This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu

Contents - Previous - Next

Continued

Tables 7 and 8 illustrate the calculation of the centrality index. The centrality index allowed use of attributes or functions that appear as "errors" in the Guttman scale, based on the assumption that the presence of "rare" functions in an otherwise lower scale centre does contribute to its centrality.

TABLE 7. Calculating Weights of Functions

TABLE 8. Calculating Centrality Indices

* Total does not add due to rounding.

TABLE 9. Distribution of Functions Among Settlements in Bicol River Basin 1977

TABLE 10. Functional Complexity of Levels of Settlements in Bicol River Basin, 1977

5. Substantive Results of Functional Complexity Analyses. The functional complexity and scale analyses showed quite clearly that the Bicol River Basin is a sub-region in which services and facilities necessary for fulfilling basic human needs and generating economic development for the rural poor are not only inadequate but also highly concentrated in a few small central places, which are not easily accessible to people living outside of their immediate boundaries. The hierarchical distribution of settlements is strongly skewed and the spatial system is neither well articulated nor tightly integrated. Of the 1,419 discrete settlements located in the basin-120 built-up areas and more than 1,200 barangays-little more than ha/f contained any of the 64 functions. Nearly 90 per cent of all functions appeared in less than 20 per cent of the settlements. Most of the other functions that appear in more than 20 per cent of the settlements are either highly localized services or social organizations with little or no productive capacity. And even among the built-up areas functions are unevenly distributed. Nearly 60 per cent of all central functions appear in less than 20 per cent of the built-up areas, with one-fifth of these places containing no functions at all (Table 9).

Only two central places-the Naga-Camaligan and Legaspi-Daraga urban areas-contained most of the functions found in the Basin's settlements. These two places represent less than one per cent of all communities and contain about 10 per cent of the Bicol's population (Table 10). At a second level are 11 settlements which as a group seem to function as local service centres with from 31 to 54 functions. These centres perform a few area-wide and a larger number of local, commercial and administrative functions. Most are clustered along the national highway or at a junction of provincial roads. A third level of about 43 settlements, representing 3 per cent of all communities and about 10 per cent of the Basin's population, act as small rural service centres, in which from 10 to 28 functions appear. But most of these are highly localized activities accessible only to people living in the immediate vicinity of the barrio. The overwhelming majority of settlements-over 1,300 or about 96 per cent of the total-are residential non-central places. They are villages of a few hundred families engaged in subsistence or near-subsistence agriculture or working as tenants or on small family-owned plots. All communities in this category have fewer than nine functions; most contain only a few or none at all. The only activities consistently found in these barrios are ubiquitous local functions serving a neighbourhood or cluster of houses. Most of the settlements have populations smaller than is necessary to support most functions found in the Basin.

Analysis of Linkages Among Settlements in the Region

The conceptual study on which the Bicol River Basin Urban Functions in Rural Development project was based contended that neither the goals of increased productivity and income expansion in rural areas nor those of achieving greater equity in income distribution can be attained in developing nations without increasing the interaction among components of the spatial system. The integration of villages, market towns, intermediate cities, and metropolitan areas, and the incorporation of rural areas into the national spatial system, can transform rural regions and accelerate national development.

Two basic observations were made of developing countries where spatial articulation had occurred. First, an increase in the number and diversity of linkages among central places and the growth or transformation of those places were inextricably related. In some cases new linkages, such as the extension of roads, river transport, or rail connections, promoted growth and diversification of existing centres or generated new towns and cities. In others the appearance of new productive activities promoted new or strengthened linkages between the places in which those activities appeared and other points in the spatial system. That is, some linkages promoted accelerated growth of villages, market towns, and intermediate size cities, and others were the result of nodal growth. To distinguish causeand-effect relationships, however, was often extremely difficult because nodal and linkage growth may take place simultaneously or in rapid succession. Second, the variety of linkages that integrate urban and rural areas into an articulated spatial system are themselves inextricably linked. Creation of one new linkage may produce a "cascade effect," making other activities and forms of interaction possible, and promoting the growth of existing or new central places. Once a new set of linkages is introduced into a rural market system, for instance, it can trigger a set of "circular and cumulative changes" toward further growth and change. Simply improving transportation linkages among villages leads to reorganization and expansion of existing periodic markets. Displacement of weak or unsuccessful markets and redistribution of trade can create entirely new markets and increase the demands on the transport system. New urban-rural physical linkages can change the flow of economic resources, the spatial pattern of social and economic interaction, and the movement of people. Closer interaction among villages, market towns, intermediate cities, and major metropolitan centres can make it less expensive and more convenient to integrate technology among levels of the spatial hierarchy and to distribute more widely the services that fundamentally transform economic structure and increase standards of living within rural areas. Among the types of linkages that should be examined in developing regions are the following.

