Methods from Philippines / MethodFinder's New Features

Welcome to our first newsletter in 2009. Our MethodFinder team wishes you a pleasant end of summer! We would like to thank all contributors and supporters for the great cooperation.

MethodFinder has been very active within the last months by gathering additional material for this platform of methods and experiences of the German Technical Cooperation gtz project "Fiscal Decentalisation Programme (FDP)" in the Philippines. We are very happy to announce an additional method and example on Tax Parcel Mapping and iTAX Mapping in the Philippines, as well as a method on Sports for Peace, provided by the GTZ Project "Poverty Reduction and Conflict Transformation" in Mindanao, Philippines:

1. New methods and application examples:

1.1 New Method/Example: Tax Parcel Mapping

An efficient real property tax administration depends on data that is accurate, timely, and economical to maintain. Building and maintaining the property inventory and attribute database are the most labour-intensive and costly functions of the property tax administration. Tax mapping is a core element of any integrated real property administration and taxation management system. It establishes the link between the real properties in the field and the property assessment and tax records of the tax administration.

Tax Mapping is a classical method of field operations for identifying real property units or "tax parcels". Tax maps provide the public with vital real property information. Therefore, property or parcel location maps have been maintained manually in countries with "ad valorum" real property taxation for quite some time. Tax Parcel Maps are fundamental to the appraisal (valuation) of real estate. They help to determine the location of property, indicate the size and shape of each parcel, determine actual land use and help to discover undeclared properties for taxation purposes. Although tax maps serve as a general reference to property locations, they are not a substitute for official cadastral survey documents and should not be used in legal land disputes. They allow the establishment of a real property record system that can be adapted to data computerization.

Digital Tax Parcel Mapping is the process of converting the paper map based part of the "fiscal cadastre" (cadastral base maps, property identification maps) into a digital form and maintaining and managing the tax maps of local government units with the help of a Geographic Information System (GIS).

Usually this is done parallel to the introduction of a computerized real property taxation management system. This process can be time consuming, costly and not easy to manage sustainable, if process flow and purpose of the system is not analysed properly from the start.

However, if based on a prudent local needs and requirement analysis, the rewards in terms of better property management and higher real property assessment efficiency, are numerous. Especially as a visual tool to produce for example "Shame maps" in concert with other tax collection efficiency measures increases in locally collected taxes can be achieved. This can widen the local tax base considerably and hence will increase the financial options and the independence of local governments to invest in improved social service delivery and better physical infrastructure. In return, visible efforts in this field will improve the "tax moral" of local residents.

At the same time the digital tax maps require that the related database are regularly updated. The best way of ensuring this is to link the digital tax maps to the database used by an integrated tax administration system. This also holds true for the need to update maps when further spatial sub-divisions or consolidations are undertaken.

Link Method: Tax Parcel Mapping
http://www.methodfinder.net/method_87.html

Link Example: iTax Mapping in the Philippines
http://www.methodfinder.net/example87_1.html

PDF downloads:
http://www.methodfinder.net/download87.html

1.2 New Method/Example: Sports for Peace

The modified concept of "Sports for Peace" is an alternative approach for conflict transformation and peace building since it integrates the culture of peace, core values and children's rights into the concept. The modified concept has been field tested in Mindanao, Philippines, a region where continuous political, ethnic and religious strife have hindered its development. Sports for Peace was modified in order to create space for peaceful interaction while teaching the students life skills such as decision making and problem solving as well as the values of cooperation, respect for others and fair play. These are all critical in human, social and economic development and peace building.

As early as the 1920ies, sports has played a vital role in development cooperation and peace building programmes. Although used only in an ad hoc way, it was a means to reach development-related objectives.

In 1995, UNICEF implemented the Sports for Development Program which recognized sports as a fun way in learning values and lessons that would last a lifetime. Through the program, adolescents developed analytical and decision-making skills while providing them with a sense of hope, normalcy and security in times of conflict, post-conflict and emergencies. It is a universal language that can help bridge divides and promote the core values necessary for lasting peace. On sport grounds, there is no difference between children. They all learn how to win and to lose honorably (Sport, Recreation and Play by UNICEF).

