2011 FSSI Annual Report

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Chairpersons message

Our core values

Who we are

Social enterprises: Rising to

the challenge for local

economic development

3BL-LED Story:

Articulating the values we create

Our development effectiveness

3BL-LED Stories:

The Tubigon weavers experience:

Value chains that matter to the poor

Gladly putting their organic farms in a BIND

Our people

Board of Trustees

Committees

General Assembly

Staff

Auditors report

CONTENTS


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3BL triple bottomline

AFS available-or-sale

BOT Board o Trustees

COCOBIND Coco-Coir Business Integration and Development

CSOs civil society organizations

DPWH Department o Public Works and Highways

EMS Environmental Management System Business Development Services (BDS)

EEDS Eco-Enterprise Development SupportKPMC Kapatagan Multi-Purpose Cooperative

FPE Foundation or the Philippine Environment

FSCS Fund or Sustainable Civil Society

FSSI Foundation or a Sustainable Society

FVPL air value through proft or loss

GPM gross proft magrin

LGU local government unit

MCIT minimum corporate income tax

MEEP Microfnance or Eco-Enterprises Program

MFI microfnance institution

MTDP Medium Term Development Plan

NGO non-government organization

OF organic ertilizer

OSD optional standard deduction

PACAP Philippine-Australia Community Assistance Program

PAS Philippine Accounting Standards

PEF Peace and Equity Foundation

PPRS Philippine Financial Reporting Standards

PhilBiD Philippine Business in Development

Plant TREES Plant Towards Rainorestation and Eco-Enterprise in S ierra Madre

PO peoples organization

POs purchase orders

PTFCF Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Fund

PROCOM Projects Committee

RCIT regular corporate income tax

SPEED Sustainable Partnerships or Eco-Enterprise Development

SWEEP Sustainable Waste Management Eco-Enterprise Program

ACRONYMS


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CHAIRPERSONSMESSAGE

Martin TanchulingChairperson

The quest or advancing triple bottom line-social entrepreneurship (3BL-SE) ostering

community-centered, sustainable local economy and ecosystems development has

begun. Touching base with ellow stakeholders in priority and ocus areas in Luzon,

Visayas, and Mindanao, we have seen what it takes to apply 3BL-SE development

beyond the enterprise level as we zoomed out and brought 3BL to the scale o

communities, commodity value chains and ecosystem conguration. The array o

possibilities has been recognized, as well as the challenges and constraints that

go with it. We have taken the modest rst step in acilitating greater community

participation in social entrepreneurship.

The concept o putting the marginalized social groups and their production systems

upront in the development agenda and right at the center o local economy building

and sustainable ecosystems development has been mirrored in social movementselsewhere. In North America and Europe, the movement to bring back the marginal-

ized peoples and communities into the growth-with-equity loop and more inclusive

economy equation had gained ground. The Occupy Wall Street movement became

an iconic image o the marginalized awakening against the growing economic in-

equality, corporate greed, undue inuence o corporations on government and the

unregulated proteering spree o the global nancial and banking giants. The Wall

Street enterprise and economic model has been put into the sidelines. It is time or

the 99 percent to reclaim back what has been denied them.

Social entrepreneurship has been well-received by various sectors and develop-

ment circles in 2011. The government and its line agencies had, in one way or

another, adopted the idea o multiple bottom line enterprise development orpoverty reduction and growth with equity. SE and its attendant principles o inclu-

sive, distributive wealth creation and environmentally sound enterprise practice

coupled with convergence, localization and partnership-orging strategies at the

community level, had been enshrined in the plans and operations o rural develop-

ment and anti-poverty agencies. It has been recognized that the conditional cash

transer program directed to poor households is not enough to sustainably reduce

poverty. Community enterprises need to take up the slack ater the last peso to tide

over the poor has been dished out. The challenge or the Foundation, its members

and network partners is to nd the common ground with the public sector so that

conuence and complementation o interventions can happen.

Taking the cue rom the lessons in Occupy Wall Street, socially-responsible business

corporations are now supporting poor communities, social enterprise projects

and innovative models that have been recognized by international award-giving

bodies. The social enterprise sector in the Philippines should harness its strength

to demonstrate to the world its ability to reduce poverty in a sel-reliant and sus-

tainable manner.

Social entrepreneurship is the chosen pathway and the Foundation hopes to pave

this or a more democratic and distributive wealth creation to sustain our common

ecosystems or the uture generations.


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Our visionJust, sustainable and empowered communities,recognizing diversity of cultures, respecting integrity

of creation and realizing the fullness of life.