1. Physical linkages such as road networks, river and water transportation channels, rail networks, and systems of ecological interdependency.
2. Economic linkages reflected in market patterns, raw material and intermediate goods flows, and capital or trade flows; production linkages among industries located within the region, and consumption and shopping patterns; income flows and sectoral and inter-regional commodity flows.
3. Population movement linkages, including permanent and temporary migration patterns and journey-to-work patterns, traffic flows and other forms of temporary population flow.
4. Technological linkages as reflected in telecommunications, energy, or irrigation networks.
5. Social interaction linkages reflected in visiting patterns, kinship patterns, tribal or social group interaction, marriage areas, and others.
6. Service delivery linkages for credit and financial institutions, educational, training, or institutional services, health service delivery, and transport service systems.
7. Political, administrative, and organizational linkages as represented in governmental structural relations among different levels, governmental budgetary flows, formal and informal decision-making procedures, and interjurisdictional transaction patterns.

The analysis of linkages in Bicol remained partial and descriptive because of the large amount of original data that would have had to be collected in order to do a complete mapping of physical, social, and economic linkages in the Basin. Yet, through sample surveys and synthesis of socioeconomic studies already done in the Basin, the staff made substantial progress in obtaining information that provided useful insights into how activities located in various settlements are related to each other, and into the interaction patterns among settlements within the Basin.

The studies showed that the adverse effects on the rural poor of Bicol's highly skewed distribution of services and facilities are exacerbated by extremely weak economic, physical, service, and social linkages among settlements. Although some of the functions included in the scale could not be expected to be widely distributed-they are central functions requiring high population thresholds-most were basic commercial, administrative, or service functions essential to meeting human needs and accelerating rural development. If they are not widely distributed in settlements throughout the Basin, then equity criteria would suggest that those living in rural areas should at least have physical access to places where they are located. But central places within Bicol are not easily accessible to most rural areas, and the urban and rural settlements are not strongly linked.

1. Transportation and Physical Linkages. The staff compiled information on transportation linkages among sub-areas of the Basin by mode, on road networks by conditions of road, and interpoint distances among barangays and between barangays and poblaciones. In addition, information on traffic volumes, means of transportation, and selected commodity flows was made available through various transportation studies conducted by BRBDP. The staff contracted for a survey of "informal" transport of goods and passengers by railroad "skates." Many of the data were mapped and provided a detailed profile of physical linkages among subareas within the Basin.

Transport studies showed that more than 70 per cent of all roads in the Basin are of poor quality and need upgrading. Only the national highway cutting through the centre of the Basin, and a few provincial roads, are of all-weather construction and passable during the rainy season. Farm-tomarket roads are few and of poor construction. Many rural barrios can only be reached by small boat or on foot. The inadequacy of regular transport linkages is reflected in part by the use of non-motorized vehicles, animal drawn wagons, use of illegal "skates" along the railroad tracks, and small boats and barges, and in part by the fact that the majority of trips taken within the Bicol River Basin are on foot. The railroad provides limited service to points outside the Basin and the major centres are linked to Manila only by infrequent bus and air service.

Roads are used by 95 per cent of the passengers taking trips within the Bicol River Basin and to transport over 80 per cent of agricultural commodities. But as physical linkages among communities, the roads provide rather poor service. Most of the rural population lives in settlements not easily accessible by road, and transport is difficult and expensive in most of the Basin. The cost of transporting commodities in interior rural areas is up to six times more than in areas connected by roads passable by motorized vehicles. Farmers from rural areas must often walk for hours to the nearest road and carry their produce on their backs or on slow-moving carabao or horses. Even after they reach a provincial road, the waiting times for a jeepney or bus are long and the costs so high that marginal profits are sometimes completely wiped out. Rural farmers must wait an average of 30 times longer for transportation at secondary roads than at places adjacent to the Manila South Road and in some more remote sections of the Basin they may wait as long as three or four hours. Because of the cost of transportation and difficulty of travelling, 85 per cent of all trips taken within the Basin are among places within the same municipality and 99 per cent are within the same province. Relatively little travel-for shopping, work, trade, social interaction, or any other purpose-takes place among municipalities and there is little interaction on a regular basis between the Basin's two provinces.

