Community participation: Old and young women farmers learn about diversified farming in a training to help them manage and control their own farms and increase incomes. RICK R. FLORES

NEW CORELLA, Davao del Norte -- This is the Banana Republic, literally, with thousands of acres planted with bananas destined for export. Just a 30-minute drive from Tagum City, this third class municipality strives to provide better farm to market-style facilities such as roads and bridges for its 44, 953 residents -- 90 per cent of whom are farmers or their dependents.

New Corella’s smallest barangay, New Sambog, is typical of the municipality’s 20 other barangays and is a recipient of the government’s Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan --the country’s flagship poverty alleviation project also known as the Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS).

Multinational banana firms operate in New Sambog and employ local residents --mostly men. But despite substantial investments by such companies, the quality of life of the 800 people in this barangay remains poor.

“We are poor as a result of the major shift in our farming practices,” 60-year old Luciano Plaza told the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project.

Before the banana plantations came, many farmers maintain they were earning enough from their small farms which ranged from one to more than five hectares, according to Plaza.

He maintained that an average rice farmer was earning around PhP 30,000 (USD 714) per harvest and pulling in three harvests each year. Additional sources of income were derived from selling vegetables, root crops and farm animals.

“Farming has been our way of life and it has been our strength as people of New Sambog,” said Plaza.

But instant employment offered by the banana firms saw many farmers abandon their farms.

Meantime, some other farmers complain the race for higher banana yields has seen short term rewards outweighed by long-term losses.  “The perennial use of chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to increase higher yields have substantially reduced instead our income and eventually destroyed our soil,” Luzviminda Revita told PPTRP.

“Worst,” she added, “many farming interventions were introduced in our area but we were not given the chance to think about them and decide for ourselves. They were implemented without due consultation among the people.”

Community-driven and participatory

Things look better just across the barangay hall where the community has set up a one-hectare farm which serves as a model for their new project on sustainable agriculture and diversified organic farming system.

It gives local people the chance to take more control – and responsibility – for the kind of farming that takes place in their community: Ultimately, it allows for a better balance between multinational companies and local communities – allowing the latter a greater and more informed say in their future.

“But deciding and prioritizing things was not easy since many of us want individual projects,” says Angelita Magallon, one of the pioneering migrants who came here from Bohol in the late 1940s. There were around 10 projects presented during the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum (MIBF)—a process where people choose among themselves which they want to be funded by KALAHI-CIDSS.

Magallon said a participatory situation analysis (PSA) – part of the 16-step KALAHI-CIDSS process designed to build real participation and transparency– enabled them to extensively appraise their current socio-economic and political situation.

“There were diverse interests and priorities but through the PSA process, we came into common terms and agreed that we will implement diversified organic farming because it will further enhance our capacity to manage small yet economically viable farms,” the former teacher-turned-farmer told PPTRP.

The barangay also spends and shoulders the cost of a series of barangay assemblies called for the purpose of identifying the project. “Instead of using some of our funds for other social activities which we consider as irrelevant, we focus instead on utilizing funds for people to come together and discuss real development,” Restituto Salang, New Sambog barangay chair said.

More than 80 percent of the people attended each assembly, added Magallon. She estimates that the barangay spent around PhP 10,000 (USD 238) for the five assemblies held.

The KALAHI-CIDSS project also allows communities to access resources for their agreed projects while local government units are taught how to practice a more democratic and participatory means of governance: This sees development agendas being planned and executed in full collaboration with local communities.

The KALAHI-CIDSS project is implemented nationwide by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and is funded by the World Bank.

Accountable and transparent

Farmers conduct actual farm planning with support from KALAHI-CIDSS, the country's flagship anti-poverty project that also engages government for better transparency and accountability. RICK R. FLORES

In its recent assessment of the project, the World Bank stressed that KALAHI-CIDSS is about “more than just improving infrastructure—the project is helping to put in place more transparent and accountable systems of governance with many decisions taken by the community as a whole.”

“Communities identify priorities based on an assessment of their own needs and contend with other villages through an inter-barangay forum for selection on the basis of need and other factors. Funds are transferred directly to bank accounts managed by community groups and regular reports are made to the community through barangay assembly meetings,” the WB says.