SOCIAL JUSTICEThe Foundation or a Sustainable Society (FSSI) recognizes

the need to address the long-standing issues o poverty,

the disregard or basic human rights, and environmental

degradation. Thus, FSSI believes that social justice or

the poor is best achieved through participation and

empowerment, anchored on the principle o equality and

airness or all. The promotion o social entrepreneurship,

demonstrated through economic democratization and

environmental justice, is best served by adopting an

integrated business approach that includes access tocapital by the poor, economic viability, gender equality,

sound environmental practice, and the application o the

benets o enterprise or the common good. Social justice

through social entrepreneurship ensures that more people

participate and benet rom economic productivity.

STEWARDSHIPThe FSSIs endowment is a public trust. FSSI is a steward

o this public trust. This is achieved through transparent,

prudent and diligent management o nancial resources

and its optimum use. FSSI seeks to apply innovative und

usage that will maximize both social and nancial returns

through valuable entrepreneurship, at the same time

ensuring continuing growth or the institution, equitable

development and environmental sustainability in all its

initiatives. FSSI commits to put its resources into best use

and enjoins its partners to ollow suit.

GENDER EQUALITYFSSI believes that development must benet both women

and men. Being aware that the present social structureshave not ully recognized women as agents o development,

FSSI takes an armative action in maximizing womens

productive, reproductive and community participation and

contribution to society. FSSI believes that a healthy social

relation can be harnessed by providing equal treatment

and opportunities among women and men in their access

to and control over resources, decision-making, benets

and rewards o development.

FSSI believes that sustainable development will only berealized i people and communities will use and manage

resources in a manner that will not compromise the

needs o uture generations. It seeks to apply innovative

solutions and technologies that will promote biodiversity

conservation and protection o the environment.

GOOD GOVERNANCEFSSI is a staunch advocate in upholding the principles

o shared and transormative leadership and respect or

basic human rights. It demonstrates participatory and

democratic processes in policy and decision-making. FSSI

demands, in its dealings, the practice o transparency,

integrity and accountability.

CULTURE OF EXCELLENCEFSSI ensures continuing relevance, eiciency and

eectiven ess in its perorman ce. FSSI continues to

advocate or best practices in making a diference in the

lives o the communities it serves.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

OUR CORE VALUES


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WHO WE ARE OUR LOGO

Development requires debt relie. This was the

underlying principle when FSSI was conceived in

August 1995 ater a long, arduous, cross-sectoral and

multi-level debt campaign by Philippine and Swiss

non-government organizations (NGOs) and peoples

organizations (POs).

As a result o the close coordination and efective

participation o NGOs and POs, the Governments o the

Philippines and Switzerland nally signed an agreementon the reduction o Philippines external debt. Under

this accord, 50 percent o the Philippine Governments

outstanding export credit debt to Switzerland, amount-

ing to 42 million Swiss Francs or approximately US$34

million at that time, was cancelled. The remainder was

converted into Philippine pesos equivalent to US$17

million and treasury securities.

These were then provided by the Philippine Treasury

as an endowment to a development acility tasked

with using income to support initiatives o local NGOs,

POs, cooperatives and other community-based groups

particularly in the area o sustainable economic pro-

duction eforts. This development acility, now known

as the FSSI is taking the lead in supporting community-

oriented, ecologically-sound, and inancially-viable

business ventures known as social-enterprises.

As FSSI moves orward to achieve its

vison and mission, we came up with a

brand identity that will represent how

we approach our work on enterprise

development or sustainable and

empowered communities.

Part o this development is the creation

o a new logo that will represent what

we aim to do and how we do it.

The trademark resembles synergy,

collaboration and nurturance o FSSIs

broad range o partnerships.

The three petals invoke FSSIs triple

bottomlines o gaining environmental,

social and nancial returns rom its

social investments among enterprises.

The colors brown, green, blue andorange are ound in the natural

environment and hold the qualities

o being dependable, ecological,

stable and vibrant.

Our missionTo be a sustainable resourceinstitution committed to social investments

that facilitate the entry and participationof the poor Filipino communities for thedevelopment of just and local economies.


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Social enterprises: Risingto the challenge for localeconomic development

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In September 2011, protests began in New York Citys Wall Street nancialdistrict, calling or an end to social and economic inequity and corporate greed.

The Occupy Wall Street with its mantra, We are the 99%, was soon pickedup by other countries and versions o Occupy Wall Street sprouted all overthe world.

Although Occupy Wall Street was eventually dispersed, its call or a airerand more just economic model went unignored. In the Philippines, social

entrepreneurship has increasingly become a worthy and sustainable alternativeo doing business that explicitly aims to improve societal well-being. The triplebottomline social entrepreneurship (3BL-SE) has penetrated the realms ogovernmental policy and programs, corporate responsibility, and communitydevelopment.

