SUSTAINING THEPRACTICES OF CITY GOVERNANCE: EXPERIENCES IN A DEVELOPING NATION

Abstract

Sustaining the practicesis vital in the progress of governance and quality service deliveryof a city.  However, little is known about the experiences of cities in developing nations.  This study aimed to explore the prevailing practices implemented in the northern city of the Philippines to effective public service delivery, the challenges and strategies to overcome the challenges.Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with diverse social service providers, residents and business in a northern Luzon city, Philippines.  Participants’ responses to open ended questions were then analyzed using Yin’s (2003) data analysis model.  Findings revealed that the prevailing practices are captured in three themes: e governance implementation, employee development and maintaining peace and order.  On the other hand, the challenges experienced were over population, downside of being a center of development, and pandemic problems.  The strategies implemented are bold, determined and committed leaders, agile participatory governance, and aggressive pandemic response management.  The results suggest that the government may consider local experiences to plan for policy enhancement.  Future research may develop tools to be used in quantitative methodology or use grounded theory to form a theory for sustaining practices of service providers in city government in a developing nation.