Introduction

The Purpose of Rural Development Strategy

Policies on aspects of rural development are being drawn up by different
departments of government. These will not be repeated here. Instead, this
paper describes the instruments for more efficient, speedy and accountable
rural development, where priorities have been set by rural people.
Rural

development

is

provincial

competence

in

the

transitional

Constitution. However, there are strong economic and ethical arguments for
a major investment programme in infrastructure and social services in rural
areas. Rural development is, therefore, one of the main objectives of the
Development Plan(RPD),

Rural

for it is a major plank in the attack on poverty. Successful

rural development will be the outcome of the joint actions of rural people,
their local governments and many provincial and national agencies. This
document will therefore be about how rural communities can access and use
resources, including government funds and those that can be leveraged by
government funds.
To do this well, rural people need good information, increased capacity to
evaluate, and access to planning, implementation and monitoring support. To
support these efforts, rural people have a right to demand assistance from
their government. We set out to clarify the role of government, what
assistance exists, and how it can be obtained by people in rural areas. There

is a general lack of clarity on these issues, but there is also a diversity of

opinion

that

is

healthy.

This

document

sets

out

framework

for

implementing rural development and describes the rules for accessing state
support.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
The Rural Development Strategy- Putting Rural People in Charge
Rural people, and rural women in particular, bear the largest burden of
poverty in the Philippines. If we can change the inequalities and inefficiencies
of the past, rural areas can become productive and sustainable. Building
local government in rural areas is the first step in this direction.
Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)

The National

are committed to an integrated rural

development strategy which aims to eliminate poverty and create full

employment by the year 2020. Rural people must be at the heart of this
strategy.
The rural development strategy of the
(NEDA)

National Economic and Development Authority

must be informed by the collective wisdom of our people and unite

their efforts for development. This is therefore a discussion document which

requires your comment. We call on individuals and organizations across the
country to discuss, criticise, add to and improve this document.

"Putting Rural People in Charge"

The Rural Development Strategy sets out the mechanisms by which rural
people and their elected representatives on rural District Councils and Local
Councils can take charge of the development process in their own areas.

Rural Vision and Strategic Goals

The government's vision is that by 2020, The Filipino rural people will have:
1. dignity, security, freedom from poverty
2. full and productive employment
3. a more diverse agriculture
4. greater integration between towns and the rural areas, especially on
market days
5. a more logical spatial network of towns, services, roads and transport
systems
6. close availability to water and sanitation and to fuel
7. accessible and democratic local government structures
7. fewer, healthier, safe, well-nourished children, with access to wellresourced schools
8. a healthy and productive environment

This will be achieved through:

1. building rural local government
2. improving services to farmers and entrepreneurs
3. promoting economic development
4. building social and environmental sustainability
5. building rural infrastructure
6. education, training and capacity building of rural people
7. promoting good planning at all levels of government, based on good
information about the rural areas
8. fair and equitable access to social welfare
Rural Realities
The rural sector is characterized by.
1. high levels of poverty, especially among those in women headed
households
2. agricultural dualism, both in land use and support services
spatial chaos and stark contrasts between the former home lands and the
areas around, in terms of settlement patterns, land ownership and use,
transport and other infrastructure

3. Historical restrictions on entrepreneurial development, and poor support

4. new local government structures set up in 1995, with no history or
experience of planning, democracy or service

Implementing the Rural Strategy

Structures for local government

In the first place, the functions of the two tiers of rural local government are
described. The District Councils will obtain funding in several ways, including
local taxes and service charges, and also 'revenue sharing' funds from the
provinces. The poorest districts will receive the highest revenue sharing
funds. As far as possible, the funds will be devolved from the District
Councils to the local level where services will be provided and the decision
making around infrastructure development will be initiated. But it may be
some time before local councils have the ability to carry out these functions
in rural areas, so that the District Councils will have to provide many services
itself until the Local Councils are ready. However, the process of planning
itself can be used as a mechanism to initiate primary local government.

In order to ensure that the concerns of all groups are brought into the
decision making process, councils should employ Community Development
Facilitators who are trained in mediation, facilitation, participatory methods,
project management, bookkeeping and gender issues. There are many such
people working for government in different provincial departments, and they
should be transferred to local government. Their particular objective must be
to assist the poorest groups to get their needs considered during local
negotiations around service delivery and infrastructure development.

The primary Local Council will need to come together with organizations of
civil society to plan local development. The organizations include community
based organizations, local business people, farmers and others, all working
on a coordinating committee with local government's elected officials, and
also with local government technicians. It will be the job of the committee to
assess the local situation, carry out needs analysis in the community, and
examine the constraints and opportunities that exist in the local area for
infrastructure development and local economic development. They will then
be able to lobby the District Councils and sectorial departments at provincial
and national level for funding, technical assistance, and capacity building to
initiate projects that meet the needs of the community.
Local economic development (LED)

In pursuing LED that will increase the employment opportunities and

economic growth in the area, coordinating committees must carefully
evaluate all their options. Some of the important options are market
development, small and medium scale enterprise development, small-scale
agriculture - especially after land reform - tourism, and labour based
infrastructure development.