In early 2011 even beore Occupy Wall Street, the civil society sector

engaged the Aquino government in nalizing the Medium Term

Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) rom 2010 to 2016. SeizingPresident Benigno Aquino IIIs campaign promises o bringing

back transparency, public participation and good governance in

development planning, civil society groups took this as a cue and

they orwarded their respective agendas in various planning sectors

during the MTPDP consultations and nalization. FSSI, in particular,

actively participated in the environment, agriculture and inrastructure

clusters, carrying the banner o sustainable development and 3BL-

SE concept in these sectors. The challenges o making the MTPDP

abide by these sustainable development principles had, once again,

become the more contentious discourse in the plan ormulation and

adoption process. Concerns on climate change, non-sustainable

use o natural resources, population and development and extractive

industries were among the prominent issues o divergence among

civil society, academe, government and private corporate sectors.

SE for cost-effective public infrastructure. The Foundation and its

partners in the coco coir industry through the Philippine Coconut

Coir Exporters Association (Philcoir) have continued policy dialogues

with the Department o Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the

adoption o coconut geo-textiles or coco-nets and related woven

coir product variants in inrastructure development. Under its climate

change adaptation budget, the DPWH was able to identiy two

million hectares or roadside slope protection and food and erosion

Sustainable development and governance


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Localizing Poverty Reduction and Peace Process.

As one o the local resource institutions that have the

specic objective o acilitating greater participation

o the marginalized sectors in enterprise and local

development, FSSI has taken stock o the priority

municipalities or poverty reduction identied by the

National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC). These 600

priority municipalities are where most o the poorest

o the poor are located.

Convergence o various anti-poverty government

programs shall be applied, to ensure that the

administration o the said programs are managed at

the local level and ocused on the target population.

These convergence packages include the conditional

cash transer (CCT), and the provision o universal

health care (through PhilHealth), potable watersupply and community-based small inrastructure

and livelihood programs under the peace process

program. The package aims to create immediate and

maximum impact among the poor. The priority poorest

municipalities that are within the initial ocus area o

FSSI will certainly gure well in the planning processes

or consortium-building or social enterprise-local

economy development strategy. These common areas

include, among others, municipalities in Sorsogon,

Palawan and Samar provinces and a number o

identied poverty-stricken areas in CARAGA region.

control projects all over the country which can utilize

this cost-eective bioengineering technology. I made

operational and widely adopted, the projected benets

are indeed drastic and ar-reaching. These benets

would include: (a) increased rural employment and

income or coconut coir weavers and husk gatherers,

(b) greater savings through cost-eective public

inrastructure, (c) environment and climate change

adoptive technologies, and (d) boosting to small and

medium coco-coir industry players.

Convergence for Sustainable Rural Development.

Triple bottom line social entrepreneurship principles

have made their way in the agrarian reorm, agriculture

and environment sectors through the revival o the

enhanced convergence or rural development initiative.

This initiative by the DA, DAR and DENR was highlyanticipated by stakeholders particularly or civil society

groups and NGOs working or the advancement o

the marginalized sectors in the rural areas and within

critical ecosystems in the country. The ridge to ree

strategy was showcased in the Agraryo, Agrikultura

at Kalikasan Exhibit and Trade Fair at SM Megamall

last June 2011. Making this operational on-ground in

the pilot convergence areas (in the local government

units level) in the soonest time is a current goal

o the FSSI and other local resource institutions.

The convergence initiative is a good opportunity to

demonstrate 3BL Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs)

or poverty reduction in production and protected

ecosystems.


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Advocacy and Policy Development for SE. 2011 was a banner year

or FSSIs social enterprise advocacy. The conerences and briengs

on social entrepreneurship held year-long at various times and

requencies culminated in the ormation o a coalition o organizations

and networks that would be mobilized to advance SE as a viablepoverty reduction alternative beyond the poverty reduction programs

o government. The SE sector towards a movement or a policy

environment conducive to its practice and prolieration has made

initial breakthrough.

The private and business sectors have also helped put into the

public consciousness the social enterprise discourse. While Occupy

Wall Street was raging, Philippine businesses had been put to

task to modiy their corporate ways by using their corporate social

responsibility (CSR) programs as a countervailing measure.

The more socially responsible segments o the private business and

corporate sectors had campaigned and championed entrepreneurship

in its various shades (i.e., social, micro, small and medium). The

same is true or the academe and its schools o business and

entrepreneurship societies. Using the tri-media in conveying the

message o entrepreneurship and empowerment, business has

prepared to do social business in service o the bottom o the al luded

pyramid.

While batting or high and inclusive growth through responsive

macroeconomic, scal and public policy, the corporate sector has also

participated in orging PPPs or poverty reduction in growth regions in

the country. This is in recognition that business cannot be scaled up

and responsibly thrive in an environment where poverty is prevalent.

