Project Info: Project Objectives, Results Expected and Indicators

We are posting the Project Objectives, Results Expected and Indicators in order that these information are accessible and downloadable anywhere at anytime.

General Objective: To improve the quality of life of the marginalized men, women and children in Caraga Region.

Indicator: Total number of beneficiaries of 720 men; 720 women; and 860 children.

Specific Objective: Promoted the development of 12 communities in Caraga Region through the integrated enhancement/promotion of community organizing, resource management and access to basic social services.

Indicators:

• At least 75% of the family beneficiaries reach an income level higher than the poverty threshold in the province
• Community-based management structures are operational
• 12 POs are active and participating in local governance

Results Expected

R.1. Organized, capacitated and strengthened 12 autonomous People’s Organizations (one in each community) as Community Development and Resource Managers.

Indicators:

• 12 People’s Organizations are active and strengthened and have acquired legal personality
• At least 50% of the total membership can articulate the concept of Sustainable Integrated Area Development (SIAD) and Community-Based Resource Management (CBRM)
• 120 beneficaries trained in cooperatives
• At least 120 beneficiaries enhance their knowledge and understanding in Gender Equity and Empowerment
• At least 50% of the members of the People’s Organizations are women
• At least 50% of the membership in the committees are women
• At the end of the Project at least 2 Pos are in the process of constituting a cooperative

R.2 Increased household income through the increase of farm productivity through sustainable agriculture practices, non-farm income generating activities and marketing arrangements.

Indicators:

• 240 farmers trained on biodiversity conservation
• At least 50% of the beneficiaries have availed of the farm production project
• At least 50% of the women beneficiaries participated in their income generating projects
• At least 75% of the beneficiaries have increased their income by 50%
• At least 50% of the members of the 12 People’s Organizations practice Sustainable Agriculture
• At least 50% of the women participated in the income generating projects
• At least 25% of the beneficiaries of the farm production and marketing projects are women
• At least 75% of the People’s Organizations have marketing contacts

R.3. Improved the communities’ access to basic social of health services through community-
managed service delivery methods.

Indicators:

• 12 Community Insurance System are operational
• 12 Day Care Centers received instructional materials and classroom furniture
• 12 Community Health Service and Insurance System Committees are operational
• 120 Community Health Workers certified by their respective Municipal Health Offices
• 2 Community Health Centers constructed or repaired

R.4. Improved the education service and quality of education in 12 communities and established a mechanism for community-based educational management.

Indicators:

• 12 Scholarship Committees are operational
• 12 Primary and or Elementary Schools received textbooks, instructional materials, laboratory equipment, etc
• Annually, 25 primary and or elementary pupils and 10 high school students availed of the scholarship per community
• 2 classroom buildings constructed

R.5. Enhanced the participation of the community men and women members in local governance.

Indicator:

• 12 Community Development Plans are prepared and commenced implementation
• 75% of the Community Development andSectoral Plans are incorporated in the Barangay Development Plans
• 75% of the Barangay Development Plans are incorporated in the Comprehensive City/Municipal Development Plans

Tool Box: Designing or Implementing a Sustainable Integrated Area Development Strategy

The reduction of poverty incidence at the community level and the elimination of poverty at the household level are paramount concerns of SIAD.

Sustainable Integrated Area Development is a development strategy aimed at reducing poverty and at the same time reforming the factors and conditions that perpetuate the problem.

There are no hard and fast rules about what components or activities make up SIAD as a strategy. There is a wide elbow room out there to experiment as well as innovate ways to design and implement your own SIAD strategy.

Following are tips in designing and implementing a SIAD-oriented program or project:

1. The design must be clear that poverty reduction is paramount in the project.
2. Incorporate components that impact local governance, local economic policies and programs, social relationships including Gender relationship, and resource management. All components must impact poverty in a given bio-geographical area.
3. Using a matrix, Cross-analyze the project components and or activities. The result of the cross analysis would give you an idea whether or not the components harmonize with one another.
4. The expected outcomes as well as the actual outcomes should be perceptible.
5. Benchmark your beneficiaries. They are a good barometer for change.
6. Establish a Management Information Systems that extends up to the individual household level or beneficiary level. Keep a record of your every intervention of each beneficiary as well as their every participation or contribution in the project. Also, keep a record of every participation and contribution of every support agency, organization or personalities.
7. Treat your project as a kind of financial investment; Make a financial analysis per household or beneficiary. Compute the cost of your interventions or assistance per household or beneficiary. Compute also the economic return derived by each household or beneficiary.
8. Orchestrate the implementation of the strategy. Mobilize the existing mechanisms as well as those that you organized. Make sure also that the project gravitates around the beneficiaries and the community or locality and not vice versa.
9. Conduct research (the internet is a good source) about SIAD and innovate approaches on how to implement your SIAD strategy effectively. Everything in the project should be treated as a learning experience. Learn from your own mistakes as well as from the mistakes of others.
10. Harmonize. SIAD is an all-systems approach. It is as much a community development strategy as it is an organizational and management framework of your entire organization.