2. Economic and Market Linkages. The staff completed surveys of six regular and six periodic markets to determine the origin and destination of selected commodities through major markets, to estimate the physical "reach" of marketing centres for those commodities, and to identify spatial and functional linkages among producers, middlemen, and buyers. Although the sample surveys were not an adequate substitute for a complete market study they did provide indications of linkage and raised important questions for further marketing research. In each of the six major markets 100 middlemen and 50 producers were interviewed with prepared questionnaires. Information was obtained on source and destination of commodities, type of seller, place of sale, and volume of trading. Similar information was garnered from periodic market middlemen. The survey was limited to public markets and did not include private stalls located adjacent to public markets.

Information on each commodity's source, destination, and mode of transport was mapped, showing linkages among places within the Basin and between market centres within Bicol and those outside. The studies clearly demonstrated that market linkages, which should form a major network of commercial interaction within and among rural areas, are extemely weak in Bicol. The greatest amount of market interaction occurs through central markets in Naga and Legaspi cities. But a significant portion of the Basin's population lives in settlements too small to support even a periodic market, which adversely affects their ability to sell agricultural surpluses, raise their income levels, obtain household goods, or buy inputs needed to increase agricultural output.

Analysis of the commodity flows indicates that markets within the Bicol River Basin are primarily local exchange centres serving residents of the places in which they are located; that they have limited "reach" or service areas and are not well integrated into a network of area-wide exchange and trade. The survey indicated that a "nested" hierarchy or articulated network of markets, characteristic of more economically developed regions, does not exist in Bicol. Markets within the Basin are primarily undifferentiated agricultural exchange points trading almost exclusively in six commodities (rice and palay, coconut, copra, fresh and dried fish, poultry, and livestock) with some larger regular markets also providing limited amounts of household goods. Bicol River Basin markets, even in larger towns, have insignificant external trade linkages and the periodic markets are generally isolated, highly localized, and virtually unintegrated collection and exchange points, most of which are barely accessible to rural people beyond 10 or 15 kilometres from the village in which the market is located.

3. Social Linkages. To the extent that the integration of settlements within a region occurs through social interaction among residents-through kinship ties, visiting among kin and friends, inter-village marriages, and for recreation and ritual-social linkages reflect the degree to which people perceive of a region as a coherent and unified unit of society. Surveys of selected social interactions show relatively little linkage among settlements within sub-areas of the Bicol River Basin. A sample survey of marriage records revealed that an average of less than 19 per cent of all spouses were chosen from outside the same municipality during a three year period in the mid-1970s Over 80 per cent of all men and women in Bicol, during that period, tended to choose spouses from within their own municipality, and in most cases from within the same or a neighbouring barangay. Since social interaction patterns in the Philippines are shaped strongly by family visiting, marriages among people from different towns and municipalities would be expected to increase social interaction among those places. But the intermodal transport studies confirm the indications of marriage pattern studies, that relatively few inter-municipal trips are for social purposes.

4. Administrative, Political, and Service Linkages. The nature of relationships among levels of government within the Bicol, including formal and informal political and administrative decision-making, the linkages among and between government units in the provision of services and facilities, and the characteristics of the network of planning organizations affecting development policy within the Basin were some aspects of administrative, political, and governmental linkages explored in a study subcontracted to the College of Public Administration at the University of the Philippines.

It was found that formal government linkages among levels are dominated by national ministries operating within the Basin, and that formal structure is highly centralized. Most local officials are appointed by and responsible to national ministries. Municipal officials generally are not under the authority of the mayors, themselves hold-over appointees under martial law, who have few resources to solve local problems. Most municipalities in the Basin are dependent on the national government for part of their revenues and most of their authority. Decisions are often made through highly personalized relationships.

Studies of government structure and services in Bicol indicated that services provided by all levels are highly localized. Health, education, and other public institutions generally extend services only to populations living in the immediate vicinity of their sites or to the few who can afford to travel from rural barangays to obtain them in the larger cities. Even the post-secondary schools in the larger centres primarily serve only the local area. Health, education, and agricultural extension services are far below standards set by national ministries.

Analytical Mapping of Functional Complexity and Linkage Data

Information about levels of development and accessibility of centres is mapped in conjunction with analyses of the functional complexity and linkages of settlements in order to determine the "areas of influence" for each type of settlement, determine where linkages are weak, and locate peripheral areas that are not served by central places or in which rural populations have poor access to urban functions.