The annual event highlighting the Philippine Business in Development

(PhilBiD) led by the Philippine Business or Social Progress and with

FSSI sponsoring its social enterprise award, has enabled small and

medium enterprises to continuously innovate, create products andintroduce cost-eective and ecient business solutions so that their

respective enterprises would get the attention needed by investors,

venture capitalists and nancing institutions.

Social entrepreneurship and CSR or the poor and inormal settlers

have been enhanced by the innovative model pioneered and

demonstrated by the highly-regarded and award-winning Gawad

Kalinga (GK) and the Center or Social Innovation. Tony Meloto o

GK with his model village in Angat, Bulacan called the Enchanted

Farm demonstrates the power o resource mobilization rom various

sectors: the impoverished beneciaries-settlers, academe, corporate

and CSR community and the government.

Academe, private sector and business or SE development


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The brand o SE that the Foundation envisions is greatly boosted by the oregoing SE initiatives including the

variants and possibilities that go with them. It helps that the government and political environments are receptive

to more inclusive and pro-poor entrepreneurship. The stepping-up o the private and business sectors through

their entrepreneurship innovation and CSR programs is indicative o the enabling environment that is currently

prevailing in the development landscape. Finding and demonstrating the SE typology and niche that FSSI and

its partners want to mold amid this enabling landscape is the next chapter that will and has to unold.

The image o superiority o the unbridled and unregulated corporate system and its prot-at-all cost bottom

line has gone the way o economic dinosaurs. There is no ignoring the era o social entrepreneurship.

SE or local economy and ecosystems development

In a simple yet incisive article, Connecting the

Economic Dots, Robert Reich (Nation of Change,

17 April 2012) explained the cause and effect of

how the American economy got into the mess that

preceded Occupy Wall Street.. The seven dots

movements, as described by Reich are:

1. For 30 years the American economy has grown,yet the gains from that growth have gone to the Top

1 percent;

2. Income and wealth at the top have been trans-lated to political power with the rich contributing

immensely to the political coffers of politicians and

parties;

3. Political power has been used to lower taxes fortop corporations and rich individuals (from real tax

rate of 34 percent in 1980 to 23 percent in 2006)

and to obtain corporate welfare for big business;

4. With income and wealth highly concentrated atthe top, purchasing power of the middle class had

significantly eroded, severely stalling the economy;

5. With lower wages from the middle class anddrastic drop in taxes paid by the richest 1%, tax

revenues to fund government services have slack-

ened;

6. Fewer jobs, lousy wages, and deterioratingpublic services placed the average working Ameri-

can in competition with other workers for jobs:

natural citizens vs immigrants, public vs. private

employees, unionized vs. non-unionized, working

class vs. the poor, etc., resulting in smaller share of

the economic pie;

7. The result, according to Reich: nastier andmore polarized politics, society is meaner, cynicism

prevails and nothing is solved.

Closer to home, the idea of social entrepreneur-

ship, one that has multiple bottom lines, paints a

rather contrasting scenario:

u An enterprise environment that fosters inclu-

sion and participation of the marginalized with the

community as the central focus;

u Economic and financial values both accru-ing to the enterprise, community and local value

chains

u Sustainable stewardship of the environment

and ecosystem

Corporate Greed and Social Entrepreneurship


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In the past decade, we saw a new breed of development actors that have changed the way weapproach poverty-reduction programs. Social enterprises like Rags to Riches, Gawad Kalinga,Bote Central, Pilipinas Ecober, Altertrade and Safrudi made our eyes sparkle because they all

imparted the sense of self-reliance, highlighted innovations, developed the poors self-worthand enhanced local pride.

Compared to social enterprises in other countries like Italy, France, Germany and Korea,however, the reach of social enterprises in the Philippines tends to be limited, extending onlyto a few communities (in many instances, only one community). Some potential social investorswho look for worthwhile investments in the sector are hard-pressed to nd social enterprisesthat have achieved a scale of development impact which merits substantial investments.

That social enterprises have made impacts is no longer a subject for debate. What needs tobe discussed is how to scale up which means expanding the demonstrated impacts of socialenterprises by increasing effort and community reach. During briengs and consultations,a usual question asked is whether a policy for social enterprises is still needed because itseems the sector has been successful in delivering the environmental, social and nancialbottomlines even without a law.

Professor Lisa Dacanay explains, Individual social enterprises have proven that they canmake impacts through their models. But a model may work in a specic locality but maynot work in other contexts . There is a need to capacitate this sector to accelerate theirimpacts in reducing poverty.

