Western Mindanao Community Initiatives Project

The rugged, largely mountainous region of Western Mindanao is one of the poorest and least developed in the Philippines, with high rates of illiteracy and underemployment and a poverty rate significantly higher than the national average. Many of the region’s quarter of a million poor people can barely meet minimum food and non-food needs. Many upland farmers, labourers and fishers belong to indigenous and Muslim communities that have been forced into marginal lands and introverted modes of living, partly because of population pressure and partly to preserve their own cultures. Rural women play a major role in agricultural production and fish processing and trading, but their earnings are lower than those of men.

The project’s objective is increased production of subsistence and cash crops and of fisheries in the target areas. Its aims are to:

• develop strong communities that can determine their own needs and mobilize resources to meet them
• achieve sustainable, more productive use of natural resources
• increase rural people’s incomes by promoting higher productivity of both farm and off-farm enterprises

The project supports participation in community and institutional development, resource management and small enterprise development and credit, and it provides funds for effective implementation.  IFAD investments include a US$0.8 million grant to enable former combatants to earn a livelihood in agriculture.

Innovations introduced by the project include consolidation of land ownership by former combatants. To support the process of decentralization of authority from national to local levels, the project provides training, expertise and project resources directly to local government units and strengthens the self-reliance of community organizations. To intensify land use, the project implements a mixed farming system, interplanting various crops, plants and timber. It also introduces a process of consultation with all the organizations involved, increasing participation at every step, building a knowledge base and bolstering the capacities of NGOs and people’s organizations in the follow-up period.

Source: IFAD