Summary

PA21 has already won for the Philippines a global reputation for excellence in sustainable development policy formulation. The Philippines is recognized in the world as the innovator of a development approach that holds great promise in eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development at the same time.

The Philippines, through PA21, champions a comprehensive approach to sustainable development encompassing seven dimensions: economic, political, cultural, social, ecological, human, and spiritual. The Philippines is one of the first countries in the world to recognize that economic development is closely linked and enhanced by the strategic pursuit of the other dimensions of development. This approach is currently finding a similar but less thorough expression in the Comprehensive Development Framework of the World Bank and the current interest of the International Monetary Fund in institutional economics.

In addition, the Philippines is pioneering the tri-sectoral partnership or threefolding stakeholdership approach to sustainable development. This threefolding approach harnesses the energies, talents, and resources of the three key institutions of society to achieve broad-based sustainable development including poverty eradication. These three key institutions are government, representing the realm of polity; business, representing the realm of the economy; and civil society, representing the realm of culture. The Philippines has successfully introduced this approach at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

But there is also an additional and more pragmatic reason for linking PA21 and its localization framework, SIAD, to poverty eradication efforts. Experience has shown that poverty eradication involves both economic and non-economic factors. Programs addressing poverty eradication therefore have to be multi-dimensional to succeed. And this is precisely the strength of PA21 and SIAD. The comprehensive approach of PA21 and SIAD answers the needs of a genuine poverty eradication program. This important reliance of poverty eradication on the SIAD approach is illustrated in detail in several sections of this overview, particularly all subsections in section 3.0 and in section 4.4.

SIAD offers significant opportunities for local executives, planners, decision makers in government, civil society, and business. SIAD helps develop a comprehensive and more realistic approach to poverty eradication. It facilitates the integration of national programs and initiatives. SIAD assists LGUs in mobilizing broad-based support for poverty eradication and sustainable development plans through tri-sector partnerships. SIAD enables LGUs and other local institutions to tap the sustainable development grants and investments which now reach up to $2 trillion worldwide.

Six key elements characterize the uniqueness and power of SIAD to advance poverty eradication within the context of comprehensive sustainable development. These are:

1. seven dimensions of development (4.1)

2. tri-sector partnerships or threefolding stakeholdership (4.2)

3. area and community-based vision, plan, programs, and projects which contains a succinct description of what sustainable, integrated, and area-based means (4.3)

4. concept of entry point (4.4)

5. capacity to integrate appropriate national programs and initiatives (4.5)

6. capability to address the challenge of globalization (4.6).

All of these elements of SIAD have profound implications for the success of poverty eradication and sustainable development programs in the different regions, provinces, and towns of the Philippines.

Poverty eradication is a complex problem and requires a comprehensive approach, combining both economic and non-economic initiatives to achieve measurable impact.

PA21 and SIAD can play a pivotal role in the battle against poverty. This overview of poverty eradication through the SIAD approach hopefully will convince local leaders in government, civil society, and business to seriously undertake SIAD efforts. And surely all these efforts can unite one day to build a new Philippines, one where poverty is no longer the unconscionable scourge that it is today, and one where human, societal and ecological development are sustained through principled and creative tri-sector partnerships between government, business, and civil society.

Memorandum Order 47 was issued by the Office of the President in January, 1999 . The Order directed all local government units (LGUs) to localize Philippine Agenda 21 (PA21) by undertaking sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) initiatives throughout the Philippines.

This initiative lays the basis for a nation-wide effort to eradicate poverty through Philippine Agenda 21 and SIAD.

PA21, formalized in September 26, 1996, is the highest framework for sustainable development in the Philippines. PA21 is also one of the most consultative documents in Philippine policy history. It took more than 26 regional and national consultations with the broadest sectors of Philippine society to come to an agreement on PA21. PA21 thus represents the views and aspirations of most Filipinos, including the poor who were part of the consultations.

