MAPping the Future

2^nd of 2 Parts

 

Dream Philippines 2040 (DPH 2040)

 

The Dream Philippines 2040 Roadmap, as currently being drafted, will eventually include: 1) a National Governance Charter (or statements of National Vision, Mission, Values), 2) the Eight Strategic Perspectives for National Development, 3) the Strategic Objectives corresponding to the eight strategic perspectives and, 4) the Country Performance Scorecard.

 

There was a need to use a strategy formulation and execution framework and methodology that has been successfully used by governments and even large corporations here and abroad. ISA and its sister advocacy for corporate governance, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) had been using the Robert Kaplan-David Norton Balanced Scorecard framework for strategy design and execution in the last twenty years and this approach was used in drafting the Dream Philippines 2040.

 

There are two reasons for the use of 2040 as the vision year. First, it is the same time frame for the AmBisyon Natin 2040. It was felt that using the same vision year of the current government plan and a private sector-initiated strategic plan will facilitate alignment. Second, 2040 is three administrations into the future: 2022-2028, 2028-2034 and 2034-2040. This avoids the strategy from being dependent on personalities.

 

DPH2040 starts with a proposed set of core values observed and desired among Filipinos. These are: Maka-Diyos, Maka-Bayan, Maka-Tao, Maka-Pamilya, Maka-Komunidad and Maka-Kalikasan (Translated: Love of God, Love of Country, Respect for the Individual, Love of Family, Sense of Community, and Protection of God’s other Creations, i.e., the Environment).

 

The mission of the Philippine nation is very clearly defined in the Preamble of the present Constitution and therefore was adopted in toto in DPH2040.The Preamble states: “Imploring the aid of the Almighty, we seek to build a just and humane society and establish a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations to promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and to secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, love, equality and peace.”

 

The vision for DPH 2040 is the consolidation, integration, harmonization and synthesis primarily of the original Philippines 2030 Roadmap and AmBisyon Natin 2040. The draft of this Vision statement is as follows: “By 2040, The Philippines shall be One Nation under God, one community of patriotic and responsible citizens living in a connected society characterized by justice, peace and security, free from poverty and corruption and fully participating in the fruits of inclusive and sustainable development.”

 

Development of a nation has many dimensions and perspectives. In DPH2040, eight strategic perspectives which coincide with the eight rays of the sun in the Philippine Flag were identified. These perspectives are: 1) Human Resources, 2) Natural Resources, 3) Technological Resources, 4) Financial and Economic Resources, 5) Political Infrastructure, 6) Physical Infrastructure, 7) Cultural and Social Infrastructure, and 8) Spiritual and Moral Foundations.

 

Each of these 8 strategic perspectives were then subjected to in-depth discussions to determine the strategic objectives that should be formulated to address the various aspects of these national development perspectives. The draft DPH 2040 Roadmap proposes 23 strategic objectives. There are other objectives that can be developed but in the interest of digestibility, these objectives were kept to a minimum.

 

And just to test whether the strategic objectives are aligned to the 17 SDGs of the United Nation, a matrix was created and it shows that indeed the strategic objectives address or are aligned to the 17 SDGs.

 

The challenge to the incoming administration, if they will consider the DPH 2040, will be to build the country Performance Scorecard which will show how the proposed 23 strategic objectives in the 8 strategic areas or perspectives can be achieved. This will require adoption of strategic initiatives that can be measured for monitoring purposes. Baselines (2021) will have to be established and targets for the Year 2040 will need to be adopted with milestones or basecamps for 2034 and 2028. A strategic plan without a performance scorecard will be a useless document. The country Performance Scorecard is where the rubber meets the road. If crafted and executed properly, the scorecard will help ensure that the country vision for 2040 will be achieved.

 

This draft Dream Philippines 2040 is just that. A draft, a talking paper. It has to be vetted by a group of citizens representing key sectors in Philippine society, – the poor, youth, labor, women, academe, media, religious, business, civil society, among others. The three branches of government (executive, legislative and judiciary) and the uniformed services will also need to be consulted for their inputs.

 

When completed, DPH 2040 will be submitted to the new administration but it has to be harmonized with the government’s AmBisyon Natin 2040 and the moving 5-year Philippine Development Plan. NEDA, with proper leadership, together with inputs from the private sector, should be able to harmonize these strategic plans and ensure the attainment of, as presidential candidate VP Leni Robredo said … “ang Pilipinas ng Ating Panaginip”(Our Dream Philippines).

 

(This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or MAP. The author is Co-Chair for Governance of the MAP Committee on ESG. He is also Vice Chair of Center for Excellence in Governance (CEG) and Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), and former Chair of Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). Feedback at <map@map.org.ph> and <rex@drilon.com>).