The Bicol River Basin project produced a number of analytical maps that showed the distribution and concentration of essential functions, the centres linked by various forms of interaction, and rural hinterlands that remained marginal and unintegrated. Transport and physical accessibility maps showed areas of the Basin that can be reached by roads, water transport, and railway. The volumes of goods flowing through major markets were mapped to show the "reach" of each market centre and the sources and destination of commodities traded. The maps delineated the secondary and periodic markets in rural areas that participated in trade relationships with larger markets. Travel volume and origin and destination data were derived from the modal transport study and were mapped along with the service areas of selected institutions and public facilities. The project staff made a number of transparent overlays that could be used with a base map of the settlement system to show the distribution of services and facilities and that could be employed in baseline comparison and evaluation after development plans were implemented. They also produced the first comprehensive map of barangay settlements in the Bicol River Basin, itself a tool that would be important in future development planning.

Delineation of Unserved and Marginal Areas

Judgements about marginal or unserved areas can be made on the basis of scalogram, linkage, and baseline studies in conjunction with the isopleth and functional distribution maps, as was done in the Bicol River Basin. This requires intimate knowledge of the region under study and depends on the staff's ability to draw conclusions from a variety of different analyses, none of which alone will identify marginal areas or population groups with poor access to town-based functions.

More complex statistical techniques have been used in regional planning to identify the "optimal" locations of growth centres or service centres aimed at overcoming rural marginality. Babarovic used a variation of the population potential model in Brazil to measure the potential accessibility of different urban centres within the national urban system to the incorporable rural population. The optimum locations of new growth poles or secondary growth centres would be those urban places that have the highest potential for incorporating rural population. The analysis assumed that at any given urban centre j, the rural population "accessible" to the impact of a new growth pole would-be limited to some extent by: "a) the intensity of the impact exercised by the existing urban system on point j; and b) the permeability of the rural population surrounding point j to the urban impact [attraction/ diffusion)."

Attempts were made to calculate the urban potential of urban centre j in relation to the total population of the urban system by using a variation of the potential model with per capita income of each urban centre as the weighting coefficient:

where:
r_i = income coefficient of urban centre i
U_i = urban population of urban centre i
r_i · U_i = weighted population of centre i
d_ij = distance between urban centre j and other urban centres i
a = empirically derived exponent indicating the degree to which distance adversely affects the potential.
It would thus be expected that V_j would be high for large urbanized centres and low for peripheral towns and small cities.

Babarovic calculated V_j for 112 urban centres in Brazil and standardized the values on a scale of 0 to 100, assigning an index of urban exposure, E`, to each centre to show its relative degree of "exposure" to the urban system. He then calculated a "coefficient of rural incorporation," a measure of the rural population that can be expected to be influenced by exposure to the urban system. The "coefficient of rural incorporation" is calculated by combining the items Ej and a coefficient of "rural permeability" m`, the values of which must be established from knowledge of the susceptibility of rural population to the influence of urban centres. The coefficient mj ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 represents total impermeabiiity based on long distance and lack of linkages, and 1 is total permeability for populations living close to the centre and having strong linkages to it. The coefficient of rural accessibility is expressed as:

After the values for m_i, E_j, and a; are calculated, they can be used to determine, statistically, that part of regional rural population, R_j, that can be expected to be incorporated or influenced by exposure to an urban centre i, through the expression:

The part of the rural population that will be influenced by the centre will either migrate to it or be incorporated locally by participating in productive activities for which the urban centre will create demand. This latter part of the rural population will not be affected by the creation of a growth centre and is excluded from the calculation of the potential incorporable rural mass index.

Babarovic suggested designating those urban places as growth centres where there is maximum "accessibility to the total incorporable rural mass," measured by the potential incorporable rural mass index, Wk, for urban centre k:

The expression b1 = m_i (1-E_i/100) is a coefficient of incorporability" of the rural population remaining marginal in the vicinity of an urban centre i, given an existing value for an index of urban exposure (E`).

The population potential model has a number of limitations as an analytical tool in developing regions, and Babarovic notes some of them in his report. Among the most important limitations, however, is that the methodology only provides indications of the growth-centre potential for existing urban places in relationship to the national urban system, and does not suggest guidelines for locating services and facilities to stimulate the growth of new urban places.

