On May 19th, PTF joined the MIT Governance Lab (MIT Gov-Lab) and Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance (CCAGG) to share experiences surrounding a joint effort to encourage citizen monitoring of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programs in the Philippines at the annual GPSA Global Partners Forum.
The CCT monitoring program leverages funding from the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) to combine the MIT Gov-Lab’s experience in conducting research on social issues (particularly development programs), CCAGG’s expertise in engaging and empowering civil society in the Philippines, and PTF’s in-depth international experience promoting transparency and accountability in local communities. All partners made clear that combining the relative strengths of the different actors together broadens the impact of the project.
Professor Lily Tsai, MIT Gov-Lab Faculty Advisor, explained how her “unbiased research and on the ground experience strengthens the program and clarifies the data collected.” Likewise, Dante de Los Angeles, a Director of PTF’s affiliate local in the Philippines (PTF-Asia), pointed to the importance of collaboration to strengthen the theoretical approach within which the implementing CSO works. He added that “rigorous research methods define the project’s methodology and allows it to be carried out more accurately,” in turn making it possible to hold the project academically accountable.