Tool Box: Designing or Evaluating an Organizational Structure

The management system and the client system are the

line systems of an organization. The administrative system and the

finance system are support systems of the line systems.

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities (Wikipedia). In the realm of business or social organizations, the structure of an organization is derived from the established relationships of 4 key systems in an organization, namely, management, client, finance and administrative.

The structure of an organization is not a static pattern; It is always open to change, actually.

Whatever the kind of relationships exist between the systems, the structure follows. When the relationships of the systems in an organization change, the structure of the organization changes accordingly. It is therefore important to design, or evaluate, the structure of an organization based on the status of the relationships of the systems in the organization. An illustration detailing the supposed structure of an organization may not necessarily represent the true structure of the organization. It is not always the case that the supposedly superior position in an organization is actually the position in authority over the supposedly lower ranked position/s; it could be otherwise.

More than just detailing the hierarchy or the rank of positions in an organization, the structure of an organization should be the true representation also of the actual accountability and power-relationships of the different entities or positions in the organization.

Link Up: Basic Concepts of Organization and Organization Development

In the last couple of months, we have been focusing on the formation and strengthening of People's Organizations (PO) in the 15 communities of the project. Along the way (and we expect more in the future actually), our knowledge on theories and concepts about the nature of organizations have been put to good use. Not banking solely on our stock knowledge, many of us did some research as well as sought advice from our pointpersons and project specialists on topics we were not quite confident to handle.

To broaden our knowledge base about the nature of organizations, we kindly invite all Community Organizers to visit the websites listed below. These websites provide theories and concepts about organizations that will inform our PO development work. Please visit:

• http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/org_defn.htm This will give you information about some basic concepts of organization.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_development This will enhance your understanding and framework about Organization development.
• http://www.brandonu.ca/artsadm/orglife/ppframe.htm This will give you an idea about the comparisons made by some experts between the life cycle of an organization and that of human beings. (While you are in this webpage, double click the Right button -labeled Expand - located in the mid-top section. The page will then give you bulletized explanations pertaining to the subject matters listed on the left side of the webpage).

The articles in the webpages above would require perspective when read in order for these to be better understood and appreciated. In our case the perspective should be the People's Organizations we are working with. We will you strengthen this perspective by way of a discussion session to be conducted shortly after the seminar on cooperativism on November 9, Friday.

Happy Reading! Everyone.

Bulletin: Crash Course on Cooperativism for Community Organizers

The Project Management Office will conduct a 2-day crash course on Cooperativism on Nov.8/9 at the PMO office in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. The session is conducted in line with the thrust of the PMO to provide continuing education to the Community Organizers of the Implementing NGO Partners (AID, LEAF, REACH and SSOFHDEV). In this case, Cooperativism.

The seminar will tackle 2 general areas on cooperativism, namely, Pre-Membership Education Seminar and Cooperative Directorship. The specific topics will include the history of cooperative movement (Philippine experience), fundamental concept of cooperatives, legal basis of cooperatives in the Philippines, types of cooperatives, cooperative structure and roles and functions of officers and members, among others.

Marcy, Boyax and Wengweng (PMO Specialists) will provide the input during the sessions. Yet we also encourage all the Community Organizers to do some research and advance reading on the abovementioned topics before coming to the sessions. (Try the Google search engine). The knowledge you bring to the sessions will contribute in meeting the objective of the activity.

Please charge your travel/transportation and meal expenses to your travel allowance. Lodging will be at the PMO office. Sessions will start at 8 in the morning and will end at 9:30 in the evening. We recommend that you come on the evening of 7 November so that you can rest well before the sessions start. No early departures on November 9 please.