PA21 had its origin in 1992 with the creation of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), Office of the President. On June 1992, several Cabinet members of the Philippine government attended the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over one hundred sixty (160) heads of state attended this Summit, officially known as the UN Conference on Environment and Development. There, these heads of state signed into existence global Agenda 21, an ambitious program to reduce poverty, advance economic development, and at the same time enhance environmental conditions and quality of life of citizens around the world.

In September 1992, right after the Earth Summit, the Philippine government created the PCSD. With this act, the Philippines became the first country in the world to establish a national council for sustainable development (NCSD). After a few years, the PCSD finalized PA21 as part of its ongoing efforts to realize its international commitments made at the Earth Summit.

The UN Development Program (UNDP) recognized PA21 as one of the most innovative documents of its kind in the world. (See discussion below on 7 dimensions of sustainable development.) NCSDs in more than 80 countries adopted elements of PA21 in a declaration passed at the 1997 Rio +5 Summit in Brazil. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) has also adapted PA21 participatory processes in coming up with policy recommendations. (See discussion below on PA21 and threefolding stakeholdership or tri-sector partnerships.)

The official copy of Philippine Agenda 21 can be obtained at the head office of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in Amber Avenue, Pasig, Metro Manila.

With PA21, the Philippines has developed a very powerful new framework for development which balances economic with ecological, political, cultural, social, human and spiritual considerations. The key challenge then is to put PA21 into action.

Memorandum Order 47 directed the PCSD, in cooperation with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), to spearhead the efforts in localizing and turning PA21 from vision to reality. To achieve this, the PCSD realized that the country first needed a framework for localizing PA21. In latter part of 1998, it embarked on a nation-wide process to produce a framework and a guidebook for the localization of PA21.

On June 1999, after several regional and national consultations, the PCSD formally approved a framework for the localization of Philippine Agenda 21. This framework is SIAD, or sustainable integrated area development. To help local chief executives, local town and provincial planners, as well as partners in civil society and business undertake SIAD, the PCSD approved the SIAD GUIDEBOOK: A Framework for the Localization of Philippine Agenda 21.

This overview highlights the key elements of the SIAD GUIDEBOOK. The intention is to develop a broad overview of the SIAD framework and its relevance to poverty eradication. However, to undertake SIAD planning, local chief executives, local development planners, civil society organizations, and businesses are advised to refer directly to the SIAD GUIDEBOOK.

SIAD is respectful of existing planning processes and structures of LGUs. SIAD does not mean that LGUs have to initiate an overnight overhaul of all their planning processes. SIAD builds upon existing efforts of LGUs to eradicate poverty and to develop their local area and economy. SIAD offers local executives and planners a range of options as to how they may build upon existing initiatives as entry points to comprehensive sustainable development planning and implementation in line with Philippine Agenda 21.

In addition, SIAD offers local chief executives and planners the following opportunities:

• Facilitate the integration of various national and sectoral plans and initiatives into local development plans.

• Help LGUs develop a comprehensive approach for poverty reduction and eradication in their areas.

• Assist LGUs in obtaining the authentic support of potential community, civil society and business partners for sustainable development. This partnership can mean the harmonious alignment of political, economic, and cultural power towards the common goal of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

• Ensure that local development plans are realistic, doable, and attuned to the needs of citizens in the community.

• Mobilize new funding sources for local sustainable development. These include tapping, even if only a small amount, of the $2 trillion in sustainable development oriented investments that exist in the Philippines and around the world. In addition, LGUs can also access an increasing number of grants from donor agencies embarking on sustainable development and poverty eradication initiatives.

In short, SIAD means placing a powerful instrument for development in the hands of local decision-makers and citizens in order to make a real difference in improving their own lives and the lives of the poor.

Many programs and initiatives have revealed that human poverty has many dimensions. To begin with, there is the obvious economic dimension of poverty, the problem of low per capita income, the problem of sustainable livelihoods for the poor. However, when one takes a closer look at the problem, it becomes obvious that political, cultural, social, human, ecological and spiritual factors also play a significant role in poverty creation or eradication.

