The amount of data that the government gathers is staggering in scale and scope. Frequently, government offices are expected to handle and assess data sets in an effort to promote government transparency and thereby better serve the public. However, organizing, managing, and crunching numbers and insights from these vast, varied data sets can be challenging.

Thence, the Department of the Interior and Local Government – National Capital Region (DILG-NCR), in partnership with AI4GOV, rolled out a pilot initiative of Devolution Transition Plan (DTP) Analytics Executive Dashboard for adoption in all its 17 Local Government Units (LGUs) and Field Offices. The roll-out was launched on September 8-9, 2022, via Zoom Teleconferencing. The activity also served as an interfacing and updating exercise to apprise LGUs regarding upcoming strategic devolution activities.

In attendance were City and Municipal Planning and Development Officers, LGU planning staff and the Region’s Field Office Focal Persons.

The partner data analytics experts, AI4GOV, briefed all participants on the importance of data preparations, the basics of data wrangling and integrity of data, and lastly, how to accomplish the data wireframe of the dashboards.
The regional rollout was conducted as the synthesis of the DILG-NCR’s effort to assess the quality of the submitted LGU DTPs and pre-analytics using the Data Capture Form (DCF) into a simplified and visualized Regional DTP Dashboard.

Assistant Regional Director Ana Lyn R. Baltazar-Cortez, CESO V, highlighted the significance of the tool in addressing executive-level concerns regarding devolution.

“It is envisioned as a visual platform that can cut transaction costs involved in coming up with local planning strategies and also as a reference which can immediately point to the LGU stakeholders where to focus and what development agenda and priorities to pursue.” ARD Baltazar-Cortez said.

The DILG-NCR expects the dashboard to be of strategic value to all stakeholders in the region and be instrumental in the setting of devolution priorities.

Development Management Officer IV Leonides Frago, Jr. elaborated on the background and context underpinning the effort. He also discussed the Qualitative Feedback on the DTPs of each NCR LGU as a result of DTP Quality Assessment.

During the two-day interfacing, AI4GOV discussed in-depth the DTP Dashboard Analytics Proof of Concept and guided the LGU Planners and DILG Field Officers in accomplishing the dashboard.

Part of the primary objective of the activity is to apprise LGU principals as key stakeholders in anticipation of the cascading of the Functions, Services, and Facilities and Service Delivery Standards from the national government agencies scheduled in 4th Quarter of this year.

In closing, DMO IV Frago synthesized the comments, concerns, and recommendations of all participants. He then proceeded to lay down the summary of agreements and the next steps to be taken pursuant to DILG-NCR’s push to provide LGUs continued delivery of relevant and timely assistance. #