From pork to performance illuminates thepolitics of how public resources are spent and thedifficulty of the ‘last mile’ of service delivery. Crumblingfacilities, absentee teachers, and roads to nowhere wasteresources and retard development in many countries aroundthe world. These failures in last mile service deliveryunderscore a more intractable development problem, abreakdown in accountability relationships, as politiciansand civil servants act with impunity to extract privatebenefits at the expense of public goods. This study examinesthe extent to which technology and transparency can disruptthis low accountability status quo through turninginformation into collective action to improve governmentperformance by strengthening the accountabilityrelationships between politicians, service providers andcitizens. In 2010, a new president came to power in thePhilippines with a compelling message, ‘no corruption, nopoverty’, and embraced open government as a vehicle to burnavenues of retreat and advance governance reforms. Thisstudy features examples from five sectors, education,reconstruction, roads, municipal development, and taxcollection – where government champions sought to open upthe black box of service delivery and use digital platformsto disclose data and strengthen accountability. Thisresearch provides guidance for public, private, and civilsociety leaders committed to using technology andtransparency to curb pork-barrel politics and create digitaldividends for their communities. The study combines rigorouspolitical economy analysis with practical diagnostic toolsand recommendations for open government initiatives to godeeper in the Philippines and around the world.
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