Other, less complex methods were used in India to identify efficient locations for growth centres at each level of the spatial hierarchy. Manual methods of absolute or relative partitioning, using maximum travel distances as standards, assist in determining which settlements should be identified as potential service centres to supplement existing centres in areas poorly served by town-based functions. The technique applied in various districts of India for relative partitioning used the following procedure.

1. Identify the largest and most functionally complex settlement in the region;
2. search in all directions for other settlements inside or outside of the region (but not farther outside than the approximate diameter of the region);
3. draw lines from the most important place to settlements of approximately equal importance identified in step b, using transport routes if places are connected by reasonably direct links or, otherwise, straight lines;
4. bisect each of these lines and construct perpendicular lines at these points of bisection;
5. the innermost area formed by the intersection of these perpendicular bisectors delineates the sub-region that will be served from the most important centres with functions not offered by subsidiary centres, and other areas will be served from other central places;
6. identify settlements of local importance performing some functions found in higher level centres within the area of this boundary; and
7. select subsidiary centres to become lower order service centres from among these places, so that they are distributed approximately uniformly over the boundary area.

The selection of subsidiary centres could follow one of three models: settlements at the edges of the boundaries between major centres, at the corners of the boundaries around major centres, or on either side of the boundaries between major centres (Fig. 6). Local variations in topography, settlement pattern, transportation, and social interaction should be taken into consideration in applying the criteria for selection.

Determination of Regional Development Needs and Adequacy of the Spatial Structure

Examining the plans of the Bicol River Basin Development Program, the project staff concluded from the spatial analysis that adjustments would be needed in investment strategy over the next few years.

First, it suggested that BRBDP plans, based on the assumption that the Basin is now a cohesive economy, be reexamined and fundamental changes be made in planning strategy to integrate the Basin economically and spatially. At least five sub-area economies operate almost independently of each other. Naga and Legaspi cities and their immediate rural hinterlands form two largely autonomous economic areas and a cluster of villages surrounding the smaller city of Iriga form another. Smaller, primarily subsistence, agricultural trade areas are scattered in rural municipalities of the Basin operating at relatively low levels, in virtual isolation. They are centred on small regular or periodic markets. Finally, relatively isolated rural areas with subsistence agricultural and fishing economies and with access only to small periodic markets, or none at all, are found in coastal and peripheral areas of the Basin.

FIG. 6 Selection of Subsidiary Service Centres Using Relative Partitioning Technique

Second, the BRBDP's IAD boundaries, which were drawn on the basis of water resource and physical criteria, will be less useful for later economic development planning since they take virtually no cognizance of economic and spatial subsystems in the Basin, and in fact divide what seen to be economically related clusters of communities. The staff suggested that more attention be given to how IAD development will integrate rural production areas with urbancentred marketing towns, and promote market-centre growth, spatial specialization, and division of labour and exchange among settlements. The settlement-system analysis, analytical maps, and linkage studies done in the Urban Functions in Rural Development project provide the basis for evaluating and redrawing IAD or other planning unit boundaries.

Third, it was suggested that the BRBDP and other national ministries operating in the Basin give immediate attention to providing increased transportation access to a large number of rural areas. The staff noted the improbability of BRBDP attaining its goals of increased agricultural production, economic diversification, and more equitable distribution of services and facilities without first extending transportation access. A network of all-weather and farm-to-market roads is an essential precondition to extending services to rural people, locating agro-processing facilities in rural areas, and providing access to the services, facilities, and productive activities now located in the larger towns, or for decentralizing those functions to smaller communities.

Fourth, they noted that the paucity of markets and market towns within the Basin requires the immediate attention of BRBDP planners. Future investments in services, facilities, and infrastructure must be located strategically in existing or incipient rural service centres to stimulate the growth of markets. Without a well-dispersed, integrated, and easily accessible network of market centres in rural areas it is unlively that farmers will increase production to the levels projected by the BRBDP. The BRBDP has, to this point, concentrated on planning for the provision of agricultural inputs to stimulate production, but has given little attention to marketing and distribution of outputs. Experience in the Philippines and other developing nations clearly shows that both must be done simultaneously. The UFRD study pinpointed the location of existing or incipient market centres and the analysis, supplemented by more intensive marketing studies, can be used to plan the location of investments that will stimulate rural market-centre growth.

