Introduction

Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc. is Mindanao-based and Mindanao-focused NGO.  BMFI’s work and its people articulate a sense of fierce pride for Mindanao and a passion for transforming this poorest and most conflict-torn of the country’s regions into a “balay”, a true home for its peoples – Christians, Muslims and Lumads, the indigenous peoples of Mindanao.

BMFI has a total of 22 staff and volunteers, but only a few of them can be found at the office at any given time because most of the people are spread out in the areas where BMFI does its work – in Claveria, Lagonglong and Sugbongcogon and Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental, and in Loreto, Dinagat Island in Surigao del Norte.

As widespread as BMFI’s scope of operations, so are its activities diverse. Pursuing a vision of equity, development and peace for Mindanao through a sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) approach by promoting democratic participation in local governance and agrarian reform implementation obviously entails a lot of work in community organizing, networking, partnership building, research, publication and advocacy.    Its founders are a mix of individuals with a common concern for the development of Mindanao through agrarian reform, sustainable development and democratic participation in governance.

Local Governance

Governance, according to the dictionary, is “government.”  If you think of government as the act or process of governing, that would be an accurate definition of governance.  But present usage understands governance to go beyond government.

To distinguish ‘governance’ from ‘government,’ it may encompass the many ways that individuals and social institutions – families, schools, religious organizations, the media, businesses, unions, professional groups, voluntary associations, as well as units of government – manage to accommodate and cooperate.”

One NGO involved in governance work, defines it as the interaction of government entities with civil society, corporate sector, and political parties in order to craft state policy, implement programs, projects, and activities, and monitor and evaluate these so as to improve policy formulation or implementation.”

The common elements are interaction, accommodation, and cooperation.  You cannot have governance without either a government or the governed.  In modern societies governments rule with the consent and participation of the governed.  One key concern of modern progressive politics is how to increase and improve the quality of citizen or civic participation.

Context of Local Governance Work:

The lack of genuine empowerment of peoples and communities remains the central political reality in the Philippines and in Mindanao today.  The opportunities for more democratic participation in governance offered by the Local Government Code have remained largely unoptimized.

The 1991 Local Government Code provides for administrative, fiscal and political decentralization. In administrative terms, powers of taxation and responsibility for services are divided between four main tiers of government: national, provincial, city/municipal and barangay.

In fiscal terms, the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA, government revenue from direct and indirect taxes excluding customs and excise duties) is split 60:40 between central government and local government units (LGUs). The 40% allotted to LGUs is in turn split between provinces (23%), cities (23%): towns/municipalities (34%) and barangays (20%). Thus, barangays receive 20% of the IRA allocated to LGUs. Barangays raise additional revenue from other sources, such as the hire of facilities, and can apply for funding from provincial, city or municipal development funds. In turn, the barangay must allocate its IRA as mandated by law: honoraria for officials (55%); Barangay Development Fund (20%); Sangguniang Kabataan  (Youth Council) (10%); Calamity Fund (5%); Reserve Fund (5%) and Discretionary Fund (5%). The Barangay Development Fund thus represents a major source of investment in infrastructure and services, along with other allocations that a barangay obtains. 

In political terms, the Code provides for directly-elected officials at province, city, town/municipality and barangay level, including Barangay Captains or Chairpersons and Barangay Kagawad (Councillors), who constitute the Barangay Council. A Barangay Council consists of 9 members: 7 Kagawad,  the Barangay Captain, and the chair of the Sangguniang Kabataan. The Barangay Development Council, responsible for the disbursement of the Barangay Development Fund, is not directly elected and consists of Barangay Kagawad, others nominated by the Barangay Council, and the various sectors and tribes of the barangay. 

However, traditional patronage politics continue to dominate the Philippine political landscape.  The efforts of some LGUs and NGOs to optimize the windows of opportunities offered by the Code have managed to reach only a small fraction of the country.  Legitimate POs and NGOs continue to struggle for the mandated participation in the local special bodies.  The challenge remains of how to vigorously pursue organizing, education and formation work to enable peoples and communities to participate more meaningfully in governance.

There is however a growing informal social movement centered on leading NGOs, LGU executives and professional groups that believes in and works towards empowerment and sustainable development of communities with the Barangay as the locus and focus of their initiatives.  Workable models for institutionalizing democratic participation of peoples and communities in local development planning, program implementation and participatory monitoring and evaluation have been developed and are now in the process of being replicated in more areas.

Some LGUs – such as Claveria and Gingoog in Misamis Oriental and Loreto in Surigao del Norte - have already reorganized and strengthened their development councils; drawn up their community profiles using Participatory Rural Appraisal – PRA; formulated their own development plans; developed the relevant projects; mobilized internal and external resources; and most are already implementing some of the projects that they have developed.  In these LGUs, civil society participation is noticeably strong and vibrant.

Local Governance in the Context of Sustainable Integrated Area Development:

BMFI’s SIAD Work follows the COCO-BREAD Framework also being used by the Philippine Community Organizers’ Society (PHILCOS).

