The Local Systems Practice (LSP) consortium worked with the USAID/Philippines Mission to analyze water access issues in the municipality of Tublay, Benguet. In March 2019 LINC, local partner AKAP, and USAID staff members held discussions with a variety of local stakeholders to better understand the status quo of the situation: current community solutions to addressing water scarcity, root causes of water scarcity, and current and previous activities related to improving access to water in the municipality. The team met with representatives from the municipal government and more than 120 community members from all barangays.
During the next months, the team conducted social network analysis (SNA) and supportive qualitative data analysis to better understand how different actors in Tublay work together on water management. The collected network data was analyzed using kumu.io online software. Initial findings were shared with members of the community of Tublay for verification.
Several findings from the SNA emerged that reveal possible drivers of local challenges to maintaining access to potable water. The SNA revealed the centrality and high density among 31 government actors involved in municipal water management. This suggests that there is an opportunity to increase efficiency among government actors working on water management in the municipality. For more information see our research brief available here.