The bank also noted that “procurement of goods and services is undertaken in an open and transparent manner with community groups themselves monitoring the implementation of activities. Community associations are also playing a role in the operation and maintenance of projects, helping to ensure their continued sustainability.”

Engineer Santos Eusebio, regional community infrastructure specialist, complained before a recent forum with state auditors from the Davao region about the proliferation of projects that are being double funded in some areas.

“We’ve found out that some barangays are securing new funds from us for a water system project even though it has been funded already by two agencies---the municipal government and by the congressional district,” Eusebio complained earlier this month.

Despite having the so-called Municipal Inter Barangay Forum – a process whereby, among other things, information  on development projects across municipalities is exchanged– one particular community association was proposing to spend a whopping PhP 1.5 million (USD 35,714) for a simple water pipeline that was already being secured. But with the installation of the Grievance Redress Mechanism, double-funding scheme of the said association was checked and eventually exposed.

State auditors led by Nilda Escalante also emphasized the need for on-site physical auditing of infrastructures especially in far-flung areas. During the orientation of provincial and municipal COA Auditors on KALAHAI-CIDSS, some senior state auditors have complained about the inaccessibility of some areas where projects are being implemented.

Empowering women-farmers

Back in New Corella, the model farm where practices of sustainable agriculture and diversified farming are to be applied was developed mostly by women.

Marianne Ambingan, chair of the Barangay Sub-Project Management Committee (BSPMC), stressed that women have actively participated in all the processes of the project. “The Community Empowerment Activity Cycle (CEAC) allows many women to engage in all project aspects, ranging from social preparation, sub-project identification, preparation, selection and approval stage, implementation and operations, up to the transition stage,” said Ambingan, who also serves as volunteer of the project.

Revita said diversified farming also provides women with new economic opportunities since they can “raise farm animals while cultivating agricultural crops and at the same nurture their families.”

Ambingan said women also comprise the majority of the several committees created to ensure “successful implementation” of the project.

In its March 2011 issue, the Millennium Challenge Corporation in its ‘Strengthening MCC’s Gender Policy’ noted that “gender integration can be improved with financial resources and targeted plans.”

MCC’s Philippines Compact includes a project designed to improve lives in rural areas through small-scale, community-driven development projects in communities where poverty exceeds the national average. This project, called KALAHI-CIDSS, is supporting and building on the participatory planning, implementation and evaluation methodology developed by the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development in collaboration with the World Bank.

“With early and consistent involvement of social and gender specialists from both the MCC and the government of the Philippines, gender analysis is improving the design of KALAHI-CIDSS. In addition, the compact funded a USD 1 million Gender Incentive Grant under KALAHI-CIDSS to encourage innovation in addressing gender equality in the program,” the policy paper noted.

Grassroots, volunteer-managed funds

A total of PhP 1.15 million (USD 27,380) grant fund was awarded to the farmers of New Sambog for their diversified farming project. Of the total, the Department of Social Welfare and Development allotted PhP 895,000 (US$21,300), the municipal government with PhP 224,000 (USD 5, 333) and the barangay with PhP 31,000 (USD 738).

Since funds are downloaded directly to the communities, the total amount was deposited to the community account and co-managed and co-disbursed by the communities themselves.

Ambingan said the community was not quite sure if they are able to manage the money. “The huge trust given to us and the process of transparency as to where the funds are going opened a window for our appreciation of the project,” she said.

Regional financial adviser Ma. Annabelle Jabla told PPTRP that “volunteers are taught to effectively manage the grant funds awarded to them.”

“We want to impart the value of co-ownership and dissuade from the old-tradition of dole-out approaches in development projects,” she told participants from the poor municipalities of Tarragona, Sto. Tomas, Manay, and Mabini. This is the reason, she stressed, that a considerable amount is being allocated for capacity-building of the volunteers.

"Since this is people's money, it is but proper that they manage their funds. We just serve as enablers of their change and development," Jabla said. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project

(The author is a freelance journalist covering under-reported areas in Mindanao.)