Development Management and Governance

POVERTY IS NOT A VIRTUE

2005-12-04T20:14:00.000+08:00

Poverty is not a virture. It is an obstacle, not only to pleasure but also to ethics and virtue. Morality is a luxury which very poor people can rarely afford.

-The Complete Book of Kama Sutra, Vatsyayana

Poverty is not a virture. It is an obstacle, not only to pleasure but also to ethics and virtue. Morality is a luxury which very poor people can rarely afford.

-The Complete Book of Kama Sutra, Vatsyayana

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The Taoist Approach to Administration

2005-11-23T19:43:00.000+08:00

The Taoist Approach to Administration

LXII

The way is the refuge for the myriad creatures.
It is that by which the good man protects,
And that by which the bad is protected.
Beautiful words when offered will win high rank in return;
Beautiful deeds can raise a man above others.
Even if man is not good, why should he be abandoned?
Hence when the emperor is set up and the three ducal ministers are appointed, he who makes of the way without stirring from his seat is preferable to one who offers presents of jade discs followed by a team of four horses. Why was this valued of old?
Was it not said that by means of it one got what one wanted and escape the consequences when one transgressed?
Therefore it is valued by the empire.

LXIII

Do that which consists in taking no action; pursue that which is not meddlesome; savour that which has no flavour.
Make the big small and the few many; do good to him who has done you an injury.
Lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult; make something big by starting with it when small.
Difficult things in the world must needs have their beginnings in the easy; big things must needs have their beginnings in the small.
Therefore it is because the sage never attempts to be great that he succeeds in becoming great.
One who makes promises rashly rarely keeps good faith; one who is in the habit of considering things easy meets with frequent difficulties.
Therefore even the sage treats some things as difficult. That is why in the end no difficulties can get the better of him.

LXIV

It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;
It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;
It is easy to break a thing when it yet brittle;
It is easy to dissolve a thing when it yet minute.
Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;
Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in;
A tree that can fill a span of a manâ€™s arms
Grows from a downy tip;
A terrace nine storeys high
Rises from hodfuls of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath oneâ€™s feet.
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Therefore the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything; and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing.
In their enterprises the people
Always ruin them when on the verge of success.
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning
And there will be no ruined enterprises.
Therefore the sage desires not to desire
And does not value goods which are hard to come by;
Learns to be without learning
And makes good the mistakes of the multitude
In order to help the myriad creatures to be natural and refrain from daring to act.
LXV
Of old those excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. The reason why the people are difficult to govern is that they are too clever.
Hence to rule a state by the cleverness
Will be to the detriment of the state;
Not to rule a state by cleverness
Will be a boon to the state.
These two are models.
Always to know the models
Is known as mysterious virtue.
Mysterious virtue is profound and far-reaching,
But when things turn back it turns back with them.
Only then is complete conformity realized.

Source: Lao Tzu,Tao Te Ching, trans. D.C. Lau.

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Organizing Women for Power

2005-11-23T19:28:00.000+08:00

ORGANIZING WOMEN FOR POWER
(Under the Gender Mainstreaming Program): An NGO Experience

Community organizing, as defined from the National Rural CO Conference of 1994, is a collective, participatory, transformative, liberative, sustained and systematic process of building peopleâ€™s organizations by mobilizing and enhancing the capabilities and resources of the people for the resolution of their issues and concerns towards effecting change in their existing and oppressive exploitative conditions. It is widely used by different institutions, private organizations, government agencies, non-government organizations, religious groups and other development-oriented groups, as a process for community development. However, CO approach is different in each group. Some are involved in issue-based organizing, church/faith-based organizing and others are into project-based organizing.

For this purpose, experiences from the rural community of an NGO that is involved in issue-based organizing will be presented indicating the processes employed and the outcomes and issues encountered. Likewise, the lessons learned by the community organizer were incorporated.

Background Information about the Project

The Community Organizers Multiveristy (COM), a non-profit non-government organization, worked with the urban and rural poor for almost 12 years now. It is one of the NGOs in the country that organize community for power. One of its recent programs is organizing the fisherfolk community along the periphery of Laguna Lake. The program is called the MAPAGPALA (Mamamayan para sa Pagpapaunlad at Pagpapanatili ng Lawa)1 which is also the name of the coalition of the Peoples Organizations from the said location. It is composed of eight (8) federations. The program was also conceptualized due to the growing concern of the people to the issues of Laguna Lake.

