Working Group as a Mechanism for Managing Bureaucratic Reorientation: Experience from the Philippines

摘要

To introduce a participatory approach to working with farmer-owned irrigation systems, the Philippine National Irrigation Administration (NIA) established in 1976 a special working group known as the Communal Irrigation Committee. This working paper analyzes the Committee's role in the NIA, with special attention to its unique characteristics, its mode of functioning, and the nature of its support systems. Headed by a key NIA official, the Committee is an informal and nonbureaucratic coalition of committed professionals, many from outside the NIA. Critical to the Committee's success has been its focus, through the provision of special training, research, technical assistance, community organizers, etc., on field work in conjunction with farmer beneficiaries. Support from donors, particularly the Ford Foundation, has lent credibility to the Committee's innovations, enabled it to develop new capacities in collaborating institutions, and provided it with an independent and flexible source of funding and staff help in facilitating acceptance of the Committee.