A quick look at the situation of the rural poor will illustrate this new global understanding of poverty. This illustration is highly relevant for the Philippines where more than 65% of the poor are in rural communities. This illustration will also then give one an appreciation of the power of SIAD to address the multi-dimensional nature of poverty

Figure 1 illustrates what the task of poverty eradication means from an economic perspective in the Philippines. The overall goal is to increase the per capita income of the rural poor on a yearly basis. This leads to two immediate strategies: a) increasing the per capita income per unit time per unit area of resource base, and, b) increasing per capita income from a livelihood source not directly dependent on a resource base.

In practical terms, strategy “a” means increasing the overall productivity of those rural poor who have access to agricultural lands, marine resources (fisheries), and forestry areas. Strategy “b” means finding off-farm sustainable livelihoods and income for the rural poor. Achieving these strategies requires the pursuit of activities that are not directly related but still essential to achieving resource productivity.

Figure 1. Economic and Non-Economic Dimensions of Poverty Eradication

Figure 1 illustrates this in the case of strategy “a”. This strategy requires pursuing objectives connected with 4 elements: income, resource base, time, and the human being. To achieve the objective of increasing income means to be cognizant of market, credit, and other realities. To make proper use of a resource base requires knowledge of the climate, soil, species, biodiversity, and other properties of a resource base. To make the proper use of a resource base through time requires intimate knowledge of how climatic patterns influence resource productivity and how these can be enhanced with the proper combination of animal and plant species in the specific area. All these activities, in turn, assume the involvement of a human being who is motivated, knowledgeable, skillful, creative, disciplined, and persevering, among other traits, to manage the complex of factors affecting the ultimate productivity of his or her resource base.

Following the strategy of enhancing resource productivity (strategy “a”) in Figure 1, one begins to appreciate the complexity of efforts needed to achieve an apparently simple objective of increasing farming, fishing, or agro-forestry productivity. Figure 1 shows that those interested in poverty eradication and sustainable development have to pursue a range of complementary activities that may need to include some or many of the following initiatives.

Economic

•   Adequate credit

•   Fair price and market

•   Appropriate cropping pattern

•   Commodity based polyculture

•   Judicious mixture of food and high value cash crops

•   Associative economic arrangements

•   Strategic partnerships with socially responsible agri-businesses

•   Strengthening of agricultural cooperatives

Political

•   Farm to market roads and irrigation infrastructure

•   Support for post-harvest facilities

•   Agrarian reform and limits on land conversion

•   Laws protecting farm labor from exploitation

•   Fair trade environment for agriculture

Cultural

•   Technical assistance

•   Use of indigenous knowledge and appropriate technologies

•   Training and capacity building

•   Education and values formation

•   Science addressing needs of the poor

•   Strategic partnerships with civil society

Social

•   Addressing the social inequities that increase fertility rates among the rural poor

•   Quick response to natural disasters

•   Agricultural market implications of demographic trends

Ecological

•   Cropping design adapted to erratic weather patterns

•   Crops attuned to indigenous soil traits

•   Use of SAFDZs as framework for physical planning

Human

•   Avoiding toxic chemicals that harm human health

•   Adequate human nutrition

•   Enhancing individual creativity and skills in resource management

Spiritual

•   Building upon spiritual values that enhance agricultural productivity

•   Enhancing meaning in agriculture as a way of life

Figure 1 shows very clearly that poverty eradication, within the context of sustainable development, cannot remain solely as an economic activity even if the ultimate goal is to increase annual per capita income. If it does, then it is certain that poverty eradication efforts will fail. Those involved in poverty eradication therefore clearly have to address other dimensions of development in addition to the economic.

This is where sustainable integrated area development or SIAD, as the framework for localizing PA21, comes in. SIAD advocates a multi-dimensional approach to development. SIAD gives anti-poverty advocates a means to address, directly, systematically and in an integrated manner, the various factors causing poverty.

4.0    Overview of SIAD

Six key elements characterize the uniqueness and power of SIAD to advance poverty eradication within the context of comprehensive sustainable development. These are:

1. seven dimensions of development

2. tri-sector partnerships or threefolding stakeholdership

3. area and community-based vision, plan, programs, and projects

4. concept of entry point

5. capacity to integrate appropriate national programs and initiatives

6. capability to address the challenge of globalization

SIAD is the framework for localizing Philippine Agenda 21. Thus SIAD adheres to the analysis of PA21 in terms of the challenges confronting and opportunities awaiting the Philippines in the age of globalization.

