One initiative in the Philippine Local Government Unit (LGU) to strengthen integrity in the public sector is the Partnership for Integrity & Jobs (Project I4J) which is a project co-funded by the European Union and its partners. It is implemented by the consortium composed of European Union (EU), Konrad-Adenaur Stiftung (KAS), and the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (eccp), in partnership with the Centrist Democracy Political Institute, League of Cities of the Philippines, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, and the League of Provinces of the Philippines.

The AIM Team Energy Center for Bridging Leadership, Asian Institute of Management (AIM), in partnership with KAS and the LoGIC Networks Philippines, has provided two capability development workshops thus far to support Project I4J’s Countrywide Development of a Culture of Integrity through Multi-sectoral Local Government Integrity Circles. The first workshop held on August 7-9, 2018 introduced using the Bridging Leadership approach of ownership, co-ownership and co-creation of possible integrity mechanism solutions to address the problem of corruption. The second workshop held on January 14-16, 2019 focused on co-owning integrity mechanism and project initiation/project management.

Project management sessions were included to equip the LGU Integrity Circles participants to learn some fundamental project management concepts and tools to help them plan and implement their integrity projects. Compressing key project management concepts and tools in a less than one day workshop is challenging. Nevertheless, focusing on selected fundamentals on project initiation, such as preparing a project charter, in the given six hours is better than none and can help Integrity Circle members better articulate their specific project objectives, scope/deliverables, schedule and cost/budget.

Such a short introduction may not be sufficient, however, and providing more intensive practical project management training with coaching and mentoring on application as a follow-up can support the Integrity Circle members a longer way. The LGUs that are not used to the discipline and best practices of project management can definitely benefit from such training and coaching and mentoring. On the other hand, the top executives, our governors, vice governors, mayors, vice mayors and other key officials can benefit as well from project sponsorship training.

It is heartening to learn that while perhaps many LGUs may not yet have a Code of Ethics and programs to develop a culture of integrity, some have identified developing such a code as one of their integrity mechanism projects.

To learn more about the initiatives and organizations mentioned in this post, here are some links below.

• AIM Team Energy Center for Bridging Leadership, Asian Institute of Management
• AIM Team Energy Center for Bridging Leadership, Bridging Leadership for a Society Without Divides
• LoGIC Network Countrywide Development of a Culture of Integrity through Multi-Sectoral Local Government Integrity Circles Through Training
• Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Partnerships for Integrity and Job Creation

One of the things that’s nice during the Christmas Season is the continuing initiative of Lito Tayag, Accenture Philippines, to keep in touch with its former Partners through the Annual Partners’ Get-Together. This year’s get-together was held on December 6, 2018 at the Accenture CVC at Uptown 2, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Every year, Lito Tayag give short updates on how Accenture Philippines has evolved and grown over the years. As of December 2018, Accenture Philippines has exceeded 50,000 employees deployed to eight clusters within and outside of Metro Manila.

Accenture Philippines was formerly SGV Consulting which spun off as Andersen Consulting Philippines in 1992 composed of the Manila Consulting Office and Manila Solutions Office. In 1992, some of the Consulting partners decided to stay with SGV&Co. while most joined the spin-off Andersen Consulting. I was one of those who joined the spin-off. Andersen Consulting later changed its name to Accenture in 01/01/2001. The name “Accenture” was the winning entry from a global contest to rename the company at that time. “Accenture” stands for “Accent on the Future.”

Way back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, SGV Consulting-Andersen Consulting was a pioneer in IT Outsourcing services for onshore clients. In 2002, as Accenture, it grew its services to include Voice and Non-Voice Business Process Outsourcing. Accenture Philippines has certainly come a long way from less than 300 people in the 1990’s to a 50,000-strong people organization in 2018.

It’s been way over a decade since we in Accenture Philippines, then Andersen Consulting Philippines, started advocating for eGovernment.  Singapore and Malaysia  were more aggressive in following the lead of developed countries in launching initiatives and projects to use technology to make government more citizen-centered and the provision of services more convenient and cost-effective.

