Joy Aceron

American University | AU · School of International Service

Going Vertical is a result of action-research collaboration between Government Watch (G-Watch) and the Accountability Research Center (ARC) on multi-level citizen action for accountability. This book investigates how one strategic approach to citizen accountability - vertical integration - enabled seven reform initiatives in the Philippines to gain...

The paper, the 9th in the TPA Now! Paper Series that started in 2021, shows the strength of using multi-level context analysis and engagement in enabling citizen movements to be strategic — to have a nuanced understanding of the state of governance and democracy; to identify entry points; and strategize in a context of closing civic space and to se...

The paper Pitfalls of Aiming to Empower the Bottom from the Top: the Case of Philippine Participatory Budgeting (involved reviewing the design and implementation of Bottom-Up-Budgeting (BuB) that ran from 2012-2016 under the Benigno Aquino government. The study is part of the ongoing action research collaboration between Government Watch (G-Watch),...

This paper learns from G-Watch accountability frontliners that conducted the observation of the SAP validation by looking into and analyzing their reports and notes, and by undertaking informal online reflection-assessment sessions with them. The quick undertaking of G-Watch accountability frontliners to observe DSWD’s SAP in the midst of a pandemi...

A chapter in the book entitled “Does Democracy Have a Future?” published by the University of Malaysia in Sarawak, it takes on the topic of accountability in political financing. The chapter underscores the importance of strengthening accountability in political financing and the institutional reforms needed to make this happen to support pro-peopl...

“Sandwich strategies” are interactive processes in which reformers in government take tangible measures that reduce the risks of citizen action from below, driving virtuous circles of mutual empowerment between pro-accountability actors in state and society. This case study is one of a set of 18 published here, which are among those included in com...

“Sandwich strategies” are interactive processes in which reformers in government take tangible measures that reduce the risks of citizen action from below, driving virtuous circles of mutual empowerment between pro-accountability actors in state and society. This case study is one of a set of 18 published here, which are among those included in com...

This paper presents the findings of G-Watch monitoring on whether and how citizen engagement and accountability mechanisms of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) have remained active despite the pandemic. The research involved reviewing relevant loan documents with the World Bank to establish whether loans entered into by the government f...

The paper answers what “youth-led” means based on existing literature and insights from G-Watch youth organizing work. It examines whether the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been truly youth-led and indicative of reform gains from the SK Reform Law.

The challenge of transformative impact of transparency, participation and accountability (TPA) initiatives points to the need for a different way of doing accountability. To advance the discourse and practice of ‘strategic TPA,’ Government Watch (G-Watch), in partnership with Accountability Research Center (ARC), launches TPA Now! A Paper Series on...

The paper looks into the loans and grants incurred by the Philippine government to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a database of the relevant loans and grants with financing institutions, the highlights of the agreements, including their priority sectors and payment terms. The paper also includes a review of emerging international sta...

This paper analyzes the result of an online survey that G-Watch, a citizen action and research for accountability in the Philippines, has opened up publicly from April 27 to May 7, 2020. The survey aimed to know the situation of SAP implementation by generating response online from whomever would be willing to respond to the survey. The survey ques...

A National Meeting of G-Watch local core group members and partners was convened on February 23-25, 2017 held in Astoria Plaza in Pasig City. The discussion focused on how and why G-Watch should reboot, what are the processes it entails and what should be the priority issues and agenda it will tackle.

This short paper briefly looks at Balangay and how it was developed as a useful application of digital technology to address a specific governance problem of Legazpi City. It also examines the challenges that Legazpiitfaces in enabling strategic collective action to promote responsive and accountable governance. In a nutshell, Balangay is a cloud...

The Philippines’ longstanding campaign for agrarian reform has largely been led mainly by peasant organizations with deep links to the democracy movement. Following the transition from martial law to electoral politics in 1986, a broad coalition was able to secure the legislation of meaningful agrarian reform. Yet landlord power and impunity have m...

G-Watch is formerly a social accountability program of a university founded in 2001 that is currently rebooting, in transition to being an independent national action research organization embedded in a citizen accountability movement around the Philippines aiming to contribute in the deepening of democracy through the scaling of accountability and...

The research investigated how one strategic approach to citizen accountability - vertical integration – enabled seven reform initiatives in the Philippines to gain meaningful results.

This study aims to determine whether and how the Open Government Partnership (OGP) has been leveraged to promote a more accountable, open, and responsive government in the Philippines.

The paper looks into the context and proposed reforms on campaign finance in the Philippines as strategic measures to transform elections and party politics in the Philippines.

The paper explains vertical integration as a strategy for scaling accountability and citizen empowerment.

The report looks at how the Report Card Survey being conducted by the Civil Service Commission on the implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act can be improved in assisting the frontline agencies to ensure “prompt, efficient, honest and high quality” delivery of services.

The paper presents the result of the exploratory research conducted by a research team of Ateneo School of Government that studied the impact of civil society participation on the responsiveness of local spending for education. Employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods, the said research explored the following: (1) developing a c...

The article captures the perspectives of advocates of party reform on the critical components of the reform and the ways forward.

The book forms the narrative of this phenomenon of reformers in civil society and social movements engaging the partisan electoral arena as part of the democratization process. It chronicles the 1992, 1998 and 2004 presidential engagement of these reformers and documents their 2010 engagement. Each case study presents a comprehensive narrative of w...

Devolving power to local governments has been good for the Philippines. But the best practice cases in local governance are only a start in reforming the Philippines; they are insufficient when they remain confined with the limits of their respective local government units (LGUs). Unless these local successes are scaled up and connected, their impa...

Political Democracy and Reforms (PODER) Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) With support from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung for Liberty-Philippine Office Background The role of political parties in making democracy work is well-discoursed and, at least in theory, is also well-accepted. Worldwide, however, there is growing dissatisfaction towards partie...

Using monitoring results from G-Watch monitoring of school-building projects, the article highlights the policy gap in the allocation of school-building that led to its vulnerability to politicization and corruption.

The paper scans the recent experience of Philippine civil society on citizen monitoring of government public financial management.

This policy study monitors and assesses response of civil society and government to election-related violence (ERV). It is a follow-up to two cause-and-effect studies of PODER on election-related violence, one in Abra and the other in Nueva Ecija. The research involves scanning of ERV in selected hotspots, documentation of successful civil society...

The paper explains the 'maldevelopment' of political parties in the Philippines and its impact.

The paper explains a constitutional provision in the 1987 Philippine Constitution called People's Initiative, which is a mode of changing the Constitution that involves direct people's participation, tracing the history of the several failed attempts by social forces in making use of this provision.

The paper is a review of Nathan Quimpo’s book Contested Democracy, which highlights the problematique of the labels the book uses on civil society practice and the challenges in grappling with the application of radical democracy given realities of Philippine politics.

This chapter from the 2007 book Frontline Leadership narrates the leadership profile of Jesse Robredo of Naga City, who was known for being a leading figure in participatory governance in the Philippines. It investigates the context and leadership qualities that enable successful participatory governance in Naga City and the limits and challenges o...

The report looks into the responsiveness and efficiency of business licensing in the Philippines using Bacolody City as a case study.