Co-Production as a Driver of Urban Governance Transformation? The Case of the Oplan LIKAS Programme in Metro Manila, Philippines

ABSTRACT

Social movement-initiated co-production has been increasingly described as an approach that enables urban poor communities in the South to gain wider access to urban governance. However, with a predominant focus on project-level interventions, the case studies in which movements truly affect governance matters in a metro scale are rare. One of the examples involving such an achievement is the activism of civil society organisations and urban poor groups in Metro Manila, Philippines, which have succeeded to have a major impact on the housing and resettlement programme; the Oplan LIKAS. This article analyses how the civil society was able to gain such a position and the way it utilised it. The documentation of the challenges experienced by the civil society reflects the nature of co-productive engagement in the South and shows that it may easily reach its limits in an exclusionary governance setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-production
• urban governance
• housing
• resettlement
• Metro Manila
• civil society
• public sector

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr Marife Ballesteros and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies for the support in the realisation of the research as well as all of the interviewees who contributed with their knowledge and time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Such as: TRICOR members: Community Organisers Multiversity, Urban Poor Associates; KOSMA (Coalition of People’s Organizations in Manila); CMP Congress members (former representatives of the Foundation for the Development of the Urban Poor), Homeless People’s Federation Philippines, DAMPA (Damayan ng Maralitang Pilipinong Api), TAO Pilipinas, Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies.

2. This article employs the term ‘urban poor movement/bloc’ to refer to the two major fractions which support engagement in co-productive action and refrain from radical contestation measures.

3. NHA: The National Housing Authority is the main housing agency mandated to provide housing for relocated families in the Philippines.

4. For example, the aforementioned HPFPH follows the logic of the SDI and refrains from engaging in rallies and manifestations. Another strong bloc in the UP-ALL, the groups under TRICOR remains active in this field, while in parallel it is engaged in various on-the-ground co-productive projects with the public sector.

5. The interviewees are referred to based on the sectors they were involved in: ether public sector in general (including government or key shelter agency) or civil society (including People’s Organisations) as well as civil society/ public sector for those who were engaged in both sectors at various stages of the Oplan LIKAS programme.

6. National Housing Authority.

7. The number of target units has changed during the Oplan LIKAS process. The numbers indicated here are based on the data of the DILG (2017; 2018). The overall target of the NHA and SHFC is set here at 120,868 units.

Additional information

Funding

The publication of the article was supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD); Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ).

Notes on contributors

Jakub Galuszka

Jakub Galuszka is an urban planner and sociologist currently working as a researcher at the Habitat Unit, Technical University of Berlin. Before joining the Habitat Unit he worked and conducted research in Poland, the Philippines, Georgia and South Africa.