This master’s thesis examines the role of coordination in the implementation of climate policy in the Philippines. In the course of this, the study seeks to discuss how local climate planning is shaped by horizontal and vertical coordination. Based on the argument that intensified coordination could make implementation of local policy more effective, this study critically reflects on coordination among implementing national institutions, international donors, and the local governments. The study adopts a theoretical framework based on policy implementation theory and coordination theory and also incorporates insights from multi- level governance to reflect the different levels of government involved. Twenty expert interviews and one focus group with actors from all relevant levels and groups provide empirical evidence.
In the Philippines, many local climate action and planning processes for climate protection are recorded thanks to a pioneering national framework legislation on climate policy. This study, however, reveals that the implementation of climate policy at the local level could be accelerated through improvements in coordination that can drive the actions needed to combat and adapt to climate change in the Philippines.
On the basis of twenty expert interviews with actors from all relevant levels and groups, the study shows that the implementation processes and the local climate planning framework are particularly lacking coordination. In order to improve and streamline local climate planning in the Philippines, two crucial starting points are presented: (1) the development of a unified implementation approach for local climate policy and planning and (2) the application of a more integrative and inclusive approach for local climate implementation, tackling donor activities and local government involvement.
This study was conducted by Kora Rösler in the course of the Environmental Policy and Planning master programme at Free University of Berlin and Technical University of Berlin, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Miranda Schreurs and it received a grading of “very good”. This master’s thesis is the result of a year-long research work in 2016 in the Philippines and Germany thanks to a scholarship by the DAAD. The research project was embedded in the project Vertical Integration and Learning for Low Emission Development in Africa and Southeast Asia (V-LED), run by the German public policy consultancy Adelphi and one of the implementing partners, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in the Philippines in Manila.
