Bottom-Up Planning and Budgeting The Departments of Budget and Management, lnterior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development and the National Anti-Poverty Commission jointly introduced bottom-up planning and budgeting, "an approach to formulating the budget proposal of agencies, taking into consideration the development needs of poor cities/municipalities as identified in their respective local poverty reduction action plans that shall be formulated with strong participation of basic sectors and CSOs." (DBM et al, Joint Memo Circular 1, s. 2012) The approach will be piloted in several hundred selected local government units, with the participation of several select national government agencies. The approach will result in a series of priority poverty reduction projects that may be integrated into the agency's budget. While welcome, the approach suffers from human rights-related challenges similar to those discussed above. While the approach calls for social preparation and the conduct of a Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan Workshop, these activities partake of consultation, rather than genuine and meaningful participation. At the Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan Workshop, for instance, the local government unit (LGU) will present an analysis of the relevant economic and social data it collected from the Community Based Monitoring System, the Field Health lnformation System, National Household Targeting System, etc. to community representatives, who will then validate the data. From a human rights perspective, data analysis should be undertaken by-or with the active participation of-the community residents themselves, who are, after all, more than the statistics upon which analysis is to be based, and who actually live with the problems and experience them on a daily basis. Community members are in a better position to identify which of their rights need immediate fulfilling and what specific projects would best be suited to support the realization of their human rights. Further, the approach was designed in a way that limits community participation to the proposal of inputs based on the analysis provided by the LGU and information provided by government; the final decision still rests with government. All priority poverty reduction projects proposed for inclusion in the agency budget must fall within a "Menu or Programs," a list of current programs, activities and projects of participating agencies. lf an identified project is outside the menu, these may be considered but only if it is more urgently needed and if approved by the Cabinet Human Development Cluster and the DBM. Gender mainstreaming The Philippine Commission on Women, the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Budget and Management jointly released the Guidelines for the Preparation of Annual Gender and Development Plans and Budgets and Accomplishment Reports to lmplement the Magna Carta of Women, (PCW et al, Joint Circular 2012-01) which takes effect beginning 2013 for GAD planning and budgeting of FY 2014 and ensuing years. The Guidelines uphold the fundamental equality of women and men and expressly reiterate the country's commitments under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Development Authority, Human Riqhts Based Approach to Development Planninq Toolkit, particularly the section entitled "Human Rights (PANTHER) Principles in Development Planning," 2011. 44