The promotion of markets is an important key to encouraging on-farm and

off-farm production, because 'markets call forth production'. They encourage
many people to consider producing food and other products, for they will
have a place to sell them. We recommend that rings of periodic markets be
set up, managed by local people with government blessing. Every Monday
there will be a market in this place, every Tuesday in another place, and so
on. Traders can follow the ring of markets, and be assured of a gathering of
people each day of the week. Equally, government services can be arranged
to coincide with the markets. For instance, pensions can be distributed on
those days, and mobile post offices and health clinics will be at the market
on the market days. Thus, government takes the town to the countryside in
an efficient and economical way, and also reinforces market development,
and therefore enterprise development as well. The rings of markets will also
begin to reorganize the spatial imbalances produced by previous apartheid
planning in the countryside. They will naturally change over time as urban-

industrial development nodes and corridors are developed within the regions
and as there are changes in urban-rural links and die needs of traders from
those areas.

Provincial and rural local governments can increase employment by passing

laws and by-laws that require tendering processes to favor labor intensive
methods of construction and local manufacture of items such as furniture for
schools. They can also set up projects under the Community Based Public
Works Programme, especially in areas of greatest poverty, and in times of
hardship such as during drought But these short term projects must always
be carefully established to promote long term development goals at the
same time, for instance through construction of community centers or
planning of woodlots.

Ensuring environmental and social sustainability

Coordinating committees will need to monitor the use of resources within an

area and also consider how they will be affected by new developments. The
committees will need to consider a whole range of issues that ensure that
households, entrepreneurs, and local government activities are sustainable,

if development is to be long lasting, which mean that it must benefit both the
land and the people.

Sustainable development is development that delivers basic environmental,

social and economic services without the viability of, built and social systems
upon

which

these

services

depend.

Decision-making

by

rural

local

government and in the coordinating committees between local government,

local communities and local business will be central to securing.

Sustainability

of

the

environment

through

appropriate

resource

management,
Economic sustainability through infrastructure and service development that
keeps affordability firmly to the front, but argues that rural people have a
greater right than others to financial assistance from government;
Social sustainability, through ensuring that the poor benefit, and that
women's incomes and concerns, legal rights for all, and children's rights are
appreciated and supported.

Administrative sustainability through ensuring that there is administrative

capacity for programme implementation, and that this will be maintained or
increased over time.

Infrastructural development

All of the issues around sustainability will be important when considering

rural infrastructure investment. The Government is committed to a major
infrastructure investment programme, but the negotiations and assessment
of sustainability will have to be carried out or initiated by rural people
themselves if they are to show that there is effective, demand-driven
initiative for development. This will be a requirement for state funding under
the new procedures that have been set up under the Reconstruction and
Development Programme.

There is also a requirement on rural people to show that the developments

they want are affordable - to the nation, the local government service
structures and the households. Because of the lower tax base and the higher
costs of infrastructure development in rural areas, where households am
more spread out, it is unlikely that the same level of services or
infrastructure can be developed in most rural areas as in urban areas.

Nevertheless, the government is committed to basic levels of infrastructure

development, for instance in water availability, sanitation, access to schools
and clinics road development and energy provision. All of these will reduce
the burden of poverty in rural areas, and allow rural people to am their time
more productively and so contribute to national growth.

Capacity building

Elected representatives in local government structures and people in

community based organizations will need to take advantage of training and
capacity building opportunities if they are to maximize their communities'
opportunities for development. Effective capacity building requires the
interaction

of

experience-by

doing,

access

to

resources,

facilitation,

mediation, and training. There are various training programs available

through different government departments, but access is limited compared
to the large demand. Community and local government structures will need
to obtain the services of non-governmental organizations and the private
sector for capacity building, and should obtain funding for this from donor
funds, including the National Development Agency which is being set up
specifically for this purpose.

Non-governmental organizations have a continuing role to play in promoting

people-centered rural development. The service NGOs in rural areas have a
generally fine history of support to CBOs. Many have proven ability to
provide networking, capacity building and information, and to create
leverage to ensure the application of democratic principles in development
activities. Particularly while the coverage of services is so poor in rural areas,
every effort should be made to employ the services of service NGOs, but in
ways that leave CBOs and elected councilors with the ability to set the
agenda.

Good Planning and information

Officials working for Rural District Councils and Rural Local Councils will be
obliged to learn the RDP business planning processes to ensure that rural
dwellers benefit from the use of government funding. They will have to learn
the importance of collecting good information to support their applications
for funds, and to monitor and evaluate the use of the funding. Good
information is the basis of good planning. It is also a basic requirement for
monitoring and responding to poverty and hardship in the rural population,
and for monitoring and alleviating environmental damage. Appropriate
information is therefore a powerful tool and argument which rural people can
use to ensure they can compete well with the urban areas for state funding.

Conclusion

The strategy emphasizes two RDP processes:

The need for rural people to set the agenda, through taking active steps to
involve themselves in local decision making through, or with, local
government,
The accountability of those who draw up proposals for government spending,
in service delivery and in infrastructure development, to ensure that funding
is well spent through consideration of sustainability, through capacity
building of local government and CBOs, and through drawing up and
monitoring business plans, based on good information.
While the state is committed to infrastructure development, improvement in
services and a facilitative environment for entrepreneurial and local
economic development, it is up to rural people to make it work for them.