In its 25th year, SDRC chose to highlight the experience of Nueva Vizcaya, a Northern Luzon province that has been installed in the Gawad Galing Pook Hall of Fame. The province has developed a vision to improve the Novo Vizcayano's quality of life and pursued it relentlessly over the past 10 years, transforming its bureaucracy and programs through the active involvement of its civil society. Describing the process of participatory governance as experienced by this model province may provide lessons to other local governments with the political will to engage their constituencies in similar development endeavors.
In the preparation of the book, several research methods were utilized, particularly a review of documents and reports, field observation, in-depth interviews with key informants, informal interviews, group discussions, and focus groups. About 100 informants were interviewed from April to October 2003. Elected government officials from the different levels of the executive and legislative departments of the province, representatives of people's and non-government organizations, government administrative and middle-level management staff, health and other service providers, and program beneficiaries were among the sources of information for the study.