Finally, the UFRD study provided a descriptive profile of all settlements and of the distribution of services and facilities in the Basin that could be used in developing more detailed locational criteria for investments in public services and facilities, infrastructure, and private productive activities. Plans must be made for increasing the access of the rural poor to town-based services and facilities, building and integrating settlements of sufficient size to support a diversity of productive and social functions, and coordinating agricultural with industrial development projects. The study recommended that BRBDP create "minimum packages" of investments for three major types of settlements: rural service centres, market towns and small cities, and regional trade centres.

Translation of Spatial Analysis and Development Plans into an Investment Programme

This aspect of the project involved two planning activities. First, the planning analysis is translated into an investment programme that identifies the types and locations of projects needed in the region, suggests appropriate projects for overcoming "gaps" or bottlenecks to development of subareas within the region, and recommends investments that will build the locational advantages of strategically important settlements in the regional spatial system. Second, the projects should be combined into "investment packages" for various locations in the region, and the investment packages should be combined into an operating plan for development of the region over the next planning period. The investments are ranked by priority and sequenced for funding and implementation. Supplementary investments and support services are identified and included in the annual operating or short-term investment plan.

From the various functional and spatial analyses, the staff of the Bicol project was able to identify a set of appropriate services, facilities, and institutions needed at each of three levels of settlement-rural service centres, market towns, and regional urban centres-to meet basic human needs, articulate the settlement system, and stimulate resource development (Table 11).

TABLE 11. Services, Facilities, and Infrastructure Proposed for Each Settlement Level, Bicol River Basin

1. Rural Service Centres would contain services and facilities to assemble agricultural commodities for marketing, provide local periodic marketing functions, extend transport access to market towns and larger urbanized centres, accommodate small-scale agro-processing and handicrafts, distribute credit, market information and other technical inputs, facilitate savings mobilization, and provide basic health, recreation, educational, and administrative services.

2. Market Towns and Centres would provide an area-wide exchange point for trade in agricultural commodities, processed goods, household and common consumer products, and farm inputs; offer access to an all-weather road network; serve as a node of transportation and distribution linked to regional centres within the Basin; provide the preconditions and infrastructure to stimulate agro-processing plants and small-scale bulk commodity handling facilities; make available a variety of rural financial and credit services; meet rural energy and utility needs; provide higher-level administrative services that cannot be found in rural service centres; and offer vocational and secondary education, health and child-care services, and rural commercial services.

3. Regional Centres would be physically linked to each other and to urban centres outside the Basin by frequent and reliable transportation and all-weather roads, offer diversified commercial, financial, professional, and administrative services, and accommodate regional offices of national government ministries and branch offices of provincial government agencies; provide facilities for large-scale and diversified markets, function as a communications node for a broad rural hinterland, provide sites for agribusiness and largescale agricultural processing; offer incentives for a variety of small-scale consumer-goods industries, tool-making and repair workshops, machine shops and light durable-goods industries; offer higher educational opportunities and more specialized vocational training, and provide diversified and multi-purpose hospitals and health clinics.

The recommendations of the Urban Functions in Rural Development project in Bicol were guidelines for investment analysis and project identification rather than detailed proposals for particular investments in specific locations.

Examples were given of the types of settlements that might be strengthened through integrated investment, but a systematic evaluation of potential growth centres, as had been done in India and Brazil, was not part of the Bicol project Time and budget constraints prevented the project staff from actually proposing, and testing the feasibility of, specific investment projects.

The next logical step, of course, would be to assign priorities to investments in specific functions and locations. Not all of the infrastructure, services, and facilities that are needed can be financed at once, nor can all settlements be strengthened and up-graded at the same time. Criteria must be established for choosing the towns and villages that will receive investments first, and a ranking system must be created for sequencing investments in various functions and settlements over a four-or five-year planning period.

Creation of a Monitoring System and Institutionalization of the Planning Procedure

Two activities form the final stages of integrated regional development planning. First, an evaluation system must be created for monitoring the implementation of projects and programmes, and for determining the substantive results of development activities on marginal areas and population groups within the region. Second, the planning procedures should be institutionalized in local or regional public agencies charged with investment decision-making and with revising the spatial analysis and development plans at appropriate intervals. In the Bicol River Basin, the Urban Functions in Rural Development project sought primarily to devise and test a methodology for integrated urban-rural development planning, and the details of institutionalization and monitoring were left almost entirely to the Bicol River Basin Development Program. The project staff recommended that a small follow-on project be funded by USAID to complete the project identification work and to assist BRBDP with organizing future spatial analysis efforts.

Contents - Previous - Next