of urban-rural poor had led to shifting spaces of power (Porio 2012) in state-civil society engagements, revealing the complexities of urban governance in the era of climate disasters and heightened state-capital partnerships. Mayors, for example, have taken hold of their constituencies by employing democratic-laden strategies like “networked governance practices” (Porio 2017). While multi-stakeholder engagements have defined housing-land acquisition initiatives, lately public-private partnership agreements seem to articulate the ascending power of governments, private sector and external NGOs (see Porio, 2017). Examining the housing-land initiatives of six NGO federations, this paper argues that state-civil society engagements have been reconfigured by 1) increasing climate disasters, 2) entanglements with external NGOs and local governance systems and 3) rising tensions within/without. While CSO partnerships with external NGOs/local governments have advanced the “land, housing and livelihood” agenda of the poor, it had also “blunted” civil society’s “relatively autonomous spaces” to erode the oppressive tendencies of both capital and the state. In conclusion, the concept, “negotiated resilience” (Chu, 2017; Porio 2017) allow understanding of how local-national leaders’ craft risk governance strategies while building housing-livelihood resilience among the urban poor, highly exposed and vulnerable to climate disasters

Civil Society and Democratization in Asia: Prospects and Challenges in the New Millennium

This paper examines the conceptual foundations of civil society and its role in shaping socio-political life in the past decade as well as their prospects and challenges for the next millennium. It argues that civil society is a key mediating force in changing the state- society dynamics, which in turn, is also being reconfigured by the globalization of social life and the rise of identity and resource claims from various groups. Furthermore, state- civil society engagements have been influenced by communication technologies, facilitating the efficient movement of information, capital, and human resources across groups and national boundaries. Finally, the growth of civil society must always be seen within the context of the Asian states trying to balance its functions of promoting political legitimacy and economic development

An assessment of education and the worst forms of child labour: How do education policies and programmes work (or not work) for children?

The report is divided into several parts. Part I outlines the research objectives, design and methodology of the study. Part II describes the structure, policies and programmes of the Philippine educational system. Part III describes the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of working children/child labourers. Part IV describes the school policies and practices that undermine and/or support the schooling of working children/child labourers while Part V links the macro education policies and micro education practices, highlighting the barriers to implementation of education policies

Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change by Integrating Climate Risk into Long-Term Development Plans and Disaster Management

Extreme weather events affect vulnerable urban areas adversely, with substantial damage, disruption of normal economic and social activities and services and loss of human life and can also alter the medium or long-term development trajectory of the cities. Thus, disaster management is an important context for integrating adaptation into decision-making for the cities at risk. The APNfunded research project in Mumbai, Bangkok and Manila has been undertaken with the primary objective of identifying and measuring the short to medium-term impacts and responses to extreme weather events and their policy implications for long-term adaptation capacity and development planning for the cities. The project includes analysis of primary and secondary data to measure the physical, economic and social losses in the case study cities. We also examine the short to mediumterm responses from the local government and citizens and evaluate if they enhance the adaptation capacity of the cities to cope with future weather events and flood risks. This analysis has policy implications for disaster management, city resilience and adaptive capacity of the cities in the longterm. The project is particularly relevant to the selected cities belonging to the developing world where natural disasters have long-term implications for development and poverty alleviation

The ‘Wickedness’ of Governing Land Subsidence: Policy Perspectives From Urban Southeast Asia

Drawing on Jakarta, Metro Manila and Singapore as case studies, we explore the paradox of slow political action in addressing subsiding land, particularly along high-density urban coastlines with empirical insights from coastal geography, geodesy analysis, geology, and urban planning. In framing land subsidence as a classic ‘wicked’ policy problem, and also as a hybrid geological and anthropogenic phenomenon that is unevenly experienced across urban contexts, the paper uses a three-step analysis. First, satellite-derived InSAR maps are integrated with Sentinel-1A data in order to reveal the socio-temporal variability of subsidence rates which in turn pose challenges in uniformly applying regulatory action. Second, a multi-sectoral mapping of diverse policies and practices spanning urban water supply, groundwater extraction, land use zoning, building codes, tenurial security, and land reclamation reveal the extent to which the broader coastal governance landscape remains fragmented and incongruous, particularly in arresting a multi-dimensional phenomenon such as subsidence. Finally, in reference to distinct coastal identities of each city–the ‘Sinking Capital’ (Jakarta), ‘Fortress Singapore’, and the ‘Disaster Capital’ (Manila) the paper illustrates how land subsidence is portrayed across the three metropolises in markedly similar ways: as a reversible, quasi-natural, and/or a highly individualized problem