‘Whole of nation’ approach unveiled
and the public, but also internal communication among government agencies.”
As is continually drilled into communicators, content is king. But one cannot do content if one is unable to do messaging, the broad strokes, the key takeaways. And that is what the Duterte administration is lacking. Some political elites and bureaucrats may believe, “knowledge is power and that sharing it results in diminished influence.” When government does not see the need to raise their own capacity because they already own media outlets, such as stateowned radio, and TV, the whole communication planning suffers. Weak government communication has clear negative consequences. Imagine a scenario in which PRRD, toward the end of his term, is traveling around the country and learning that citizens did not know about the policy priorities of his administration, worse, of the reforms he has instituted.
So, in the pre-SONA, the shift of governance approach was articulated — from whole-of-government approach to whole-ofnation approach. But I do not see this easily understood by a communication team that cannot spell administration correctly and insists on doing an accomplishment report for the past two years instead of the current year since SONA is done annually.
“Whole of government” is an overarching term for a group of responses to the problem of increased fragmentation of the public sector and public services and a wish to increase integration, coordination and capacity. A desire for increased
- cy generally drives the adoption of whole-of-government approaches. “Whole of nation” is partnering with business, citizens and other stakeholders to develop better solutions together. This will change the concept of governance, even if they are not part of “government”
governance in a world of complexity lies in such systems-level coordination. Government is no longer the direct service provider but is a “lever of public value inside the web of multi-organizational, multi- governmental and multisectoral relationships.”
The three pre-SONA events of the Duterte administration gave the public an insider’s view on how the cabinet cluster system is working today, how bureaucrats working outside the limelight are toiling day in and day out to get things moving under a leader with strong political will. On how operating in silos is no longer the way things are but of “networked government.” Such shift ushers in a different way of managing the web of relationships within and surrounding government. It is not just about “strengthening the formal and informal networks within government, but also those outside of government, locally and internationally.”
With that marked shift in approach under PRRD, we can probably see what and learn how Singapore has started in building its future: SDSecure Initiative and Our Singapore Conversation, both led by
safety campaign while the latter was a year-long process involving more than 600 dialogue sessions and nearly 50,000 participants about the nation and its future.
As one administration is replaced by another, Filipinos always wonder how long institutions would take to respond to every problem. Will we see a break from tradition with PRRD? Will he will it so that publics are engaged in putting long-term plans in place and getting Filipinos to think long term? Can he bind the next leaders to a common path of development? One way of dealing with the increased complexity is scenario planning, so policymakers can see their own biases and be more imaginative. Singapore started this 20 years ago and now runs national scenario planning exercises every few years. Another way is horizon scanning to try to identify game- changing events; after all Duterte was and is a game changer.
The winds of change are here, hard as it may seem. The undercurrents are strong for we have a president who does not want to rule in the traditional safe zone. He wants to hit every foundation of this country. Wrapped by the sandstorm, political, religious, economic and intellectual elites of the nation are reacting. Damn you, Duterte!
But as he is damned by a noisy few, I recall Winston Churchill who pointed out the essential quality of a good government leader as “the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.”