If you have suggestions or clarifications about the activity, please post it in the space reserved for comments below or text or email to pbaang@yahoo.com. You may also raise your clarifications to the PMO specialists.

Tool Box: Lobbying

Ma. Luningning Laurente, SSOFDHEV Community Organizer assigned in

Barangay Mabuhay, Tandag City, lobbies before the Barangay Development

Council of Mabuhay the creation of an Education and a Health Committee

in support of the project.

Lobbying is an integral part of the community development process. Many development agenda can be successfully achieved through lobbying. Lobbying is done to try to change an existing policy or situation, to redress government a perceived grievance and keeping them aware of voter’s views and interest. Lobbying is usually done before a government agency or official who has the authority and power to deliver the objective of the lobby.

Lobbying is a skill that every development professional should have. Effective lobbying work on the part of a development professional helps promote social awareness among political leaders and government officers. Government policies and programs would become more attuned to the sentiments of the people as a result of effective lobbying.

There are 2 methods of lobbying: the Direct method and the Indirect method. The direct method takes the form of direct communication between the lobbyist/s and the intended person. The most commonly used ways of direct lobbying are personal meetings, petitions, and mails. The indirect method takes the form of media campaign utilizing mass media (i.e., newspaper, radio and television) and the help of media professionals.

There are 2 kinds of lobbying activity: the Inside lobbying activity and the Outside lobbying activity. Representation in legislative chamber is an example of Inside lobbying. Outside lobbying is done outside the capitol or legislative chamber. News conference, rally and letter-writing campaign are examples of Outside lobbying.

The rule of thumb in lobbying is: The fewer the agenda, the better. An overloading of agenda is often the cause of weak or weakened positioning. Whichever means or activity one chooses to follow, the lobbyist must be ready with a clear and informed agenda.

Research is also a very important aspect of a lobbying activity. There is no substitute to a thorough research study and careful planning before a person or group embarks on a lobbying activity.

A lobbyist/s must include in his or her research work all angles or possible arguments in favor of or against the position he or she is advocating. The more informed and educated the lobbyist is about the issue at hand, the more effective he or she would be in advancing his or her cause.

Bulletin: Quarterly 07 Meeting (4)

Seven (7) months into the implementation of the project, the Community Organizers from LEAF, REACH, AID & SSOFHDEV and the specialists from the PMO converged in Davisol Beach Resort (Municipality of Lianga) on October 4 to 5, 2007 to commence the preparation of the Ist Semester Report of the project.

The 2-day activity was highlighted by the sharing of experiences of the participants, as individuals and as a team, in their community development work as well as the initial drafting of individual staff project progress report. The progress reports, which will subsequently inform the global semestral report of the project that will be submitted to InteRed and AECI, will bring to the fore the global and area level activities from April 07 to September 07. It will also serve as a source document in tracking the status of the interventions of the project, and the evolving outcomes, in the 12 areas. Informed by the learning from a previous project (the STIMULUS project), the personnel are dutifully trying to capture in the report the rich and enriching experiences they had encountered in the first 6 months of project implementation by including as much perceptible changes and improvements in the communities as they could substantiate.

Save for Pidong (REACH) and Boyax (PMO) who failed to join the activity due to health reasons, all the line personnel of the project were present.

Bulletin: October 07 Quarterly Meeting (3)

In the meantime that Jonathan M. (REACH) is looking for a possible venue in Surigao City for our October 4-5, 2007 meeting, we are posting herewith the general program of activities for the 2-day activity, to wit:

Day 1: Seminar on Community Organizing: Whole Day

• 9 AM: Registration and Preliminaries
• 10 AM and onwards: Seminar on Community Organizing

Day 2: Business Meeting

• 8:30 AM: Preliminaries
• 9 AM and onwards: Reporting, Updating and Critiquing

1. Status of Partner Communities/beneficiaries and Community Organizing per CO
2. Status of Components per Specialist in tandem with CO
3. Global status and summation of project activities by Project Manager
4. Data analysis
5. Planning and Resolutions

Day 3: Departures (NB: There is a pending suggestion that a Team Building activity will be conducted on this day)

The following units are advised to prepare and or bring the following documents to the meeting:

1. PMO c/o Project Manager - Reporting/Updating Format, to be sent out on September 21, 2007
2. Project Manager, Specialists, Community Organizers - Respective updates using the format provided; Sources of verification; Proposed Quarerly Plan (October to December 07), to be emailed to pbaang@yahoo.com not later than September 28, 2007. Additional updates covering the last week of September will be inputted on October 5.