The overall objective of BMFI’s SIAD work is to help build empowered sustainable and peaceful communities where a critical mass of residents is able to analyze the situation, formulate plans, develop projects and generate internal and external resources to meet priority needs, and participate meaningfully in local governance.

Specifically, it aims to:

1. organize and strengthen local sectoral organizations and cooperatives capable of formulating and implementing their own plans and projects, and actively participating in local mandated structures like the Barangay Development Council (BDC);

2. increase the management capacity of target barangay communities and local government units in order to equip the population with the planning, negotiating and organizational skills to influence their own development;

3. encourage and stimulate economic and agricultural initiatives in rural areas in order to improve household food security and raise incomes;

4. establish/strengthen venues for people’s participation in barangay governance;

5. promote and improve the representation of the poor and their interests in existing institutions.

The outputs include:

1. community participation in the formulation and identification of the Barangay development agenda which uplifts the entire barangay rather than individuals;

2. Barangay development plans with annual operational plans, annual investment plans and barangay annual budget formulated with the participation of the Barangay residents, the LGUs and the POs;

3. functioning and organised Barangay Development Councils;

4. established/strengthened venues for peoples participation in barangay governance;

5. livelihood projects and appropriate enterprises implemented;

6. priority projects like small infrastructures and basic services funded and implemented

BMFI’s Area-Based Community Development (ABCD) Work in the Barangays

The Area-Based Operations Team (ABOT) continues to live and work fulltime in 50 upland and/or indigenous communities that have been identified as BMFI focus-barangays.  In these barangays, BMFI’s intervention is at its fullest.   This is seen as the important anchor to keep BMFI “grounded” and rooted as it pursues its other multi-level involvement in development work.

BMFI’s barangay-based and barangay-level work focuses on the following:

• Local governance work especially through facilitating the strengthening of local people’s organizations and cooperatives, the barangay development councils (BDCs), the conduct of PRAs, the formulation of barangay development plans (BDPs), enterprise development, internal and external resource mobilization and indigenous technology development.
   

• Helping improve people’s access to justice through institution-building and capability-building interventions
   

• Agrarian reform particularly land tenure and productivity improvement towards food security

The following are expected to be achieved:

• barangay project committees formed and functional

• community-based M&E system installed in each barangay

• barangay-based para-legal teams formed and functional

• at least one para-agriculturist and local organizer trained and functional per barangay

• projects prioritized and developed already being implemented

• barangay development centers established and functional

• tribal centers established and functional

Projected impact on the communities:

• Increase in household income

• Greater and more institutionalized participation in local governance, and greater access to justice

• Improved land tenure security

Description:

BMFI implements its program entitled Helping Build Empowered Sustainable and Peaceful Communities in Mindanao through its Area-Based Community Development (ABCD) or SIAD Work.

The barangay is the clear locus and focus of BMFI’s area-based work in agrarian reform and local governance leading to sustainable integrated area development (SIAD).  After six years of barangay-based work, BMFI has seen the evolution of a set of strategies and technologies:

1. Continuing Community Organizing and Mobilization

The work involves facilitating the establishment of the appropriate community/interest/peoples organizations - peasant/farmers, fisher folk, tribal, youth, vendors, women, cooperative - in areas where there are none, and the strengthening of those already in existence. The BMFI Area-Based Operating Team continues to pursue more intensively its work of organizing and strengthening local sectoral organizations and cooperatives capable of formulating and implementing their own plans and projects, and actively participating in local mandated structures like the Barangay Development Council (BDC).  At least one peoples’ organization and/or cooperative in each of the barangays is assisted as it actively engages in partnership work and mobilization towards good local governance.  To achieve this, community meetings and conferences are held regularly. Initially, there is a need to cover subsidy for food, meeting materials and transportation support for participants who would come from the farthest puroks.  The Team Leaders and the fulltime community organizers (called Sustainable Integrated Area Organizers or  SIADOs) that comprise the BMFI ABOT live and work fulltime in these communities.  To effectively and efficiently do their jobs in these far-flung upland communities, the SIADOs are provided with motorbikes and the appropriate communication facilities.  They are also provided the necessary operating funds for their food and other basic necessities or a monthly CO allowance.

2. Local Development Planning Processes 

Once the mechanisms for broad and genuine participation are set up, it would be the BMFI ABOT’s function to help facilitate a participatory local development planning process leading all the way to project implementation.  The Local Government Code in Section 109 mandates the BDCs to mobilize people’s participation in local development efforts; prepare barangay development plans (BDPs) based on local requirements; and monitor and evaluate the implementation of national or local programs and projects.  Thus, particular attention is given to the establishment and capability building of the BDCs.  The salient stages/components of participatory local development planning are: Barangay Profiling and Assessment,  Barangay Development Planning, Sub-Project Development, Resource Mobilization   and Plan Implementation. Workshops will have to be conducted to ensure that the priority projects identified though the participatory planning processes are indeed truly responsive to the most pressing needs of the residents.  Project development workshops will also have to be conducted to ensure that the people themselves are truly the primary stakeholders even during the earliest stage of the project cycle.

