IT’S A COMMON story always told, about national economies that are growing, and yet the benefits of economic growth do not trickle down to the village level.
The truth is, the economic approach of trickling down has become unpopular, and the whole world is looking for new ideas that could replace it. Some economics are suggesting “bottom to top” development, and that is the approach that I prefer. For my part however, I would rather call it “level up” development, a term that is more akin to information and communications technology (ICT).
For the most part, it would not be practical to blame the national governments for the failure of economic growth to trickle down to the village level, especially in countries where many villages are separated by seas and deserts. Rather than wait for the fruits of economic growth to trickle down to where they are, the villages should just make their own economies grow, and that way, they would not only be self-supporting, they would also be self-sustaining.
In theory, there is no village anywhere in the world that could not be reached by a signal, given the full mix of signals that are now available everywhere. At the extreme, there are always satellite signals that could be used for internet connectivity, assuming that the usual broadband sources are not available.
Some might argue that satellite connectivity could be very expensive, but as far as I am concerned, there should be no price to the benefits of economic development that could happen as an outcome of village empowerment.
As it is now, it is already possible to deliver healthcare and education anywhere and everywhere, where there is a signal. Using these same signals, it is also possible for the local people to get access to justice, livelihood and employment services from where they are, regardless of where they are. With the use of signals and computers, it really does not matter where the villages are, because the people there could get the services that they would need.
For all intents and purposes, ICT is a product of science & technology (S&T), no matter how much further it has developed on its own. In the context of village empowerment however, it would be very practical to include ICT as a major component of whatever bundles of technologies that should be delivered to the village level.
The other major components should be energy and environment, among others. Without energy, there is no way for the villages to develop. In this context, the environment component should include solid waste management, rainwater collection climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR), among others.
The style and manner of village level governance varies from one country to another. Here in the Philippines, village level governance is done through the Barangay Councils, an elected body headed by a Chairman.
In theory however, the barangay community is actually a public corporation wherein every voter is a stockholder, and wherein the Barangay Council serves as the Board of Directors. Just like any corporation, however, the Barangay Assembly functions like a Corporate Stockholder’s meeting wherein the majority could overrule the Board.
Just a few years back, it was very difficult for Barangay Councils to computerize their operations, considering how expensive it is to maintain their own data centers and local area networks (LANs). Nowadays however, cloud computing and server virtualization is already commonplace, and it is already possible for them to computerize quickly and economically. To top it all, software applications for human resources, financial accounting and revenue generation are already available on a fee based, per transaction billing only, meaning that no actual front end costs will be charged.
As it is now, every village is already in a position to computerize their operations if they want it, when they want it. In that sense, every village is already empowered, at least as far as ICT is concerned.
Other than ICT however, all villages would still need more S&T in order to move forward, but that is not really a problem. That said, the only remaining question is whether or not the people in these villages would want to move forward, with or without the help of the government.
It could not be denied that for the most part, the people in the villages would tend to be dependent on the mayors of the cities or municipalities that have jurisdiction over them. This could probably be due to the dole out mentality that is very prevalent in our culture. It is either that, or it could be due to the culture of patronage politics that is also prevalent.
What is really needed is for the people in the villages to break out of this dependency syndrome, regardless of whether their village officials would want to do so or not.
It is very clear that what is lacking is the political will among the people in the villages to take their own destiny in their own hands. The fact is, they own their own destiny, and it is really up to them where to take it. Some might say that many of the people in the villages are just too busy in just trying to survive, and they are probably more concerned about their present needs, meaning that they would not care so much about their future.
Despite the apparent lack of political will at the village level, a group of concerned citizens who belong to the Gising Barangay Movement (GBM) are still trying to wake up people at the village level so that they would participate in their own governance, in accordance with the Local Government Code (LGC). For my part, I am going to support them with ICT resources, because that is what I do best. As they are not giving up, I will also not give up./PN