Figure 2 shows that economic modernization, while bringing benefits, also ushers in attendant problems. PA21, adapting studies done by the UNDP, characterizes these challenges as:

• Futureless growth due to increasing destruction of the ecological basis of human progress;

• Ruthless and Jobless growth in the economy due to the increasing gap between the rich and the poor and the lack of adequate employment opportunities for the poor;

• Voiceless growth in the political life due to the increasing demands of global institutions over national considerations;

• Rootless growth in culture due to increasing entry of materialistic consumerism, eroding the spiritual foundations of social life;

• Meaningless growth in the life of human beings as they lose anchor points and sense of meaning in a rapidly changing world.

As a response, PA21 and SIAD propose a multi-dimensional approach to development. This comprehensive approach recognizes the value of strengthening non-economic factors in development to complement the macroeconomic policy and programs that are often the predominant focus of conventional development efforts.

Figure 3 illustrates this innovative approach to development. All societies have three major elements: economy, polity, and culture. Society as such is the combined working of economic, political, and cultural factors. From this, one can immediately recognize four dimensions of development: economic, political, cultural, and societal.

But this development is only possible if it does not destroy the carrying capacity of Nature. Similarly, sustainable development is only possible if it nurtures the full potential of human beings who are the essence of society. Thus SIAD planning considers ecological and human development, bringing to six the dimensions of sustainable development.

There is, however, a seventh dimension in the PA21/SIAD framework of sustainable development. This is the dimension of the Spirit. Unless one explicitly considers this dimension of development in Nature, human beings, and society, then one will not do justice to the strong spirituality that characterizes Philippine social life.

The Seven Dimensions, SIAD and Poverty Eradication

Already here the significance of SIAD for poverty eradication becomes clearly visible. As discussed above, poverty eradication efforts, even if focused on economic initiatives, require addressing a range of non-economic factors. These economic and non-economic factors are precisely those that are identified as the seven dimensions of sustainable development in Figure 3 above. The SIAD framework therefore enables poverty eradication efforts to be comprehensive, realistic, and effective.

PA21 is also unique in the world for being the first official document to advance tri-sector partnerships or threefolding stakeholdership.

PA21 and SIAD recognize the advantages inherent in tri-sector partnerships. First, as seen above, the problem of poverty eradication is complex. Therefore it is advantageous to have the perspectives of the key institutions of culture (civil society including NGOs, academics, foundations, media, and people’s and peasant organizations), polity (governments including their multilateral lending and donor institutions) and the economy (businesses). In this way, the understanding and the programs will be closer to reality instead of just being a pet theory or project of a powerful institutional actor.

Second, tri-sector partnerships develop commitments from the key institutions that actually shape the extent of poverty at the local level. These commitments harness power for something creative (poverty eradication) instead of fostering, by default, power against something.

And third, tri-sector partnerships mobilize a broad range of resources—including media, indigenous knowledge, policy environment, financial, market, and natural resources, to advance the attainment of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

In the late eighties and early nineties, governments started recognizing the importance of the private sector as the key institution in economic development. In recent years, national governments and global institutions have recognized the important and constructive role of civil society in cultural development and the pursuit of broad based sustainable development, including poverty eradication and food security. In such partnerships civil society, government, and business agree on unifying principles, respect their differences, and join hands to develop comprehensive and realistic programs to address the urgent task of poverty eradication.

Of course, threefolding stakeholdership and tri-sector partnerships will encounter problems in actual practice. There will continue to be mistrust as parties, traditionally at odds with one another, will not have an easy time sitting at the same table.

However, the need for this social innovation, for threefolding or tri-sector partnerships, is urgent and the only way at this time to embark on a broad-based and comprehensive approach to poverty eradication. Tri-sector partnerships can deal with the complexities, power, and resources necessary for a balanced, realistic, and effective approach to poverty eradication at the local and national levels. In effect, threefolding means mobilizing all the key institutions in the various spheres of society for the great task of ensuring that all human beings have enough food to eat and enough resources to have a decent life. Nothing else will accomplish the task.