Please note that a special skills training on photo/video documentation, scriptwriting, and audio/video production and editing will be inserted as an evening session before taps.

Please post your comments and suggestions in the space for comments below.

Bulletin: October 07 Quarterly Meeting (2)

October 4, 2007 (Day 1 of the October 07 Quarterly Meeting) will be devoted to an in-house seminar on Community Organizing. The PMO has invited Fred Gonzaga and Jerry Guanzon (both from SSOFHDEV), and Jonathan Macasa (REACH) to team up with George Quijada (LocGov/CO Specialist) in the conduct of the seminar. The seminar will cover the following topics:

1. Basic Concepts of Community Organizing/CO Framework - this one would be a review of the topics discussed during the SIAD/CO orientation we conducted in May 2007
2. Principles of Community Organizing
3. Different Approaches in Community Organizing (including a comparative analysis) i.e., Issue Organizing, CO-CD, Service Delivery Organizing, etc.
4. Community Organizing in Praxis
   

Day 2 of the activity will be allocated for the business meeting. If you have suggestions or clarifications on the matter, please write it in the space for comments below.

Bulletin: October 07 Quarterly Meeting (1)

The Quarterly Meeting of the PMO and Community Organizers of the INPs will push through as planned on October 4-5, 2007. The quarterly meeting is a regular activity of the project for updating among the field implementers. In the October meeting, we expect to produce a draft semestral report of the project covering the period April to September 2007, as informed by the activities of the project during the period. The PMO plans to also insert a session on Community Organizing as a form of staff development seminar. Aside from this bulletin, the PMO will send out invites containing the activity design via email on the third week of September. It will also post the activity design in this blogspot.

Forum with InteRed

If there was one important activity of the project that highlighted the first week of September 2007, it would be the Forum with InteRed.

Held on September 4 in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, the forum, for the first time in the brief history of the project, brought the Executive Directors of 3 of the 4 Implementing NGO Partners of the project, the Pointpersons, the Community Organizers, the PMO staff, the PhilDHRRA-Mindanao Chairperson & the Regional Coordinator, as well as the Personal-In-Sede of the project Ms. Aitziber Barrueta of InteRed together in one activity.

The forum, which tackled the status and evolving outcome of the project design review, brought to the fore the result and important findings of the Focus Group Discussion and the Baseline Survey and how they inform the draft modified project design. Suffice it to say, that the outcome of the 2 research studies reaffirmed the results of the community consultations and research conducted by PhilDHRRA in 2006, which informed the original design of the project. Subsequent to the presentation of the research studies, some minor additions and substractions, here and there, in the original logframe were made and the budget recalibrated.

As a culminating activity of the forum, the EDs met up with Aitzi as well as the chairperson of PhilDHRRA-Mindanao, the Regional Coordinator and the Project Manager to discuss and resolve partnership and management concerns.

What is up next? It would be the finalization of the agreements arrived at the forum, the polishing of the proposed modification, and then the submission of the proposed modification to AECI courtesy of InteRed. Barring any extraneous problems and on the assumption that AECI would subsequently approve our proposal, we could expect the recalibrated logframe and budget to take effect in the last quarter of 2007. In the meantime, let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

The Project in Brief

The project entitled, "Promocion del Tejido Social y Productivo para el Desarollo Integral del Comunidades Rurales en Caraga", is a two year project that is being implemented in 12 barangays located in 7 municipalities in Caraga Region in Mindanao, Philippines. The 12 barangays covered by the project include the following:

1. Barangay Poblacion, Municipality of Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte
2. Barangay Bangayan, Municipality of Kitcharao, ADN
3. Barangay Songkoy, Municipality of Kitcharao, ADN
4. Barangay Alipao, Municipality of Alegria, Surigao del Norte
5. Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Placer, SDN
6. Barangay Dugsangon, Municipality of Bacuag, SDN
7. Barangay San Jose, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur
8. Barangay Mabuhay, Tandag City, SDS
9. Barangay Cayale, Municipality of Tago, SDS
10. Barangay Coleto, Bislig City, SDS
11. Barangay San Jose, Bislig City, SDS
12. Barangay Pamaypayan, Bislig City, SDS

The project, which aims to improve the quality of life of marginalized men and women in the region, will benefit at least 720 men, 720 women and 860 children in Caraga. It is funded by Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional (AECI) and is being managed by the Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA)-Mindanao, as Philippine NGO Partner, and Intercambio y Solidaridad (InteRed), as project holder.

