Originally published in Gender-Responsive Governance at Work: LGU Experiences in Using the GAD Budget. Written by Michael J. Juban, Community Development Officer IV, Malalag, Davao del Sur.

This case documents the process and impacts of the implementation of SRA-MBN PLUS, Malalag's gender-responsive version of the Social Reform Agenda – Minimum Basic Needs program for poverty reduction. The case shows how the integration of gender indicators has enhanced the program's success in addressing the problems of the poor in Malalag.

The SRA-MBN PLUS strategy: An overview

The SRA-MBN PLUS takes off from the Social Reform Agenda-Minimum Basic Needs (SRA-MBN) program that was introduced during the term of President Fidel Ramos as a strategy to address poverty. It is called as such to reflect the innovations that the Malalag local government unit (MLGU) introduced into the SRA-MBN to make it more relevant to the conditions in the municipality, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of its implementation in the area.

The SRA-MBN PLUS uses indicators of human development to guide Malalag officials in determining and prioritizing development interventions. The indicators are classified into survival, security, and enabling needs. Survival needs refer to eleven (11) basic indicators on health and nutrition, and water and sanitation; security needs (13 indicators) look into the number of families living below the poverty and food threshold, and unemployment and housing indicators; and enabling needs (10 indicators) refer to literacy, educational facilities and school attendance, child labor, domestic violence, and participation in community organizations and activities (Please refer to table on p. 6).

Most of the indicators relate to women's basic human rights needs, and their economic and political empowerment. They deal with women's productive and reproductive condition and roles, such as their need for economic opportunities, better facilities and services for health, housing, education, protection against violence, and increased participation in governance and community organizations.

The SRA-MBN PLUS allows focused targeting and family approach to service delivery. It promotes convergence and complementation of the efforts of GOs, NGOs, and the private sector. It gets funding from the GAD budget and the 20% development budget of the MLGU.

The program has benefited 3,441 families living below the poverty threshold. It has resulted in impressive improvements in the MBN indicators that were measured at the beginning of the program. Overall, it has helped increase income and savings, improve service delivery, and promote peace and order. It has enhanced the capacity of leaders to render better service. It has also provided social preparation for families, enabling them to participate in governance and help sustain the program.

Strategies for mainstreaming GAD in the SRA-MBN PLUS

Identifying unmet needs and gender issues

Guided by the indicators of the SRA-MBN PLUS, the Malalag LGU conducted, in 1997 with the help of women volunteers, a survey of all 5,478 families in the municipality. The survey data were collated and summarized to create a socio-economic and political profile of each family. The data were then consolidated into purok, barangay, and municipal level profiles. The profiles surfaced the pressing socio-economic problems in the municipality (table on p.6), and these became the basis for drawing interventions, both for present unmet needs and future targets.

Aside from the survey, focus groups discussions (FGDs) were also conducted. The FGDs surfaced the gender issues in the municipality, which include the perceived gender inequality (women are regarded as the weaker sex), unequal decision making (important decisions are made by men), women's multiple burden (which men regarded as women's customary obligations as wives), women's lack of control over economic resources, and domestic violence.

Addressing unmet needs

To address unmet needs, the MLGU primarily taps its regular programs and supplements these, if needed, with special programs. The critical element of these programs is focused targeting: i.e, families with unmet needs are prioritized in the delivery of services. The guiding policy is convergence and complementation. People's involvement is given premium.

• Setting up the machinery and planning the interventions.

  The MLGU reorganized its machinery for service delivery to make it more efficient, effective, and self-reliant. In addition to administering government affairs, it also became a resource and people mobilizer, organizer, enabler, and development advocate. Armed with the data on unmet needs and gender issues, the MLGU organized the Integrated Resource Management Teams (IRMT), with the GAD Team as member. Each team is composed of devolved offices to promote a holistic approach in the delivery of services. This makes convergence and complementation the key strategy of the SRA.

  The IRMTs serve as technocrats at the barangay level, guiding the formulation and implementation of Barangay Development Plans. The barangay and municipal development plans contain annual investment plans; through these plans, the implementation of interventions has become systematized.

• Measures to meet survival needs

  • The MLGU implements food and nutrition and health programs for pregnant and lactating women. These programs include iron and iodine supplementation; prenatal, maternal, and postpartum care; immunization; family planning; and control of diarrhea. Special programs and free health services are also provided. Nutrition services for children include operation timbang and food supplementation. Food sufficiency programs have been launched in collaboration with the DA; 6,140 families have participated in these programs.

  • Water supply problems are being addressed through the development, rehabilitation, and modernization of water sources and waterworks, as well as through water chlorination. Potable water system projects have benefited 2,330 families comprising 11,650 members, of whom 6,089 are females and 5,561 are males.

  • To address sanitation problems, water sealed toilet bowls have been provided to 2,398 identified households. Information campaigns on solid and liquid waste management have been undertaken, because of which 4,605 households have been encouraged to put up compost pit and blind drainage systems in their premises.