Articulating the values we create

3BL-LED STORY


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Once a social enterprise has reached a certain level of growth, the need to create a spacein the market is an important target. If they dont have the right technical skills or businessacumen, it becomes great challenge for them to take it to the next level of development, saidTheresa Pilapil, Oikocredits Regional Director for Southeast Asia .

Among the various activities and studies of social enterprises, it has often been argued thattheir long term impact should be the equalization of the politico-economic distribution ofpower and in leveraging the rights of the relatively poor and powerless. However, it seemsdifcult to neither expect nor anticipate when and how these can happen if social enterprisesoperate within the same incentive structure that is within the existing market-based economy.

Martin and Osberg dene entrepreneurship priorities and key capacities as the ability tosense and seize an opportunity, thinking out of the box, and determination. But these arecapabilities often out of reach from the poor who have the weakest access to informationor education, denying them the ability to engage in markets in a sustainable manner. In thePhilippines and elsewhere, the main challenge of social enterprises is funding to raise capital

for developmental goals. It is difcult to gain especially when they pick unlucrative marketsto serve. A policy in place would denitely help provide incentives, market developmentservices, nancing, research and other capacity-building activities for the target sector toimprove their condition.

Another impediment (aside from scaling up) is the need for the estimated 30,000 socialenterprises in the Philippines coming from different organizational persuasions and regulatoryframeworks to consolidate their concept of social entrepreneurship so it can articulate its forcein reducing poverty and thence compel government to create a positive policy environmentfor social enterprises.14

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Policy gaps

The need to create a positive policy environmentfor social enterprises has been uttered stronglyin separate occasions. The Philippine SocialEnterprise Network (PhilSEN) in May 2011

organized a legislative forum in the House ofRepresentatives to encourage members ofCongress to utilize their development fundsfor social enterprises. On April 2011, UnladKabayans Executive Director Maria AngelaVillalba, during SEARCAs Agriculture andDevelopment Seminar Series called for moreinvestment on the study and promotion ofsocial entrepreneurship, as well as a supportivepolicy environment that rewards socialentrepreneurs. On August 2011, FSSI, which

earlier identied the need for a supportivepolicy environment as necessary in developingsocial enterprises, partnered with the Ateneode Manila University Development StudiesProgram and PhilSEN to gather stakeholdersacross the country to discuss the policychallenges faced by social enterprises duringthe 2nd National Social Enterprise Conference.

In that conference held on August 25-26,leading social entrepreneurs expressed theirdifficulties in expanding their businesses

because there is no clear policy that incentivizessocial and environmental impacts aside fromprofits generated by enterprises. HapinoyStore Program expressed dismay over thegovernments taxation of their sari-sari storessaying that the Barangay Micro-based BusinessEnterprise Act which supposedly exemptsmicro businesses from taxation is hardlyimplemented by local governments. At whatpoint should nanay be taxed to enable hersocial enterprise to grow? asked Hapinoys

leading proponent, Bam Aquino.

The current juridical vehicles of our statutesare also limiting to the sector. Most socialenterprises that are registered as non-protmay be able to receive grants in a certainpoint of time but when it decides to divestand actually engage in social enterprises, theywould encounter legal problems. Anotherproblem is that non-prot groups are limited

by the regulatory framework to accept capitalfrom investors since there are no dividendsand hence no incentive to invest.

Since part of the social enterprise protsare reinvested for environmental and socialgoals which otherwise would have been agovernment function, the sector demands thattax or non-tax incentives must be availableto them which will encompass all kinds ofsocial enterprises whether they are for prot,nonprot, cooperative, among others.

Allowing a reasonable accommodation forsocial enterprise products and services in

government procurement bidding processesis an important non-tax incentive that can begiven to social entrepreneurs.

In a different forum, the Foundation forThese-Abled Persons Inc which is assistingthe National Federation of Cooperatives ofPersons with Disability, a social enterpriseengaged in school chair production withthe Department of Education (DepEd) asmain market, saw great benets from socialenterprises owned and managed by poor

with disabilities in terms of empowerment.The DepEd played a key role by providing themarket for the production of school chairs andtherefore the opportunity to learn, developself-esteem and earn a living for workers andmembers with disabilities.

The state has a great potential to use its poweras a customer to patronize the products andservices of marginalized sectors and thuscontribute effectively to reducing poverty.