The project employs SIAD or Sustainable Integrated Area Development as over-all strategy. It implements a number of community-level activities that are categorized into 7 components, such as Social Infrastructure Building and Strengthening (SIBS), Productivity Systems Development (PSD), Ecological Nurturance, Provision of Social Services (PSS), Local Governance, Resource Tenure Improvement (RTI), and Gender & Development (GAD).

The management and implementation of the project is carried out by a Project Management Office, which is lodged in PhilDHRRA-Mindanao, and 4 Implementing NGO Partners (INP) which are members of PhilDHRRA. The INPs provide the Community Organizers that are deployed in the 12 barangays as well as provide representatives to the Project Implementing Team. The INPs involved in the project are the Associates for Integral Development (AID), Rural Enhancement Assistance Center (REACH) Foundation, Surigao Sur Organization for Human Development (SSOFHDEV), and Livelihood Enhancement through Agro-Forestry (LEAF) Foundation.

The project has a Project Management Committee or PMC that exercises policy review functions in the project. It also works with the Municipal- and Barangay Local Government Units as collaborating partners.

The project commenced implementation in April 2007 and will end in March 2009.

Have ideas? Write them down!

This blogspot is designed to encourage and generate discussion and exhange of ideas among development practitioners, especially, but not limited to, the implementors of the project. If you have ideas - whether raw or developed - that are worth sharing, you can write them in the comments section below or email to us at caraga.ecorr@gmail.com. We would be more than happy to brainstorm with you in this blogspot or via email.

If you have comments and observations about the project, you can write it here as well. This blogspot can be used as a venue to air out your observations. If you have an unsolicited advise to give, feel free to share it here. So, whatever it is you want to say, you can post and publish it in this blogspot.

But, take note that this blogspot will ask for your gmail account as requirement before it loads what you write. So make sure that you have a gmail account. We also advise that you practice self-restraint when you publish something here. Please do not write anything offensive or anything that would offend the senses of others. In case this happens, you know fully well that you are responsible for your own act. We will flag comments or suggestions we deem inappropriate, overboard or irresponsible even without prior information and approval from the writer of the comments. Happy Blogging All!

Official Project Title

The official title of the project is "Promocion del Tejido Social y Productivo para el Desarollo Integral de Comunidades Rurales en Caraga (Na Reg: 06-PRI-229)". In English it means, Promotion of Social and Productive Tapestry for the Integral Development of Rural Communities in Caraga. For certain records of the project, the project may be referred to as "06-PRI-229" or "PhilDHRRA_AECI06".

The project may also be referred to as, "Project Caraga". However, this cannot be used in the official activities, records and documentation of the project or even before AECI. The use of this title is tolerated only for reasons of ease and convenience because the official title is quite long.

We advise not to refer to the project as Project ACCESS. The name Project ACCESS was only a proposed name given to the project at the time of the formulation. Any pre-project approval record or file of the project which bears the title Project ACCESS shall be deemed corrected or clarified by virtue of this publication.

About the PhilDHRRA-AECI06 Blogspot

Finally, our own spot in the information superhighway! Something like this was not entirely planned to be part of our project management information system at the start of the project. But today, we launch the blogspot of the project with high hopes that it will contribute to the strengthening of our computerized MIS and communication/info exchange system.

This blogspot is created for the following purposes:

• To serve as a clearinghouse of information and data about the project
• To serve as a bulletin for project updates so that the implementers of the project have the same information
• To serve as an additional venue for information exchange among the implementers of the project
• To educate the readers about the project
• To share the story and experiences of the development professionals involved in the project and the communities they work with

From time to time, the Project Management Office, which maintains this blogspot, will post project bulletins to keep our partners abreast about the status and activities of the project. The PMO also accepts contributions for posting from the project implementers. Contributions shall be emailed to caraga.ecorr@gmail.com. The PMO reserves the right to publish a contribution or not. The PMO also reserves the right to flag any comments it deems inappropriate or offensive to others. The PMO will not be responsible for any comments or their consequences posted by readers in the comments section.