Institutionalizing Civil Society Monitoring and Assessment of Public Service Delivery to the Poor Development Objective: To develop the capacity of civil society organizations to monitor and assess the performance of government agencies in the delivery of services to the poor. Link to CAS and/or ESW & Relationship to Bank Operations: The social inclusion pillar of the current CAS focuses on improving service delivery to the poor. The Bank is supporting this objective through CDD projects, which seek to empower communities to enhance the accountability of their local governments, and also local government support projects, which strengthen the capacity of local governments to deliver services more effectively. However, the capacity of civil society to monitor and assess the overall performance of government in delivering services, especially to the poor,  has been constrained by fragmentation and a lack of consistent tools and approaches. The proposed grant therefore proposes to institutionalize use of a report card methodology to assess the performance and user satisfaction in the delivery of public services to the poor. Relationship to country/recipient's development program, including donor activities: Governance remains a key development challenge in the Philippines. Weak accountability between citizens and public service providers at the national and local levels has often led to socially and economically sub-optimal resource allocations and increased opportunities for corruption. The proposed grant would build on the experience of an earlier Bank-supported initiative - the Pro-poor Report Card - which demonstrated the potential for greater civil society involvement in measuring performance of public service delivery to the poor, as well as other on-going efforts supported by development partners (e.g., Partnership for Transparency Fund, The Asia Foundation) aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services. The proposed grant aims to enhance existing efforts through more harmonized approaches. A university partner has been selected to ensure better documentation, learning and long-term institutionalization of the approaches. Brief Description of the Proposed IDF Components/Activities (including Expected Outcome for each Component). (1)  Review and standardization of methodologies. Organizing meetings and workshops between government agencies and civil society organizations (CSOs) to review, build consensus on and standardize methods of data collection for M&E of priority service delivery sectors. (Outcome 1: Core standards and methodologies documented and agreed) (2)  Training in data analysis, interpretation, reporting, advocacy and dissemination. Providing training in data analysis, interpretation and reporting of collected information to include better packaging, dissemination and advocacy for effective. Linkage with policy process, including training needs assessments and organizing workshops. (Outcome 2: Civil society capacity to conduct analysis of service provider performance enhanced.) (3) Applying report card methodology. Applying standardized tools and methods of a single, agreed methodology including dissemination and advocacy of the results as a learning ground for various participants, including (i) building capacity at the community level; and (ii) data analysis, review of instruments to collect data. (Outcome 3: Report card methodology integrated into selected Bank-supported operations.) To enhance the capacity of civil society organizations and government agencies to undertake joint government-civil society monitoring and evaluation of local public service delivery, especially to the poor, through the development of knowledge partnerships between local universities.