Finally, with the government portal and Hack4PH initiatives led by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), eGovt in the Philippines may just gain traction.  No doubt, eGovernment may still be a long way off.  Nevertheless, taking more steps now in harnessing the creativity of our young millennials, and partnering them with investors to power up tech start-ups, can move the Philippines forward.

It was great to have a bit of opportunity to mentor some of the participants/ groups about possible business models for the sustainability of their initial ideas/concepts on eGovt service offerings using the platform and tools proposed by the DICT for the government portal. Excited to learn more about which groups were selected during their pitch today and demonstration of working prototypes.

Hack4PH is an initiative of the National government Portal (gov.ph), in partnership with the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

At that time, way back when, Accenture had already pioneered and established knowhow in Knowledge Management to enable its consultants to contribute knowledge capital from client work, as well as to support its consultants in designing, developing and executing more innovative solutions for its clients.

The Accenture Government Market Unit Knowledge Management organization supporting the government consulting practice globally was set up in Accenture Philippines as part of the firm’s strategy.  It’s role was to review and repackage knowledge capital contributed by consultants from the field to make these more useful and easily retrievable to help consultants create even better solutions.

To learn more about Hack4PH, click on this link: Hack4PH: The 1st Philippine e-Government Innovation Challenge.

These past few weeks have been truly inspiring and heartwarming given more opportunities to teach and facilitate programs at the Asian Institute of Management’s Zuellig School of Development Management (ZSDM). Teaching also brings with it many opportunities for informal coaching and mentoring. Teaching in AIM’s Development Management Programs is a small way of making a difference in the lives of Filipino Development Managers who are at the front line of initiatives, programs and projects aimed at addressing gaps and bridging social, economic, educational and other divides in the communities we live in.  

In the Leadership for Project Management for Development, Philippine Air Force (PAF) personnel were keenly interested in learning to improve their project management skills to bear on the implementation of PAF’s Strategic Plan “Plan Velocity Portfolio of Strategic Initiatives.”  We don’t usually think about our military, or at least I don’t, and it was encouraging to learn that they care a lot about protecting our country and  have strategies and plans to improve our air force. The Philippines’ being an archipelago, the air force is an important resource to quickly reach areas that are not easily reached by land or water specially in times of a disaster and when help must be quickly provided to affected communities.

In the 17th Leadership and Management of Change for Development Managers, Bridging Leadership Framework, we had very young teachers from Teach for the Philippines, a non-profit organization “…that works to provide all Filipino children with access to relevant and excellent education.”  Their passion for making a positive difference and strong advocacy for providing quality education for the Filipino youth was very inspiring.

While the “Bridging Leadership” projects varied from improving access to feeding programs, providing better sex education to youth in communities where this is still taboo, or providing quality information about how to avoid HIV and extend assistance to its victims, they all shared the goal of improving the lives of children and youth affected.  Listening to their ongoing or planned social change projects to bridge social divides in their schools and communities gives us hope that we have many young talented leaders who have a strong public service calling.  

We had some participants from businesses as well, and one of the “Bridging Leadership” projects a learning team wanted to address was how to help the Badjaos who have been dislocated from their homes by the sea and relocated to Pampanga.  While help was being given by the local government, apparently many Badjaos were dropping out, thus the need to look more closely into what might be better approaches and services to help them live a quality life with dignity in locations that are foreign to their roots.

In the 2nd Leadership in Project Management for Development Managers, we have our leaders from local government units, non-profit organizations, and businesses.  Designing development projects aimed at providing quality services to the public and getting these sufficiently funded require well thought out designs using the logical framework approach and problem tree analysis among other tools, whether these involve completing a new stretch of roads to connect an island like Tawi-Tawi from end-to-end, addressing environmental issues like perennial flooding due to rains and high tides coupled with land subsidence in Macabebe, Pampanga and neighboring provinces, municipalities and towns, or continuing improvement in rehabilitation facilities and programs for youth offenders in post-siege Zamboanga.

More power to everyone on their journeys of lifelong learning for better results and outcomes in their development projects!