• Measures to meet security needs

  • Shelter or housing needs are being addressed through socialized housing, purchase of land for resettlement, and linking with concerned GOs and NGOs for support for housing projects. For families without home lots, the MLGU purchased and developed a total of 15.6 hectares as resettlement for 1,050 landless families. DSWD supported the housing improvement project for marginalized families. The Habitat for Humanity Foundation (HHF) erected 78 houses through volunteerism; the beneficiaries have been given 15 years to pay, without interest, for their units. The payments will be reinvested to construct additional housing units in Malalag.

  • With regard to income and livelihood needs, the MLGU has institutionalized the training cum livelihood program for family enterprise development. This program is being implemented in coordination with the TESDA, DOLE, DSWD, DA, and NGOs. A total of 1,588 women and 313 men have benefited from the program. Specific projects in this program include environmental management to harmonize ecological balance and increase economic productivity, upland and coastal area development, river banks stabilization, water shed rehabilitation, construction and maintenance of roads, rural electrification, agriculture and livestock production, and job placement. Mango planting was implemented on a plant now pay later scheme, benefiting 1,250 families and covering 1,500 hectares. Almost 50% of the areas planted are now productive. Upland development projects include upland farming and farm structure development. These projects have benefited 2,809 families with 14,046 members, of whom 7,578 are females and 6,468 are males. The MLGU also developed a 50-hectare fish sanctuary as spawning area of marine species, to sustain the livelihood of some 1,650 fisher families in coastal barangays.

  • To enhance peace and order, the MLGU strengthened the Tanod Brigade and the Bantay Banay, and set up military check-points especially in remote barangays to secure families from crimes against property and against persons, and to prevent and control domestic violence against women and children.

• Measures to meet enabling needs

  • For basic education and literacy, additional 14 day-care centers have been constructed to service at least 90% of children 3-5 years old. These centers were established through the joint efforts and resources of the DSWD and barangay LGUs. The MLGU subsidizes the honoraria of 44 day-care workers. The day-care centers have served around 8,316 3-5 year-olds, i.e., 3,244 boys and 5,072 girls. The student employment program has benefited 208 students – 135 women and 73 men. Scholarships were provided to 101 high school graduates who will pursue technical education. Supporting this program are the TESDA, PESFA, and CHED. The MSSD, together with the DepEd and the Local School Board, initiated non-formal education programs to escalate the educational level of children not attending elementary and high school.

  • People's participation in community development is being promoted through the monthly purok meetings conducted by the IRMTs, wherein issues affecting the community are discussed. Development of PO's, whether community based (e.g. Community Savings Association), occupational (e.g. farmers), or sectoral (e.g. women) has also been prioritized. Other innovative programs are the community savings and mortuary aid mobilization. The purok community savings associations include 5,078 families while the barangay mortuary aid associations have 6,117 member families, 70% of whom are represented by women. The consolidated savings have reached P1,745,000; the mortuary aid mobilization contributes about P7, 395.00 per death incidence, averaging annually at P554, 640. The community savings are used as credit for small business, saving the MLGU P1,000,000 it originally intended for the same purpose.

  • Other psycho-social care services include the Medicare Para Sa Masa, which consists of MLGU subsidy and contributions from members; the MSSDO's crisis intervention and referral system for women and children of victims of violence; and parent effectiveness seminars aimed at strengthening the family and preparing family members for livelihood skills. The seminar modules include family legislation, GAD, family development planning, enterprise development, etc. Some 3,462 families have participated in the seminar.

Addressing gender issues

At the outset, the MLGU ensured a gender responsive MBN program. GAD was integrated as early as the program's preparatory phase. A project called "Transformative Approach to Gender Responsive Development" was launched in 1997, where four GST training sessions were conducted with support from the LGSP. The participants were barangay and women leaders, service delivery teams of Malalag especially IRMT members, youth leaders, and the tribal Tagacaulo community. The GAD teams were expanded to include legislators and women leaders. The bigger teams spearhead GST in puroks, cooperatives, and POs. The municipal and barangay LGUs' commitment to allocate a GAD budget was secured. GAD became a regular module on pre-marriage counseling, parent effectiveness seminars, cooperative education, family and community development seminars, and reproductive health training.

• Women are being organized at the purok and barangay levels. Gender concerns are discussed and some of these have been brought up to the women councilors of the barangays and the municipality. Women are actively participating in the Barangay Development Councils and similar bodies, and in the management of projects through the community-based volunteers structures for development.

• At the municipal level, Ordinance 107 federated women's associations into the Municipal Council of Women. Through the Council and with support from women councilors, gender issues are raised at the municipal level. Women have joined municipal special bodies in accordance with Section 35 & 36 of the Local Government Code.

All the participatory structures mentioned above have allowed women to effectively participate in governance, particularly in participatory research, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. As volunteers in the periodic survey of MBN, women have learned to gather, process, and analyze sex-disaggregated data and their implications for gender responsive programs and budgets. The MLGU set up the Community Based Information System to monitor remaining unmet needs.

