1) The creation of a functioning federation of women with 200 members, with at least 44 members actively involved in the use and maintenance of the market facility; 2) the market & production activities in the market for 13 months has resulted in a € 39,000 worth rise in income that has allowed 86 persons to earn a regular income of € 2,50 per day or €53 daily benefiting 430 family members; 3. Trainings & coaching has reached 954 participants; 4. Local government and NGOs have been able to counterpart doubling the €30.000 amount mobilized by the diaspora; 5. Two women leaders have been elected as village council officers, with one elected as village council chairperson & head of municpal association of village council chairpersons; 6. Gender sensitivity has been adopted by municipality as part of training for government employees; 7. Pharmacy, village production plots and other subsequent projects have been negotiated and started by women's federation; 8. The memorandum of agreement signed between governor and Damayan (plus 3 other diaspora organizations) has now become a new model for the overseas Filipino convergence conference in Amsterdam (attended by 100 participants from US, Europe, Middle East) in realizing a matching and counterparting partnership. It has also inspired other diaspora networks & conferences in Europe on hometown association promotion, social enterprise partnerships (e.g. the Diaspora Forum for Development, Asia-Pacific Diaspora Philanthropy conference in Hanoi, & the IOM conference on return migration & enhancing development in Geneva). This project has specifically demonstrated that diaspora fund-raising in the framework of collective remittance for development could be leveraged/ multiplied further through partnerships with local government & civil society organizations. The developmental effect of diaspora projects could not only be seen in more empowered or equal gender relations, but also in real improvements in the economic condition of the locality. Furthermore, this co-development partnership now allows a greater role for the diaspora and its local partners in the development policy of the municipality & province, and has also created the basis for greater transparency, and accountability-- important elements in our agenda for good governance. Seen altogether, this small diaspora initiated project has generated important developmental effects, in transforming the situation of a marginalized sector (women in rural areas), creating new developmental synergies through transnational partnerships (local, diaspora and the development community), and in preparing the locality for increased diaspora investments in productive enterprises (coconut fiber production, eco-tourism, pineapple processing, organic rice production).
1. Sustained engagement of diaspora organization in preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation of project.The commitment of the diaspora organization to come up with a real transformatory and sustainable project was essential in developing this innovation, considering the amount of resistance of the menfolk who used to control diaspora projects in the area. This consistent position encouraged the women leaders to assert their rights to 'owning and managing the market' even when pressured by local politicians to give it up; 2. To achieve effective hands-on management inspite of its distance, Damayan developed a triple track approach -- relying on a locally based NGO, developing good LGU contacts, and hometown links among its members. These multiple sources of information/feedback and points of intervention, allowed the diaspora to make timely and appropriate actions for the project; 3. Damayan also took seriously a hands-on approach in training the local partners especially during the social preparation phase. Now we are busy with a training for project cycle management and international partnerships among local partners to consolidate this knowledge exchange ; 4.flexibility in social preparation also contributed to the success by refocusing on the real target beneficiaries (in face of efforts among the menfolk to coopt or block the project), flexibility in adopting an indirect mode of extending loans via local MFIs (considering the advice preventing Damayan from directly providing micro-loans), and flexibility in adding diverse production training modules and in using an adapted training delivery system (on-site coaching by community organizer) inasmuch as the women entrepreneurs started to get too engrossed by their micro-businesses; 5. support of a local non-government organization in implementation of project helped immensely to mobilize local knowledge from outside the community, in networking and lobbying with government; 4. good partnerships with local government provided a ready source of support especially for non-budgetted activities and when the diaspora was yet busy with fund-raising; 6. determination of the women in asserting and realizing their leading role in the development of the local community .
1) To create the capability for economic engagement among women in 3 rural communities through gender sensitivity, organizational & entrepreneurship trainings; 2) To provide a site for the economic engagement of women through the creation of a women's community market that is run and owned by the women's federation; 3) Stimulate and create a supportive local partnership with local government for diaspora development projects in the locality; 4) To generate an effective prototype for the overseas Filipino diaspora showcasing matching agreements & transnational partnerships between local government units,local civil society, & the diaspora; 5) to generate a renewed and sustained engagement among the diaspora in Europe to realize the link between migration and development.
1.) The collective designing of the project, the fund raising by Damayan for the additional needs of the project; 2) the six-month long social preparation which involved the awareness raising of 200 women (and men) in their communities, that led to their forming a municipal federation of women's organization. The organizational mobilization included trainings on organizational leadership & management, and hands-on negotiations with local government for the market facility; 3) the nine-month long Social Enterprise Development support through trainings on business enterprise development for women, plus different production technology trainings on banana, chicken, vegetable production where not only women but also the menfolk joined ; 4) the 3-month long construction of the community market infrastructure coupled with trainings for market facility management; 5) Sustained coaching on actual micro-enterprises, facilitation of their business loans, and their capital build up; 6) the negotiation, mobilization of local government support for the development initiative and their eventual institutionalization into an 1x1 matching partnership between diaspora & LGU; 7) the active promotion of the intiative among the diaspora and mobilizing them to support their rural localities through social enterprise projects.
Social Enterprise Development for Women Empowerment, targeting 200 women members of women organizations, and 4000 inhabitants of 3 village communities; diaspora mobilization for development in NL & Europe targeting the 18,000 Overseas Filipinos in NL, and the rest of 900,000 OFs in Europe
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