Abbey Abramson

  Case studies on policy capture risks Case Studies Philippines: barangay-level steering and capture risks The Local Government Code (RA 7160) established local development councils from the barangay to the provincial level and mandated CSO representation, with at least one-quarter of the barangay development councils to be fully organized. In principle, this opens doors for fisherfolk groups, women’s associations, and cooperatives to shape priorities. In practice, representation is uneven, with many barangays lacking accredited CSOs in development councils. Two factors contribute to this disparity: first, the level of political will among local leaders, as some barangay officials may prioritize maintaining control over decision-making processes rather than involving CSOs. Second, administrative capability varies significantly across barangays, affecting their ability to effectively organize and maintain active CSO desks and people’s councils. Recent assessments have reflected the...

  Philippine local boss system and corruption The Local Boss System: Patronage, Gatekeepers, and Community Voices Why local political economy makes or breaks climate action Imagine a coastal town in the Philippines , where the sound of crashing waves is an integral part of its residents' daily lives. One season, torrential rains threaten to flood the town, and the local community anxiously awaits the construction of a protective dike. The decision on where to build the dike seems straightforward, but as the locals quickly learn, it is anything but. Dikes, drains, mangroves, waterworks, early-warning systems: these rise or fall in the arena of local power. Budgets may be approved in capitals, but who gets listed, which contractor is picked, where to site the work, and whose complaints are heard are decided in barangays, wards, gram panchayats, and municipalities. In many developing contexts, local politics is mediated by patronage and clientelist exchange : resources and favors flo...

  Satellite and open-data fixes Satellite and open-data fixes (you don’t need a supercomputer) You can independently check rainfall, land cover, and construction progress using open datasets and free tools. To apply these ideas in practice, consider testing one of these tools this week: Rainfall and event severity: GPM/IMERG (Global Precipitation Measurement/Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM) provides half-hourly, near-real-time precipitation estimates and long-term archives; compare an event to the local climatology (long-term weather averages) to validate whether '100-year' claims hold (NASA GPM; applications guide). Land cover and deforestation: Copernicus Global Land Cover 100 m layers offer annual land-cover classes with published accuracy; pair with national maps to check if 'restored hectares’ show up as canopy over time (areas covered by tree leaves as seen from above; Copernicus GLC). Construction progress and earthworks: Sentinel-2 optical imagery (...

  Numbers hide more than they reveal Data Darkness: When Numbers Hide More Than They Reveal The integrity problem you can’t see (yet) Every scandal in climate spending has a paper trail. Picture a small village household that faced repeated floods, yet lacked the resources to contest the official figures of government aid and infrastructure improvements. Their home stood submerged repeatedly, unprotected due to unsearchable PDFs (files that are not easily searched or analyzed), missing baselines (initial measurements against which change can be measured), unverified results, and dashboards that appear modern but do not allow you to download a single row.  This data darkness is not a technical glitch; it is a governance choice that weakens scrutiny and rewards box-ticking over outcomes. International frameworks have been warning for years that adaptation succeeds only with credible monitoring, evaluation, and learning—MEL—looped into decisions (MEL is a cycle to check, review,...