3. Barangay LGU Capability Building and Organizational Development 

The aim is to develop the capability of the barangays for effective and efficient local governance, and in setting up and strengthening the mechanisms for genuine participation by people in governance.  The work entails networking with the local officials - both elected and appointed; conduct of local governance seminars for officials and staff; assessing the status of the BDCs; facilitating the (re)organization of the BDCs; and other interventions in LGU capability building especially local development planning; revenue optimisation; budgeting;  external resource mobilisation; and project planning, implementation and monitoring.  BMFI helps to ensure that communities, peoples’ organizations and cooperatives are sufficiently equipped with the capacities to implement the projects that they have identified and developed through participatory local development planning.  Special attention is also given to the enhancement of project-specific capabilities that would correspond to the livelihood projects prioritized. 

4. Resource Mobilization and Setting Up of Barangay/ Community Development Support Block Fund

Once formulated, the BDP becomes the basis for project prioritization and development.  In most cases, the internal resources from the barangay and the households are not enough to implement the priority projects.  BMFI then assists the barangays to mobilize external resources.  The Stakeholders’ Forum has proven to be an effective mechanism to do this.  Once external resources are mobilized, a block fund will be set up to ensure that these resources for the implementation of priority projects are properly managed.  Local decision-making, planning, implementing, coordinating and monitoring mechanisms will be established.  Emphasis is given on the generation of internal resources as counterpart funds before money from the Support Block Fund may be released.  This fund may also be tapped by the communities as a source of their local counterpart for small infrastructure projects such as water system installation, health center repair and construction, farm-to-market road construction, and other projects funded by government but requires local counterpart. The Project Implementation and Monitoring Committee (PIMC) draws up the appropriate policies and mechanisms to guide the utilization of the fund.

Project Implementation and Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

Peoples and communities have to experience their own “small victories” to inspire them to work harder and continue having faith in coming together.  Thus, the projects have to be implemented after ensuring that sufficient internal and external resources have been mobilized.  And it is not enough that projects are implemented, their implementation have to be appropriately monitored and evaluated. The Project Implementing and Monitoring Committee (PIMC) is also expected to regularly and systematically coordinate and monitor the projects. Since the project is anchored on the SIAD framework, participatoriness, democratization and partnership are considered as fundamental elements. Thus, the system designed is also premised on these key elements. This is known as Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation. 

Some of the principles used as guides are:

1. Building on what people already know

2. Using and developing people's abilities and skills to monitor and evaluate their own progress

3. Helping people to see whether their activities are having an impact on project objectives

4. Revealing whether human and material resources are being used efficiently, effectively and at a cost that the project can afford

5. Enabling people to study their own methods of organization and management

6. Providing good information for making decisions about planning and project direction

7. Enabling people to see their own project in a wider context such as how it relates to other development initiatives

8. Increasing the sense of collective responsibility for project activities.

More Explanations About the Support Fund:

This Fund is a key factor in ensuring that the barangays and/or the peoples’ organizations (POs) and cooperatives actually implement the projects that they themselves have identified and developed through participatory and democratic planning processes.  This will allow them to experience “small victories” which would in turn inspire them to continue having faith in coming and working together.

The Fund is also seen as a supplementary and complementary resource intended to encourage the communities to appreciate and mobilize their own internal resources.  Thus, it can only be tapped by the barangays, POs and cooperatives if they show the willingness and ability to invest and generate capital and resources from the households and even the LGU through its IRA.

The gaps or the requirements for external resources to implement priority projects are usually high.  The Fund is definitely not enough to cover all the costs for all the projects. The list of priority projects is just a shortlist from where the barangays/POs/cooperatives may choose from.  It is therefore necessary that the communities are provided the guidance and the skills to prioritize projects according to appropriate standards or criteria like degree of necessity, affordability, viability, sustainability, degree or numbers of those who would benefit from impact, and other factors which the communities would consider a appropriate.  The necessary mechanisms and structures for democratic decision-making, project implementation and monitoring and evaluation will be established.  Local project management committees (PMCs) will be formed.

There are two “windows” under this Fund:  a) Livelihood Revolving Support Fund and b) Small Infrastruture Support Fund.

The Livelihood Revolving Support Fund is intended to provide enough money to serve as “trigger mechanism” for the barangay residents to put in their own counterpart (money and/or materials)  and the barangay’s money through their  IRA to develop and implement livelihood projects. This fund is aimed to promote local livelihood activities, which will be accessed by residents. A Project Management Committee manages the fund and monitors and evaluates the projects.  Livelihood projects may be an expansion of their current livelihood or can be a supplementary activity to augment the family income. For agricultural projects, crops may be insured to protect the farmers from major natural calamities.  The avail of this window, the communities have to first generate or raise their own internal resources.  The Livelihood Revolving Support Fund is managed by the barangays through their respective Project Implementation and Monitoring Committees (PIMCs).

The Small Infrastructure Support Fund is intended to respond to need of the barangays to raise “local counterparts” required by government before infrastructure projects are implemented.  This window will help the communities develop and implement socially-responsive infrastructure projects  like farm to market roads, potable water systems, and the construction of health and daycare centers.  To avail of this window, the communities will have to show approved programs of works and proof of firm funding commitment from the concerned government agency.