During the International Year of Sport and Physical Education in 2005, the international development community recognized sports as a strong unifying factor in the process of conflict transformation and peace building. The fundamental values of sports and play are very important elements in the building of a strong civil society and states where tolerance and friendship are being built. Furthermore, sport has been granted the potential as a conflict-prevention measure, helping forestall processes that generate aggression, hatred and fear.

Link Method: Sports for Peace
http://www.methodfinder.net/method_86.html

Link Example: iTax Mapping in the Philippines
http://www.methodfinder.net/example86_1.html

PDF downloads:
http://www.methodfinder.net/download86.html

2. GTZ: Eschborner Fachtage / Eschborn Dialogue

Again this year, our MethodFinder team participated at by the Eschborn Dialogue (EFTA) of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation/ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). This year's annual event at which leading specialists in Development politics and practitioners have a chance to meet and share experiences focussed on "Developing security - Securing development". We enjoyed learning from the presenters' and participants' experiences and the fruitful discussions we had. Thanks to GTZ and its organisers who made this possible.

Link:
http://www.gtz.de/en/25641.htm

3. MethodFinder still looks pretty much the same, but there is much more "under the hood"

3.1 Improved meta data management

MethodFinder has improved its web site coding and meta data management to be more prominent on search engines (as Google, GTZ Intranet and others). This makes us more accessible, and we are happy to welcome the one millionth visitor since our launch in 2002.

3.2 Simplified Links:

Since its beginning, MethodFinder gives a warranty on stable web links. So if you refer to our methods/examples using web links, you can be sure that they will still work in the future. Since a lot of universities, development authorities and other bodies are actively using our resources, we ensure that their users stay in touch with the knowledge and experience gathered here. We have now added a new and simlyfied way of linking to our home page, while former links to methods and examples still work. In case you would like to refer to MethodFinder, please do not hesitate to contact Michael@MethodFinder.net, if you have any question. Here some examples on old and new simplified links which refer to contents in our plattform.

Links to contents our web site:
Old link: http://www.methodfinder.net/index.php?page=home
New Link: http://www.methodfinder.net/home.html

Accordingly, a number of our web links are as simple as follows:

Table of methods: http://www.methodfinder.net/methods.html
Table of examples: http://www.methodfinder.net/examples.html
List of categories: http://www.methodfinder.net/categories.html

Links to Methods:
Old link: http://www.methodfinder.net/index.php?page=methods&methodID=75
New Link: http://www.methodfinder.net/method75.html


Links to Examples:
Old link: http://www.methodfinder.net/index.php?page=methods&methodID=75&cat=example1
New Link: http://www.methodfinder.net/example75_1.html

Accordingly, links to the subsections of a method are (as en example of method nr. 87):
Brief Description: http://www.methodfinder.net/briefdescription87.html
Users/Purpose: http://www.methodfinder.net/userspurpose87.html
Advantages & Limitations: http://www.methodfinder.net/prosncons87.html
Principles & Precedures: http://www.methodfinder.net/principles87.html
Example #1: http://www.methodfinder.net/example87_1.html
Example #2: http://www.methodfinder.net/example87_2.html
Download of PDF files: http://www.methodfinder.net/download87.html

3.3 Secure Links to email addresses:

In order to prevent machines from spamming our knowledge contributors, we have protected links to email addresses of our contributors with encryption. Because of this, it is now required to enable javascript on your web browser, which is enabled by default.

4. MethodFinder is ready for the iPhone:

Having MethodFinder at your fingertips can be useful in many situations, where desktop or laptop computers might be out of your reach. We have spent some efforts to give you a quick insight into getting access to MethodFinder on your iPhone, as we find this most popular phone a useful tool for being on the road or in the field. Internet access over the mobile phone has become widespread even in developing countries within the last years, therefore access to information becomes easier. In order to use our web based MethodFinder application, just visit www.MethodFinder.net on your safari web browser on your iPhone. You will be asked to open the application or visit the classic web site. Wait until the application has loaded on your iPhone.

More details on how to get MethodFinder.net on your iPhone:
http://www.methodfinder.net/iphone.html

We keep you posted on additional methods which are currently under development.