With a threefolding approach, SIAD will, of necessity, involve the key institutions and individuals in a community in its comprehensive approach to poverty eradication. This will have the immediate effect of producing a poverty eradication and development plan that is truly sustainable, integrated, and area-based.

SIAD is sustainable. SIAD strives for a sound and viable economy by mobilizing the skills, talents, capital and culture of local communities and utilizing local resources in a manner that is determined by the community itself. Because of threefolding, SIAD’s participatory approach builds a socially cohesive society, one that is conducive, among others, for appropriate investment flows that have the potential to reduce and, ultimately, eradicate poverty in the area. SIAD is also ecologically sustainable because broad-based participation necessarily means that SIAD will advance community-based approaches to the management of local resources and the use of appropriate technologies. Participation of the community also means that SIAD projects tend to be culturally sustainable and gender sensitive. SIAD builds strength and sustainability in the governance process because threefolding or tri-sector partnerships lead to greater support for and legitimacy of political processes.

SIAD is integrated. SIAD seeks to mirror, in idea and practice, the wide-ranging vision, framework, principles, parameters, and strategies of PA21. SIAD harmonizes the potentially conflicting needs of local society by encouraging the participation of as many local interests as possible as well as showing their inner connections with the wide-ranging objectives of sustainable development. SIAD can easily integrate the various initiatives required for poverty eradication as discussed in Figure 1 above because SIAD understands how the viability of non-economic factors significantly influences the viability of economic approaches to poverty eradication.

SIAD is area-based. SIAD situates the development of an area, including its city and towns, within the watershed that defines the area. In so doing, SIAD can have a realistic overview of the possible challenges and opportunities that exist in an area. In terms of poverty eradication, SIAD encourages area cooperation, thus facilitating convergence—the linkage of resources, institutions, ideas and projects, all within a clearly defined area.

SIAD, Foreign-Direct Investments and Poverty Eradication

The community-guided nature of SIAD presents a potentially powerful tool to harness foreign-direct investments (FDI) for poverty eradication.

FDI typically enters an area almost purely on the basis of the investor’s financial considerations. Sometimes significant ecological and social damage is done when foreign investors do not factor environmental and poverty considerations in planning their investments.

In a SIAD, the citizens of the local area define their vision. On the basis of this vision and the concrete projects identified, they invite Filipino and foreign investors to come in as partners for, instead of antagonists against, sustainable development. FDI therefore comes in, not in a destructive way, but rather in support of sustainable development in the local area.

A SIAD process can thus easily set in motion a planning process participated in and directed by the poor themselves. The latter do this in cooperation with local government, civil society, and business. This SIAD tri-sector partnership identifies the range of micro and other enterprises that can be started in the area on the basis of sustainable use of resources and market demand. The community can then, on the basis of this SIAD planning effort, invite Filipino and foreign investors to enter their community by investing as partners in community-based enterprises that will directly benefit the poor and eradicate poverty.

The many dimensions of SIAD can create anxiety among local decision-makers who believe that SIAD is too complex an approach to poverty eradication and sustainable development.

However, as mentioned in the very beginning, SIAD builds upon existing efforts. Therefore, part of the SIAD planning process is to take an inventory of best practices even if these are narrowly focused on a specific dimension of development. SIAD then takes these best practices and studies how the other dimensions can be introduced into existing initiatives. The example of micro-credit for the poor will illustrate how entry points to SIAD can work.

Micro-Credit for the Poor: Entry Point to SIAD

Let us suppose a rural bank is successfully implementing a micro-credit program for the poor. How would a SIAD approach expand this program so that it addresses most of the dimensions of sustainable development, thereby making it a potent instrument to achieve poverty reduction in the area?

As a beginning, this micro-credit initiative already addresses an aspect of the economic situation of the poor. The economic aspect can further be enhanced by trying to link the micro-enterprises of the poor to the resource base of the area. Thus, those involved in micro-trading in milk, as one of ten top selling commodities, can be linked to farmers in the area who may wish to undertake appropriate dairy operations using local resources and the appropriate breed of cow or milking murrah buffaloes.