However, the Procurement Law of thePhilippines which governs all GovernmentProcurement is a law that is made for acompetitive business economy. It does notrecognize social values contributed and aimsinstead at issuing contracts to financiallycapable bidders at lowest possible contractprice. This makes it most often impossiblefor the poor and disadvantaged sectors tocompete and participate equitably in economic


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The same is the case for social enterprises in the organic and cococoir sector. The state shouldaccept its role as a customer in equalizing opportunities for marginalized sectors by providingreasonable accommodation for social enterprises owned and operated by poorer sectors ofsociety. This requires that reasonable accommodation be legalized with a clearly dened setof standards to ensure that abuse will be avoided and the market share reserved for SE providesthe envisioned economic empowerment.

activities. The 10% Special Provision for Persons With Disabilities (PWD) cooperatives whichhas been part of the General Appropriations Act since CY 1998 has been in conict with theprovisions of the Procurement Code Republic Act 9184 since its enactment in 2003. Governmentofcials who have tried to implement the spirit of the special provision of providing reasonable

accommodation of the situation of the sector were always limited by the provisions of the code(e.g. requirements for bid and performance bonds, no advance payment) while there was noguideline on how to select qualied social enterprises of PWDs, thus opening doors for abuse.

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Social entrepreneurs agree that a policy on social enterprises would be benecial for the sectorto deepen its impacts on poverty-reduction but ideas on what it should in-clude remainedaoat. The upfront decision to initiate the drafting of a bill came out two months after theAteneo conference.

On October 17, 2011 the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asias (ISEA) Board approveda resolution for the consortium to undertake research in support of its members advocacyefforts to create a policy and political environment supportive to social entrepreneurship.

On the heels of this event, ISEA held follow-up consultations among interested membersand partners, notably PhilSEN, World Fair Trade Organization-Asia, International Network ofAlternative Financial Institutions-Philippines, Ateneo School of Government, Philippine RuralReconstruction Movement and FSSI. From the consultations, the idea of a more focused actionresearch and campaign around a draft bill on poverty reduction through social enterprise gainedground for various reasons: (1) a need to push government to go beyond the ConditionalCash Transfer scheme to address poverty; (2) a need for a focal point to rally unity buildingin what was recognized as a fragmented social enterprise sector; and (3) a number of socialenterprises in their growth stage were directly experiencing problems and disincentives thatpointed to the need to reform the system of public procurement, payment of taxes and otherlegislative measures impinging on their capacity to scale up impacts for poverty-reduction.

A small grant from OIkocredit allowed ISEA to compose a team to undertake research anddraft a proposed bill. FSSI provided the counterpart funds for stakeholders consultations andthe conduct of technical working groups. PhilSEN also held regional consultations to gatherinputs on what the sector would need to be present in a SE law. The insights brought substanceto the draft bill that the technical working group discussed thoroughly from November 2011to January 2012.

The Social Enterprise Bill seeks to support the development and growth of the social enterprisesector in general and social enterprises with the poor as primary stakeholders (SEPPS) inparticular, as part of building a plural economy based not only on market principles but also onthe principles of redistribution and reciprocity. The state providing incentives or supportingthe development of SEPPS would make provisions for regulating or reforming markets so theycould serve the poor majority better on one hand, and for building a strong social economywhere the poor are assisted to overcome poverty on the other. Some provisions that areincluded in the bill are:

Beginnings of the Social Enterprise Bill

reforms in the system of public procurement including prioritizing social

enterprises as product or service providers (e.g. school chairs andeducational toys; organic fertilizers and geotextile nets for erosion controlare examples of products where social enterprises could immediatelyscale up their quantitative and qualitative impact if government usesits power of procurement for poverty reduction) as social enterprisemarketing services


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tax exemptions and direct subsidies to assure the delivery oftransformational services to the poor by social enterprises and social

enterprise resource institutionssustained programs for capacity development in social enterprisemanagementtechnical and nancial assistance to install appropriate monitoring andevaluation systems to track the impact of social enterprises on the poorand poverty-reductioninvestment in research and development to develop innovativeapproaches with social enterprises to improve access and upgrade thequality of basic social services delivered to the poor (i.e. health, education,housing, water, electricity)support for the development of social enterprise resource institutions

and the creation of funds to ensure the timely access of relevant andquality support services by social enterprises.

But enactment is not the only perceived gain of waging an advocacy campaign for the SE Bill.More lasting are the changes in the behaviors among policymakers, corporations, gatekeepersof funding organizations, and consumers through continuous consultations, rigorous lobbywork, mass education and trainings to hone cadres for the social enterprise movement.


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Our DevelopmentEffectiveness

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2011marked the beginning o FSSIs adoption o the 3BL-LED ramework.The 2011-2016 plan was espoused in three levels, namely, the re-casting

o the Foundations development services; the re-orientation and elding

o development sta according to geographical ocuses and key support

services; and the initial groundwork that directed the Foundations new

services towards alliance-building and multi-stakeholder collaboration in

the selected ocus areas.