In support to the MAPAGPALA program, COM came up with the Gender Mainstreaming Program funded by Oxfam Hongkong. Since MAPAGPALA is composed majority of men's People's Organization, Gender Program gave an avenue to the women's organizations to have full participation in the activities of the coalition.

Objective/Rationale

The objectives of the Gender Mainstreaming Program were: 1) Assess and evaluate the dynamics of women organization in the areas; 2) Assist the POs in maintaining, managing and planning their livelihood projects through the conduct of trainings on Financial and Organizational Management, Formulating Feasibility Studies, Project Proposal Making, Project Management, Livelihood Projects (Fish Processing, Tuina Massage, etc.); 3) Conduct of Gender and Development training programs that are more focused on the needs and issues of women; and, 4) Develop a Federation of women within the coalition to have a representative who is responsible for addressing or raising the issues of women in the lake wide community.
The aims of organizing the community in particular are: 1) Look and develop potential women leaders within the community; 2) Train second liners; and 3) Spot for gender issues in the community.

MAPAGPALA coordinated with CO Multiversity to deploy COs to organize the member communities with women organizations. During the first and second years of the program, the pilot areas selected for the community organizing activities were barangays from Siniloan, BiÃ±an and Calamba, Laguna and Talim, Rizal. On the third year, there were additional areas which include Sta. Rosa, Laguna and Cardona, Rizal. However, towards the end of the program, some of the areas were excluded from the program and focused only to five areas which were: Brgy. Sinalhan and Caingin of Sta. Rosa, Brgy. Sampiruhan and Lingga of Calamba and Brgy. Dalig of Cardona.

Among the final organizations that served as primary stakeholders of the program were Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Damdamin (SANADA) of Brgy. Sinalhan, Sta. Rosa, Samahan ng mga Mag-iisdang Kababaihan ng Kaingin (SAMAKKA) of Brgy. Caingin, Sta. Rosa, Samahan ng mga Kababaihan ng Lingga (SAKALI) of Brgy. Lingga, Calamba, Lakas ng Kababaihan ng Sampiruhan (LAKAS) of Sampiruhan, Calamba and Bugkos-Lakas ng Kababaihan Laban sa Kahirapan (BULAKLAK) of Brgy. Dalig, Cardona.

Organization Philosophy/Principles

The CO Multiversity has a major principle in organizing a community. â€œStart where the people are but do not end where they are.â€� This means that every community has its own resources, power, structure, strengths and weaknesses. Organizing is apparently aiming for transformation of the people in the community. It is all about change. It is for community development.

This NGO also believes that women have their capacity and power to change their environment and capable of thinking and acting upon their reality. People empowerment is one of their main purposes of organizing. It focuses on increasing women's control over the choices in their lives. It seeks to increase their self-reliance and self-confidence so they will become more active players in society. Through increased control over crucial material and non-material resources, women are then expected to take steps to influence the direction of social and economic change.

Vision and Mission

CO Multiversity is formerly the Community Organization Training and Research Advocacy Institute (COTRAIN). It is an NGO that trains Community Organizers which has a vision of â€œEmpowered communities engaged with other stakeholders in working towards sustainable development.â€� Its mission as a learning centre, is enhance capacities of COs, POs, and other development organizations by creating and nurturing innovative, culturally-sensitive and empowering community processes in partnership with other stakeholders.

COM together with two partner NGOs (Urban Poor Associates and COPE) formed the TRICOR. The figure above shows that if a CO Trainee would pass the requirement of the training, he/she will be qualified for a one-year internship to the NGO. After finishing the internship, he/she should undergo advance CO training until he/she reached the upper positions.

IMPLEMENTATION

Approach/Strategies in Organizing

The NGO traditionally employs the Issue-Based Approach to community organizing. This refers to an organizing approach which revolves around issues or problems that are felt by a significant number of people in the community; can be resolved if the people use their numbers in negotiating with a target group, usually outside the community, and have a high probability of being resolved if collectively acted upon. This approach is also known as the Alinsky-Freire approach, taken from the principles by Saul Alinsky and Paulo Freire.

