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Report Submitted by Philippines to the Fourth International Workshop on the CSD Indicators of Sustainable Development
Hosted by the Government of the Czech Republic in Prague
19-21 January 1998

TESTING OF THE UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UN/CSD) INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Background

The Philippines first participated in a workshop on sustainable development indicators (SDIs) during the Regional Consultative Meeting on Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development Indicators and the Workshop on Field Testing of Indicators organized by ESCAP which was held in Bangkok last 26-29 November 1996. The objective of the said workshop was to accelerate the process of development of SDIs and to contribute to the global efforts being put forth by the UNCSD.

Following this regional workshop, the Philippines in early 1997 indicated its interest to become a testing country for the CSD indicators of sustainable development. It likewise sought assistance from ESCAP to undertake the national testing. Administrative arrangements are being finalized for this purpose.

Philippine Initiatives on SDI Development

Even as the Philippines has not yet formally undertaken the testing process, work was underway as early as September 1996 on the development of a national set of SDIs. The UNDP-funded Integrated Environmental Management for Sustainable Development (IEMSD) Programme commissioned a study on the formulation of sustainable development indicators. The objectives of the study are: (1) to review the literature on SDIs focusing on those which have been adopted and are already operational in other countries; (2) to formulate a framework for a system of SDIs in the Philippines to aid in the monitoring of compliance with Philippine Agenda 21; and (3) to pilot test the proposed SDIs using recent Philippine data.

In the course of the study, a series of consultations and workshops were conducted involving the Government, academe, research institutions and the NGOs. The PCSD mechanism, through its various committees and subcommittees, was likewise utilized in validating the list of SDIs as well as in soliciting comments and suggestions on the study report itself.

The final report of the study will be a sourcebook on SDIs. It is now on its final stages of printing and contains five major sections. Section I proves a brief introduction on the objectives of the study and the organization of the report. Section II reviews the concepts of sustainable development, providing clarifications on the definitions of economic development, economic growth, and sustainable development.

Sustainable development indicators in practice are discussed in Section III. Previous studies on environmental accounting, environmental indicators and environmental quality indices and relevant applications to the Philippines are presented. Section IV presents the proposed set of indicators for the Philippines while future directions for work are suggested in Section V.

The suggested list of SDIs for the Philippines, numbering about 153, was classified into the following:

  1. indicators of economic welfare covering productivity, income distribution, employment, and basic needs;
  2. indicators identified at the level of ecosystems and critical resources. The Philippine Agenda 21 defines the action and intervention strategies for the seven identified ecosystems and critical resources namely, forest/upland ecosystem, agricultural/lowland ecosystem, urban ecosystem, coastal/marine ecosystem, freshwater ecosystem, mineral/mines and biodiversity; and
  3. indicators focusing on domestic issues related to the manufacturing sector, energy, and science and technology, and global climate change.

The study likewise identified a number of criteria in the selection of indicators. These include: relevance and usefulness for policy-making and decision-making, specifically for monitoring Philippine Agenda 21; reliability; feasibility; cost effectiveness; accuracy; and timeliness and validity.

For some of the indicators identified in the report, the study also contains an annex which lists the sources of the basic data in calculating the indicator, references in which the data are published, the unit of measurement of the data, the frequency of data collection, the period over which the data is available, and some description of the data. It was noted that the data source is usually a government agency in charge of collecting or compiling the data. References are either government publications or reports or special studies.

An annex containing a matrix of several SDIs in the pressure-state-response framework is also included in the report.

Next Steps

The "Sourcebook on SDIs" borne out of the IEMSD programme is a good reference material for carrying out future work, including national testing. A workplan for the national testing has been prepared by the PCSD Secretariat. The workplan, with an indicative budget, covers the following activities: organization, implementation, evaluation, and reporting. The Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), a multistakeholder body, shall serve as the coordinating mechanism for the national testing.

For the organization phase, a preliminary list of agencies and institutions has been identified to constitute the Technical Working Group (TWG) composed mainly of data sources and users. These include PCSD member-agencies from Government, civil society, labor and business, PCSD Committee and Subcommittee chairs, other government agencies, statistical agencies, private sector, academic/scientific community/research institutes, and UN agencies.

For the implementation and evaluation phases, the preliminary set of SDIs identified in the study will be the subject of review by the TWG. It is envisioned that the Philippine Agenda 21, which is considered as the national agenda for sustainable development, will be used as basis for identifying priority issues. As may be noted, the study has, to some extent, already assessed the availability of the data, including data sources and frequency. What needs to be done are: (1) to identify a core set of indicators; (2) to match priority issues with the indicators; (3) identify whether there is a need to generate new data/indicator not yet available to respond to the priority issues identified. For this purpose, the cost of producing/generating the data/indicator should also be assessed vis-à-vis its usefulness; and (4) institute a mechanism for the regular/periodic monitoring and assessment of PA 21 implementation. In relation to the latter, the UNDP-funded IEMSD Programme commissioned in the middle of 1997 a group of consultants to design a monitoring, reporting and evaluation system for Philippine Agenda 21.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Raphael Perpetuo M.Lotilla
Deputy Director-General, NEDA
Coordinator, Philippine Council for Sustainable Development
NEDA sa Pasig Building
Amber Avenue, Pasig
Metro Manila 1600, Philippines
Tel. no.: (63-2) 631-2187
Fax no.: (63-2) 633-6011
E-mail: rml@nedamis.neda.gov.ph

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