We jumpstarted 2011 by concentrating our area work in at least three ocus areas, one each or Luzon,

Visayas and Mindanao. This thrust was armed when the strategic planning exercise was nally concluded

in June 2011. By year-end, tentative ocus areas have been evaluated and seven potential areas were

initially chosen, each area covering a province or cluster o municipalities. Out o these, we windowed

three areas, namely, the Mallig Valley in Isabela province in Cagayan Valley, cluster municipalities in Leyte

and Southern Leyte, and the province o South Cotabato together with nearby municipalities o South

Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City (SOCKSARGEN). Potential outreach in

these areas was initially estimated at about 15,000 armers and indigenous people, both women and men.

In these three ocal areas, initial discussions primarily with NGOs, cooperatives, POs and CSOs reached

a general consensus on a shared 3BL-LED goal in each o their localities. Their individual plans helped

make up a convergence o strategies that address the multi-aceted aspects o development including

economic, social, and environmental. Parallel to these consultations is the examination o government

programs and priorities in the identied potential ocus areas and initial consultations. These government

line agencies and/or Local Goernment Unit (LGU) ocials were tapped or possible collaboration or

convergence with CSO initiatives.


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The transition rom the subsector-based to ocus area-based program is a recognition o the

need to advance sustainable development goals beyond the limits o enterprise and the value

chain concept. While we see the important role o business as an arena or rationalizing sustainable

resource use and acilitating equitable allocation o resources to benet the marginalized

social sectors, we equally believe that it is as important to address other necessities that are

socio-cultural and ecological, priorities that are otherwise ignored in traditional entrepreneurial

development.

Hence, FSSIs development plan or 2011-2016 saw the need to ocus on three major program

strategies, namely: social enterprise development, community governance, and advocacy.

Under this development plan, the previous partnerships with individual enterprises would havebeen enhanced in the light o building or supporting stakeholders alliances that converge on a

common agenda on sustainable development through a platorm set towards sustaining local

economies and ecosystems.

Supporting the collaboration among state and non-state actors in selected ocus areas is at the

oreront o ocus-area approach. During the transition period, our development sta scrutinized

existing partnerships and assessed which partnerships can be linked together to a common

program.

The community governance component aimed at acilitating the participation o marginalized

social sectors in the 3BL-LED. We saw this as a collaborative venture with local stakeholders

especially the peoples organizations, cooperatives and non-government organizations. This

The shit

Supporting local 3BL-LED convergences


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cooperatives working together towards up-scaling

community development enterprises. They work in

three area clusters gravitating around Mt. Matutum,

Allah Valley and Roxas Mountain. Together they

represent more than 13,000 armers and indigenous

peoples. Integrating value chain development in their

environmental management activities remains among

their priorities.

collaboration is expected to provide the specic

design o a local 3BL-LED program whichwould anchor on FSSIs development services

intervention. The process involves ormal and

inormal consultations with existing partners

and FSSI members operating in the selected

areas, as well as with other civil society groups

with local sustainable development programs.

Through this engagement, ini tia l plans by

FSSIs development sta were drawn and

implemented to move towards the introduction

o FSSI in local networks and in the acilitation

o the integration o 3BL-LED objectives in local

consortium plans.

During the year, our development sta

examined existing and possible partnerships

in the seven areas, namely, the provinces o

Isabela, Palawan, Sorsogon, Leyte-Southern

Leyte, South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, and the

CARAGA region. One important appreciation

during the period is that most partners either

expressed strong interest or have already

made initiatives that would easily acilitate

convergence o various CSO stakeholders ona common local development program. Most

notable are the local networks o CSOs ound

in the three nal ocus areas.

In Mindanao, our team linked up with the

Coalition o Social Development Organization

in South Cotabato. The coalition is made

up o 34 NGOs, peoples organizations and


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Aside rom the three areas, our teams also initiated consultations with civil society groups in the provinces o

Palawan, Sorsogon, Davao del Sur and selected areas in CARAGA. In Palawan, existing partners, namely,

Palawan Center or Appropriate Technology and IDEAS are developing a social enterprise consortium in the

province. In Sorsogon, stakeholders o Coconut Business Integration and Development Program-Irosin,

Gubat Agriech Industries Co. (GAICO) and the Gubat St. Anthony Coop were also consulted on developing

a common or collaborative engagement. In Davao del Sur, our team explored possible collaboration with

FARMCOOP regarding organic banana production and export. In CARAGA region, existing networks o

Tambuyog, Center or Environment and Rural Development, Convergence or Community-Centered Area

Development and Mindanao Coalition or Development were consulted or possible collaboration.

In sum, our program implementation ensured and helped acilitate participation o marginalized social

sectors in at least three selected ocus areas by linking them up with local stakeholders, particularly the

civil society groups which work closely with them.