Setting and Peopleâ€™s Organization

The communities served as a â€œsocial laboratoryâ€� of Universities and colleges from Alabang, Quezon City and Manila. This is because they are members of another coalition named CALARIZ. The communities are the primary respondents to the researches conducted by students from the said institutions. The areas selected were along the periphery of Laguna Lake, which means that the main source of the family's livelihood in the said communities came from the lake resources. The areas that were chosen for issue organizing is Brgy. Caingin, Sta. Rosa City and Brgy. Sampiruhan, Calamba City. Both from the Province of Laguna. There were already existing womenâ€™s organization prior to the issue organizing. These are Samahan ng mga Mag-iisdang Kababaihan ng Kaingin (SAMAKKA) and Lakas ng Kababaihan ng Sampiruhan (LAKAS) respectively.

Main source of livelihood in the community are fishing (capturing, preserving, selling), washing laundry, managing small scale sari-sari store, etc. Most of the members of the women's organization are wives of fishermen and a mother of small children. Secondary education is highest educational attainment by these women.

Process

Components of the Activity

The components of the program were Community Organizing, Income Generating Projects (IGPs) or Livelihood Projects, and Gender training and seminars.
Community Organizing was initiated by the COM staff and with the leadership of the PO leaders and members. The PO leaders mobilized the members and even the community to address their social and environmental issues such as high concern to dengue fever in Sta. Rosa and violence against women and children in Calamba.

Organizing training programs were divided into two stages. The first stage is the conduct of gender sensitivity training (GST) to the male leaders of MAPAGPALA to provide them information and bring awareness of the situation of women sector. The said activity also aimed to prepare the male leaders to the mainstreaming effort of women in the activities of the coalition. The second stage is divided into two phases.

Phase 1 targeted the participation of only the first three leaders of the women's organization. However, one of the objectives of the program is to develop second liners of leaders, COM decided to bring the training in the communities. Thus, participation from the members during the second phase was expected. Phase 1. The conduct of training and seminars which were related and could support the start or establishment of an income generating project or livelihood projects were likewise provided to the women's organization. The topics of the training and seminars were Preparing Feasibility Study, Project Proposal Making, Financial Management, Fish Processing and Tuina Massage.

Phase 2. There were six (4) gender-related trainings conducted for each area. These include Violence Against Women (VAW), Reproductive Health and Rights, Gender Sensitivity, and Paralegal. These topics were discussed and decided among the members of the organization and the community prior to the actual conduct. This was done so to bring interest among them. The said series of trainings started January 2005 and ended June of 2005.

Processes or Steps in Issue-based organizing

First Step. Integration. It is the stage where the community organizer immerse himself/herself in the community to know the culture, economy, leaders, history, rhythms and lifestyle of the people. It is simply becoming one with the poor. Before the organizer immersed to the communities, she was properly introduced to the womenâ€™s organization and to the foster family by the leader organizer who is a member of the organizing committee of MAPAGPALA. The CO then after meeting the PO, conducted courtesy call to the Barangay Official. After that, she started establishing rapport to the community people.

Second Step. Social Investigation. It is the process of systematically looking for issues to organize and mobilize the people around. The CO conducted a study of documents or reports that talk about the problems of the people. This means that the CO had a research to the concerned agencies or institutions. She learn from the people themselves how they feel about the problem, how they analyze the details of the problem, its significance and complications through one-to-one conversation. In addition, she studied how the leaders are tied to the problem or how it is affected by the existing power structure. This is also where the CO developed a core group that would lead in mobilizing the people.

Third Step. Tentative Program. The CO worker should not have preconceived ideas on what are the right issues to tackle. He is continually curious and always looking for deeper levels of complexity in problem. Finally, he should one issue to work on. The issue chosen must affect a large number of people, and the people must feel strongly about the problem. The issue must be winnable, interests other people or attract allies and it should lead to other issue.
The issues that were chosen are the following: Caingin â€“ issue on having dengue fever in the community due to the presence of mosquitoes and Sampiruhan â€“ violence against women and children (domestic violence) is present in the community.

The issue for Caingin was prioritized due to high concern of mothers in health and sanitation. The women from this area were able to attend a seminar on Reproductive Health and Rights, which perhaps gave them an idea to work on this issue. Whereas in Sampiruhan, the women there were able to participate in a seminar on Violence Against Women, Gender Sensitivity and Paralegal which supported their aim to eradicate the violence in their community.

Fourth Step. Groundwork. This means to motivate people in the community on a one-to-one basis to do something about the issue. This is where the agitation and motivation is necessary.
Together with the core group, the CO talked to the people about the issue chosen. However, she did not imposed anything to them rather she asked questions that would conscientisize the people and came up with a decision. The people then decided to have a community meeting to tackle the issue among themselves.