By linking a micro-enterprise to the resource base of the area, the ecological dimension also surfaces. The threefolding SIAD planning processes need to ensure that the climate, the soil, the existing culture and technology, among others, exists to support the proposed integration of micro-economic enterprises.

Micro-credit for the poor also uses the concept of social collateral. In practice, this means that a group of borrowers undergo a social process of common awareness building, training, team building and values formation. These activities are pursued in so-called “center” meetings that are convened on a weekly basis. Here the cultural dimension surfaces.

In a SIAD context, this cultural dimension can be further enhanced through a curriculum design that addresses human development topics in addition to management, accounting, and other business subjects. Often the poor themselves request that center meetings explore topics beyond just business and economics. These can include Philippine history, contemporary events, spirituality, human and values development. When this is done, then four other dimensions of development surface: cultural, social, human, and spiritual.

Finally, when the poor feel empowered, they actually start approaching local government officials with creative ideas for channeling more government resources to meet their basic needs. The LGU can be pro-active by already anticipating this in a SIAD planning process. Either way, this step allows the SIAD process to enter into the political dimension, thereby completing the transformation of an economic-based micro-credit program into a full-fledged SIAD development process.

SIAD can also facilitate the integration of national programs and initiatives in local development planning for poverty eradication and sustainable development. Because SIAD is comprehensive in scope, it is possible to situate any of the national initiatives into one or several of the seven dimensions of sustainable development as envisioned in PA21 and SIAD.

The SIAD approach can handle a given national program or initiative by identifying the main focus of the program or the initiative. Does the program or initiative address mainly human, social, cultural, political, economic, ecological, or the spiritual dimensions of development? Or does it address a combination of these?

Once the main development focus is identified, the program or initiative can then be assessed, refined, and integrated on the basis of the issues, principles, parameters, and strategies of the specific dimension of sustainable development as articulated in PA21 and SIAD.

In this way, the confusion that national programs can create at the local level can be minimized. On the other hand, LGUs who are able to immediately integrate appropriate national policies into their programs will have a greater chance to mobilize resources for poverty eradication and local sustainable development.

The Philippines has an economy that is highly integrated and dependent on the world economy. Among others, this is due to the relatively high poverty rate in the Philippines. Since the Philippines does not generate enough internal savings for investments, it has to rely on outside sources of savings in the form of grants, loans and/or investments to spur economic development. Unfortunately, as the financial crisis in Asia has demonstrated, global events can undermine efforts at poverty eradication and sustainable development.

PA21 and SIAD, however, were developed precisely to address this problem by supporting an integrated approach to poverty reduction. Successful poverty reduction can mean increased incomes, increased purchasing power, increased savings, increased demand in the domestic market, increased mobilization of taxes for re-investing as public goods and social services, increased formation of “human capital” and so on.

In addition, as seen above, SIAD is pro-active. The community defines the future it wants and allows investments, foreign and domestic, to enter on the basis of this vision of the future. It thereby allows the energies of globalization to enter, not in a destructive manner, but in a way supportive of the development plans for the poor and for the area.

The SIAD approach also has a cultural development plan. It therefore strengthens appropriate traditions and harnesses cultural creativity to achieve a development appropriate to the community’s values as a people. A vibrant, free, spiritual and creative cultural life, of necessity, will introduce greater dynamism, efficiency and productivity in the economy.

Poverty eradication is a complex problem and requires a comprehensive approach, combining both economic and non-economic initiatives to achieve a measurable impact.

PA21 and SIAD can play a pivotal role in the battle against poverty. This overview of poverty eradication through the SIAD approach hopefully will convince local leaders in government, civil society, and business to seriously undertake SIAD efforts in their respective regions. And surely all these efforts can unite one day to build a new Philippines, one where poverty is no longer the unconscionable scourge that it is today, and one where human, societal and ecological development is sustained through principled and creative tri-sector partnerships between government, business, and civil society.