The Philippines has a decentralized governance structure that gives rise to significant institutional challenges in the coordination of climate efforts between the national government and the Local Government Units (LGUs). In addition, the cyclical changes in Government Administrations – six years for national government and three years for local government- affect the continuity of government plans and programs. Further, the inherent lack of technical capacity of politically autonomous LGUs impedes the ability of the government to systematically integrate climate change related measures in national and local government.

Recognizing these institutional constraints, NEDA, the lead socio-economic planning agency of the Philippines, has developed a National Long-Term Vision (NLTV) to give continuity to government programs across ensuing administrations. Known as “Ambisyon Natin 2040”, the NLTV embodies the aspirations of the Filipino people and provides the basic framework in the formulation of national, sectoral, and local development plans, such as the Philippine Development Plan, for the next 25 years.

The NLTV serves as a strategic platform to introduce new approaches in national development planning. However, a critical gap remains in the operationalization of the NLTV, particularly in its ability to be cascaded with appropriate climate resilient goals and adopted by the LGUs to eventually influence the formulation of their respective local development plans.

GGGI will cooperate to use the NLTV as an entry point to mainstream green growth along with the Philippines’ SDGs and NDC commitments in a way that these elements are considered in the preparation of national and local development plans.

This project will build on GGGI’s ongoing scoping work in order to a draft set of green growth guidelines that potentially include indicators and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for mainstreaming green growth in selected NDPs and in the Provincial Long-Term Vision (PLTV) of pilot provinces. The project also represents an opportunity to utilize the mechanisms and experiences gained from the CRGG Planning project in two participating provinces to pilot the draft guidelines, and to draw experiences from GGGI’s other country programs that have undertaken similar initiatives, such as Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates.

PROJECT OUTPUTS FOR 2017-18:

• Green growth related recommendations incorporated into selected National Development Plan and submitted to government
• Green growth related recommendations incorporated into the Provincial Long Term Vision of two pilot provinces and submitted to government
• Guidelines for mainstreaming green growth in development planning and replication plan finalized and submitted to government

PROJECT OUTCOMES FOR 2017-18:

• Guidelines for mainstreaming green growth in development planning approved by government

The overall outcome of the project is to support the government in ensuring that green growth is incorporated into national and provincial development planning. This will be done by piloting green growth guidelines in selected NDPs, as well as in the PLTVs. This will facilitate the improvement of the guidelines for adoption and the development of a replication plan in order to scale up the use of the guidelines. To achieve this, the project will deliver the following outputs:

Recommendations on mainstreaming green growth into the NDP developed and submitted to government. To pilot the draft guidelines on mainstreaming green growth, which will be developed in 2016, GGGI will conduct a desk review and stakeholder consultations to analyze relevant national plans and determine how green growth elements could be incorporated. This will test the applicability of the draft guidelines in national level planning and result to the formulation of updated national development plans that incorporate green growth elements for publication and dissemination to relevant audiences.

Recommendations on mainstreaming green growth into the PLTV for two provinces and submitted to government. GGGI will conduct stakeholder consultations and a desk review to analyze the relevant provincial plans, and prepare a PLTV that aligns with the NLTV 2040 and incorporates green growth elements. This technical work will involve piloting the draft guidelines on mainstreaming green growth to facilitate the development of the PLTV and updating the Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP) to align with the PLTV.

Guidelines on mainstreaming green growth into development planning finalized and submitted to government, along with a replication plan to scale up its use. GGGI will finalize the guidelines based on the results of the noted pilot exercise at the national and provincial levels. The final guidelines and a replication plan will be submitted to the government, presented to concerned institutions and stakeholders, and published for dissemination.