Fifth Step. Community Meeting. The people collectively ratify what they have decided individually. In this activity, the sense of collective power and confidence is felt and manifested. The details on the planned action are settled here.

The CO prior to the community meeting had talked to the core group about the agenda and trained or prepared them because they are the ones who will lead and facilitate the meeting. During the meeting, the CO became the advisor, which means that she was able to present some supporting information about the issue and suggested some strategies and tactics to be employed in addressing it to the target authority. A series of community meeting followed until they decided to act on the issue and face the target.

Sixth Step. Role Play. This means to act out the meeting that will take place between the leaders of the people and the representatives of the government or institutions or who ever may be their target. It is a way of training the people to anticipate what will happen and to prepare themselves.

The CO acted as the Brgy. Captain (BC) since the target authority of both the communities is their Barangay Council. The people during the community meeting presented their issues and threw questions to the CO and she answered something which is possible for the BC to explain. She also acted as if she is already angry to the people and said unpleasant words to see what would be their initial reactions. This was aimed to minimized violent reactions from the people during the actual mobilization and able to get what they want.

Seventh Step. Mobilization or Action. It is the actual experience of the people in confronting the powerful and the actual exercise of peopleâ€™s power.

For the Caingin, prior to the actual confrontation with the BC, the group prepared a letter requesting for a fogging activity on their barangay. The BC had a warmth welcome for the group. Since he is a young novice politician/leader, he was very open to the request of the people. He promised to immediately act on it.

For Sampiruhan, the group posted posters about violence against women and children in every house of the members of the PO and in every corner of the barangay. Likewise, they had a signature campaign together with the letter requesting for the approval of the establishment of Womenâ€™s Desk.

Eight Step. Evaluation. This is a review of the actions taken during the mobilization and other activities before the actual confrontation with the target. This is actually a review of the seven steps.

Ninth Step. Reflection. This deals with deeper ongoing concerns. It is the time to look at the values and learnings which are significant in building an organization. It deals with sacrifice, community building, leadership and authority, nature of freedom and democracy.
Tenth Step. Organization. This is the final step which is the creation of peopleâ€™s organization. It the result of many similar actions of the people.

Duration

The Gender Mainstreaming Program started from June 2002 and ended on June 2005. The organizing process started from the said date, however on this case; the issue organizing in Brgy. Sampiruhan, Calamba City and Brgy. Caingin, Sta. Rosa City started from October 10, 2004 and ended on June 30, 2005. This served as the training area for basic community organizing on the part of the organizer.

RESULTS

Outcomes

Caingin â€“ the community was scheduled to have a fogging activity since the Barangay Captain forwarded their request to the City Health Office. The organization likewise lead the community in maintaining the cleanliness of their canals and drainage system.
Sampiruhan â€“ the Barangay Council granted the request of the womenâ€™s organization. They now have the womenâ€™s desk (memberâ€™s of the organization are holding the position). They are presently demanding the approval of their request for the release of the GAD Budget from the LGU.

Lessons/Insights

Organizing women is not an easy workâ€¦

Women have multiple roles to performâ€¦

Organizing is another burden and responsibility to themâ€¦

The CO need to have a longer time for organizing a community
Livelihood projects and microfinance is much accepted by rural people - â€œsurvival firstâ€�
The CO is usually brand as â€œleftist, activist, antiâ€”government, etc.â€�

Problems/Issues and Possible Solution

Caingin â€“ the organization is dependent on the barangay's action and promises. They are not yet ready to be involved in a conflict confrontation. Still with the negotiation stage.
Sampiruhan â€“ they are still lobbying for the GAD Budget to be release. As of now, the person sitting in the Women's Desk is a volunteer. No allowance.

The organizer has a dual role which is issue-based organizing and gender development training...

Lack of focus...

There are requirements to be met for Basic CO Training...

Women are neglected and taken for granted as contributors to community developmentâ€¦ the society is still patriarchal in natureâ€¦

Organizing women sector aimed to empower them to take actions for their own development and become visible and be heard in the communityâ€¦

Women organizations could likewise help in propagating the objectives and principles of community development through local leadership

In planning for a development program, take into account gender development (women development), it is one of the millennium development goals.

