Philippines
This report outlines results from the initial pilot-testing of a Scorecard to assess the enabling environment for investment in water security, referred to as "the Scorecard”. Developed in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and partners, the Scorecard aims to identify conditions for attracting and maintaining investment in water security. The report outlines the Scorecard's rationale, scoring methodology, and presents its main components. It also provides results from seven Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka. Armenia's findings from a subsequent Eastern European pilot test are also incorporated. This is the first in a sub-set of working papers within the Environment Working Paper series presenting research on the enabling environment for investment in water security. It marks the beginning of a process to apply the tool and support policy reforms. The report refrains from offering policy recommendations, focusing on testing the scorecard's ability to assess conditions to attract and sustain investing in water security. For an illustration of country-specific policy recommendations, please refer to the forthcoming Environment Working Paper “Enabling environment for investment in water security: Pilot test in the EU’s Eastern Partner Countries - Armenia case study”.
This Review, undertaken in close co-operation with the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA), assesses the performance of agriculture in the Philippines over the last two decades, evaluates Philippine agricultural policy reforms and provides recommendations to address key challenges in the future. The evaluation is based on the OECD Committee for Agriculture’s approach that agriculture policy should be evidence-based and carefully designed and implemented to support productivity, competitiveness and sustainability, while avoiding unnecessary distortions to production decisions and to trade. At the DA’s request, the Review includes a special chapter highlighting key challenges to be addressed to improve the adaptive capacity of agriculture to climate change.
Migration’s positive contribution to development in the Philippines is well recognised and targeted by policies designed to maximise its benefits. But less clearly understood is: i) how migration affects a variety of key development sectors in the country, including the labour market, agriculture, education, and investment and financial services; and ii) how policies in those sectors can enhance, or undermine, the development impact of migration.The Interrelations between Public Policies, Migration and Development (IPPMD) project in the Philippines was conducted between 2013 and 2016 to explore these links through both quantitative and qualitative analysis. This chapter provides an overview of the project’s findings, highlighting the ways in which migration (comprising emigration, remittances and return migration) can boost development, and analysing the sectoral policies in the Philippines that will allow this to happen.
The Philippine economy has been transformed over the past decade into one of the fastest growing in the region, currently outperforming other major ASEAN economies. Growth has been spurred by record remittances from overseas Filipinos which has helped to fuel domestic consumption, as well as by the booming business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. Macroeconomic stability has been accompanied by sound fiscal management and political stability with a stable democracy and regular elections. The Philippine economy received a further vote of confidence in 2013 when credit rating agencies upgraded it to a BBB investment grade status. It has also improved its performance in several international rankings. Inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are also at record levels, albeit still low by regional standards.
The Philippines has developed their merger control regime quickly and effectively since the Competition Authority was created in 2016, thus establishing a reputed merger control system. This report assesses those important developments and makes policy recommendations to further strengthen the Philippines’ merger control regime based on principles of transparency, integrity and procedural fairness. This, in turn, can help promote and protect competition in the economy, which increases productivity and overall economic performance.
This profile offers a general overview of the Philippine system of budgeting at national level. Special characteristics of the Philippine budget process are examined, such as a commitment to fiscal discipline and the national planning function. The three steps of the annual budget formulation cycle are described: the development of economic assumptions and revenue forecasts; the use of a medium-term expenditure framework to assess the continuing costs of existing programmes; and identifying the resultant “fiscal space” through the Paper on Budget Strategy. The process for allocating resources is then described, including the “Budget Call”, the submission and review of proposals, the role of the central ministry and the line ministries, and finally the role of Congress, constitutional restrictions, and the nature of executive-legislative relations.
Asian cities are particularly vulnerable to risks associated with natural disasters. While they are exposed to various types of natural hazards, flooding and other water-related disasters pose particularly significant risks and undermine long-term economic growth, especially in coastal cities. Managing such natural disaster risks is an essential component of urban policies in fast-growing Southeast Asian cities, especially as the impacts of climate change worsen.
In addition to providing a framework for assessing disaster risk management policies in cities, this report also presents the results of assessment and locally tailored policy recommendations in five cities of different institutional, geographic, socio-economic and environmental contexts in Southeast Asia. They include Bandung (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Cebu (Philippines), Hai Phong (Viet Nam) and Iskandar (Malaysia). The study highlights that Southeast Asian cities are largely underprepared for natural disaster risks.
Through an assessment of disaster risk management (DRM) policies at national and subnational levels, the study aims to enhance urban resilience by: i) identifying policy challenges related to DRM ; ii) assessing the impacts of current DRM policy practices; and iii) proposing more efficient and effective policy options to enhance urban resilience.
Southeast Asia has experienced unprecedented growth and development as a result of market-led and export-driven policies over the last thirty years. This has had pulled millions out of poverty and drastically improved living standards over the course of a single generation. As industry becomes more diversified, job requirements demand more complex and sophisticated skills. Strong vocational education programmes at the local level can play a significant role in helping national economies to adjust to changes in the labour market, advances in technology and challenges associated with globalisation.
This report on Building local responsiveness in employment and skills systems in Southeast Asia presents learnings from local case studies in Thailand, Viet Nam, Malaysia and the Philippines in an effort to showcase successful examples of partnerships between employers and the vocational education system. It draws from local experiences to provide policy makers with practical advice for the implementation of vocational education programmes.
Chapter 5 describes the natural disaster risks facing Cebu (Metro Cebu). The chapter begins by examining the threat of natural disasters in Cebu, and how the metropolitan area can build greater resilience systematically and comprehensively through a variety of means. This chapter is divided into three sections: 1) the natural hazards that pose the greatest risk to Cebu are identified; 2) the current state of DRM policy in Cebu is assessed; and 3) governance issues of vertical and horizontal co-ordination are discussed.This chapter draws on the key findings of the OECD study “Green Growth in Cebu, Philippines” (OECD, 2017). It also benefitted from discussions held during the fifth Knowledge-Sharing Workshop, ‘Creating a Sustainable and Resilient Cebu’, that took place in Cebu (8-9 December, 2015).
Countries are faced with the growing challenge of managing increasing risks from climate change and climate variability, putting development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at risk. The adoption in 2015 of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement on climate change provides a clear mandate for increased coherence in countries’ approaches to climate and disaster risk reduction. Countries increasingly recognise the benefits of improved coherence between the two policy areas, exemplified by the number of countries that either have developed joint strategies or put in place processes that facilitate co-ordination.
Informed by the country approaches of Ghana, Peru and the Philippines, in addition to a review of relevant literature, this report examines the potential for increased coherence in approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction across levels of government and sectors. It identifies ways in which government officials, development co-operation and other stakeholders can support efforts to further enhance coherence between the two policy areas, not only in the three case study countries, but also those in other countries as well as providers of development co-operation.
This chapter reviews the competitive landscape in many sectors in the Philippines and discusses the importance of the new Competition Act for providing greater contestability of markets. It suggests some areas to consider in the implementing regulations which will accompany the new Act.