To Induce or Not to Induce: The (Non) Participation of Local Development Actors in the Integrated Solid Waste Management of Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines

This paper explores the participation or the lack of it by the local actors in the Solid Waste Management sector in the City of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines. It endeavours to understand the rationale behind a case of ‘disconnect’ in ‘participatory roles’ amidst the background of democratization, decentralization and participatory governance leading to the notions of state and community failure. The paper takes advantage of governance theories in conceptualizing the main argument that is in an episode of what may be categorized as a situation of ‘failure’ on the part of the actors in the ‘governance triangle1’, the bureaucracy still stands as the most significant driver to revolutionize solutions to development issues by virtue of its ‘responsibility to its citizenry’ or more formally its nature institutionally, legally and organizationally. It is not the people in the community, the private firms and non-government organizations nor funding donors who have the inherent role to induce participation despite becoming parallel bodies mirroring this intrinsic responsibility by the government. While most often than not, in today’s era of globalization and modern societies these other actors are acknowledged to have more capacity in all aspects especially financially and technical expertise wise, the point of the matter is that, in the absence of the state’s participation, the whole exercise is deemed futile. It is therefore the state who is the absolute actor in the position to ‘induce participation2’ where there is lack in ‘organic participation3’ among other players. Different forms of partnership may evolve e.g. as depicted in the ‘expanded governance triangle’ (see chapter 2) but it is important to acknowledge that despite the apparent incapacity of the state, it should at the very least still remain as the ‘non-negotiable actor’ of participation process in local development.