The GAD budget and other resources

Resources for the implementation of the program come largely from the MLGU budget, particularly from its development fund. For a number of programs, external assistance augments local resources, obtained either as grants or soft loans. The 5% GAD budget is used for women-focused programs. The GAD budget is determined by computing not less than 5% of the regular income of the MLGU. Over and above the GAD budget, the local government allocates a lump sum amount that provides P100,000 each to the barangays, which they use to finance their top three unmet needs. Attachment 1 contains a summary of the cost per program area.

Results

The results of implementing the SRA MBN PLUS are summarized in the table below. For each indicator, the number of families with unmet needs in 1997 was compared to the number of families with the same unmet need in 2003. It is evident in the data that Malalag was immensely successful in addressing the problems of the poor, especially poor women.

--chart--

The data point to the following significant results of the implementation of the SRA MBN PLUS:

• Increase in income. The number of families at the subsistence level or below remarkably reduced from 2,813 in 1997 to 1,010 in 2003. Increase in income averaged P4,000 to 4,500+ per month.

• Increase in savings/capital build-up/investment. The community savings program, wherein the member-families saved from P5-P10 per month, accumulated P1, 745,000 for providential and livelihood loans. The mortuary aid/assistance mobilization assisted 631 families with death incidences, amounting to a total of P4,664,623.

• Reduced expenses. Backyard gardening saved families an average of P10-P20 daily; improved water facilities saved time, specifically an estimated 30 minutes daily, that translates into at least P300.00 savings per month.

• Economic mainstreaming. The savings generated at the barangay level provided loans for productive undertakings. As a result, the Upland Development Program was able to help four barangays in setting up the Financial Service Centers similar to grassroots banks. Availability of capital helped farmers adopt better farming system.

• Entrepreneurial orientation. Farmers were taught farm planning, marketing, farm recording, and accounting to help them become more enterprising. Women were trained in various livelihood skills to enable them to generate additional income, or to better manage family income.

• Environmental impact. The program taught families proper waste disposal and drainage systems, thereby improving the cleanliness and hygiene of households and the community. The Upland Development Program trained and encouraged farmers to adopt sustainable agriculture, ecosystem protection, conservation, and rehabilitation. It supported integrated social forestry, river banks stabilization, watershed development, and establishment of a fish sanctuary.

• Mechanisms for women's empowerment. The municipal ordinance creating the Municipal Council for Women increased women participation in various developmental activities that addressed gender issues. The Council provided continuous self-enhancement, and opened access to credit for 75 family enterprise and five women's group projects.

Outcomes

• Overall improvement in the economic, psychosocial, and political situation of Malalag. The summary table shows the impressive reduction of the number of families with unmet needs, with some indicators posting 100% success rate.

• Overall improvement in service delivery and better coordination among government agencies. Devolved agencies, other national agencies, and NGOs used to work separately and in a fragmented manner. Through the program, they now work together in a more integrated way. Through convergence and complementation of financial and technical resources, they have become more responsive in delivering their services to the constituents.

• Increased participation of women as beneficiaries and participants in development. Women participated in all the stages of the program, giving them first-hand experience in governance and with all its ramifications. This has helped negate traditional gender stereotypes about what women can and cannot do. Women have been empowered and capacitated to address their own needs and those of their families and communities. There are now more women in elective posts: three of 10 municipal posts and 34 of 120 barangay posts. Women's representation in various local special bodies now average 20%.

• Increased awareness of women's rights. The GAD programs and mechanisms promoted understanding about women's rights and gender issues. This improvement is attributed to incumbent Mayor Givel Mamaril's strong commitment to the GAD program, which she has made a regular priority content of her Executive Agenda and the agenda of all barangay captains and the legislature. The MSSDO has been also been working very hard to implement the GAD program.

• Increased self reliance and participation of community members. The consistent implementation, tracking, and evaluation done at the grassroots level helped bring about the transformation of women and men in the families from being largely dependent and having a dole-out mentality into self reliant, participating, and contributing members in the community. The self-help projects and equity driven initiatives created avenues for both men and women to assume certain responsibilities, accountability, and transparency.

Lessons and insights

Malalag's SRA-MBN PLUS owes its success to the following strategies and principles that the MLGU adopted:

• Participatory and bottom up process. People in the barangays, especially women, gave inputs as to the problems and unmet needs that have to be addressed. They also participated in formulating the barangay development plans. Periodic monitoring through FGDs has provided avenues for constructive interaction among various stakeholders in the community

• Convergence and complementation of services and resources. These twin concepts ensured unity of purpose among all the stakeholders, and maximized the use of resources for maximum impact.

• Use of measurable indicators. Indicators summarize in terms of numbers the extent to which the government is meeting its targets, and identify the gaps that have to be prioritized. The indicators also help capture the behavioral changes essential in measuring transformation of the mindset, the "heartset", as well as the way people behave towards their families, community, and government.

• Gender responsive approach. Ensuring women's involvement during the issue identification and implementation stage enabled women to surface their own needs so that the program may address these.

• Dedication and commitment of MLGU officials. Using the SRA-MBN approach per se does not spell success. In the case of Malalag, the government's goal of transforming its constituents from idle to productive, illiterate to literate, unhealthy to healthy, insecure to secure, complacent to participatory citizens was matched with resources, commitment, and determination by its leaders.

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