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eBrangay.Net

2005-11-23T19:20:00.000+08:00

eBarangay.Net. As a website, eBarangay.Net was put up in 2004 to support local initiatives that envision more effective governance, education and entrepreneurship through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). It is maintained by the IT Services Group of the Institute of Development Management and Governance (IDMG), UPLB, TeleFax (049) 536 3382 and SMS (0916) 960 3388. The author is the faculty in-charge of this group, with graduate students-volunteers as members. The eBarangay.Net email is kagawad@ebarangay.net, accessible also via SMS by texting ebarangay (message) to 2960.

The latest technology developed at ebarangay.Net is Emme, an interactive website solution for non-IT users. Made available as a truly global Internet service for P1, 680 per year (when sharing a domain) or P3, 360 per year (when owning a domain), Emme makes Web publishing possible for low-budget/low-effort situations. Shown below is the typical front page of Emme that features a discussion window at the right-hand side of the screen.

eBarangay.Net went online on February 23, 2004 out of necessity â€“ it supported the First Egovernance Conference at UPLB that was finally held March 23, 2004. The character of eBarangay.Net may be understood more by looking at these features of the 2004 conference:
â€œThe conference on Egovernance Initiatives and the Emerging Information Society aims to discuss various initiatives for integrating ICT in government and local communities. The activity will also give away secrets of interactive technologies useful for schools, LGUs and enterprises.
In particular, the conference aims to:

1. discuss initiatives for egovernment, local egovernance, and the World Summit on the Information Society;

2. discuss technologies applicable in egovernance/enterprise and their HRD implications;

3. demonstrate technologies for creating interactive website and intranet.

Through the conference, the participants will be able to:

1. access support offered by the various initiatives in egovernment, local egovernance and the World Summit on the Information Society;

2. apply in their respective LGUs strategies and tactics learned from the different initiatives;

3. create interactive website and intranet for egovernance and enterprise.â€�

eBarangay.Netâ€™s platform is open-source, again out of necessity, as it has no revenue source other than fees for services, training or conferences. The four components of LAMP â€“ Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP â€“ are normally used, although in the case of Emme, no database is employed, so only LAP (or PAL) is required.

The benefits of using Emme are many, and are summarized in the brochure (downloadable from www.emme.name), but the propagation of Emme has just started. Among the early users of Emme are:

www.sagipbukid.net - start-up enterprise in bio-organic fertilizer;
http://MetroSouth.Coopbank.name - cooperative bank with member cooperatives in many places in the country;
http://2545.tsika.net - the authorâ€™s course website for master of technology management students, deployed August-October 2004.

Emme is a product of two years of engagement by the author in eLearning conferences (2002-2003), so it is really useful in mentoring: making available instructorâ€™s comments on and synthesis of lessons, and enabling students to post queries or comments. One student, a computing professional, has requested the use of Emme for his own teaching, as he has â€œno time to codeâ€� â€“ thus validating the usefulness of Emme even among computing professionals.
The biggest handicap of eBarangay.Net is marketing, an expensive undertaking if done via the traditional commercial route. So the promotion of eBarangay.Net services is done mostly by person-person explanation aided by a brochure, with occasional mass marketing in conferences such as this (www.ICT4D.ph).

Among the learnings at eBarangay.Net during its first year are:
Complementation is a must in ICT4D, but players are hesitant to cooperate or have no venue for cooperation (for example, eBarangay.Net as a website provider/ trainer can benefit from working with dial-up services provider/ trainer as well as with computer hardware/ networking shops).

Content has a strong demand-pull influence on Internet technologies (i.e., promoting Internet technology can be easier when paired with content that has more tangible outcome, like new technology or enterprise);

Free email services have become relevant to citizens because of their reliability and the increasing amount of threats to local email accounts such as virus and unsolicited mail (eBarangay.Net therefore does not offer email service);

Local website hosting providers admit the lack of national Internet backbone which makes the price of their hosting services much higher than those offered in the U.S. or Canada (eBarangay.Net therefore uses U.S. webhosting services);

There is near-zero understanding about E-Minima and Open-Source initiatives among ordinary citizens (the cost of owning a computer is therefore high from their viewpoint);
There is near-zero Internet preparedness in public primary and secondary schools (teachers may not know the use and benefit of the Internet, the school may not have computers or the network interconnection of computers);

Institutions which avail of Internet facilities get handicapped by the absence or low reliability of network infrastructure (the usual operating problem is in underground fiber-optic connection);
Low-cost solutions may not be first in the list of public institutions that have its own culture of contracting and procurement.

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welcome

2005-02-05T19:57:00.000+08:00

Welcome to IDMG Blog!