In the Visayas, our team began working or the possible expansion o the Eastern Visayas Sustainable

Organic Agriculture Network. The network was originally organized by Philippine Network o Rural

Development Institutes, Inc. to help consolidate the organic arming sector in the Eastern Visayas region.

But in the previous year, the network had to reduce its activities due to und limitation. Our team saw the

strategic role o the network in developing a 3BL-LED program in the area which can be urther enhanced

i existing partners and members can join in. Existing partners in the area include Agri-Business Federation

o Rural Financial Intermediaries, Southern Leyte Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and Nagkakaisang

Magsasaka ng Caibiran Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Another network, Visayas Cooperative Development

Center, has also expressed interest in supporting FSSI program in the Leyte Island.

In Luzon, the series o consultative evaluations with existing partners highlighted the possible collaboration

among Isabela-based partners o the Kabisig Agri-Development Cooperative, Wesley Savings and

Development Cooperative, Kapatagan Multi Purpose Cooperative and Malaya Development Cooperative

(Malaya Coop) in their quest or advancing organic agriculture. Malaya Coop was proposing to put up a

dairy project as part o a value chain network that links dairy production to organic ertilizer production and

organic production o rice, corn and cassava. The province o Isabela is also the site o the rain-orestation

project o FSSI, Foundation or Philippine Environment, Peace and Equity Foundation, and Philippine

Tropical Forest Conservation Fund and with unding rom the European Union.

The general characteristics o the three initial ocus areas are highlighted by the ollowing:

Social groups Commodities Eco-system

Mallig-Quezon-Rizal

municipalities, Isabela

at least 1,000 armers integration o dairy, corn, rice,

cassava in a holistic, organic ood

production network

Mallig Valley Area is generally

used or crops production

Leyte-Southern Leyte

cluster o municipalities

at least 1,500 armers

and fsherolk

development o organic rice and

organic banana production; coco-nut products; fsh products

transect o upland-lowland-costal

portion o Leyte Island

South Cotabato about 13,000 armers

and indigenous peoples

various ood crops and non-timber

orest products

Allah Valley, Mt. Matutum, and

Roxas Mountain eco-system

clusters


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Advancing social entrepreneurship and promoting

3BL-LED embodies our advocacy. Based on this

objective, FSSI supported and participated in various

advocacy engagements that ranged rom stakeholders

consultations, dialogues, capacity building o community

stakeholders, and policy research.

In collaboration with the Ateneo de Manila UniversityDevelopment Studies Program and the Philippine

Social Enterprise Network, FSSI helped organize the

2nd National Social Enterprise Conerence in August

2011. The conerence provided a public venue or social

entrepreneurs to discuss issues and challenges they ace

and how to overcome our main challenges spurred by

partnerships with marginalized communities, by scaling

up, by measuring the social impact o social enterprises

and by the policy environment that social enterprises

now ace.

Advocating or social entreprenuership


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We supported the Population, Health and Environment Conerence to showcase our supported social

enterprises projects that respond to climate change. These projects include the Rainorestation Project

in Isabela, the coconut geonets production o Pilipinas Ecober and the organic vegetable arming o La

Trinidad Organic Producers.

We demonstrated the value o social entrepreneurship in poverty-reduction during the Social Development

Celebration Week. The Foundation organized the Social Enterprises in the Cococoir Industry: Nurturing

Business Chains That Matter or the Poor, a learning encounter with donors, government agencies,

academe and CSOs.

We have also contributed to consultations held to assess the countrys perormance in ullling itscommitments twenty years ater world countries met to discuss environment and development. FSSI

contributed to CSO discussions organized by Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives or Community

Empowerment in October 2011 by demonstrating the merits o social entrepreneurship as a proven model

in sustainable development in government-led consultations. The two roundtables provided a platorm

or Philippine CSOs to collectively analyze the relevance and implications o the Green Economy to the

national and local situations.

The Foundation also supported the conduct o dialogues on the growth o social enterprises including

the legislative advocacy or the passage o an anti-trust law which would prevent building o business

monopolies and cartels. FSSI was actively involved in the buy local campaign in support o local enterprises

when it launched the Kabuhayan Travelling Photo Exhibit and organized two roundtable discussions with

Concepts Commune and the Fair Trade Alliance.


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In 2011, the Foundation coalesced with social enterprise coalitions including the Asian Solidarity Economy

Forum and co-convened the Poverty Reduction through Social Entrepreneurship Coalition which aimed

at generating support to enact a law supportive o the growth o social enterprises and the ormation o a

social enterprise movement among practitioners, social enterprise support organizations and consumer

organizations.

FSSI also supported the empowerment o indigenous peoples through trainings and dialogues aecting

their rights to natural resources as organized by the Legal Resource Center and Samdhana. The Foundation

also joined the campaign on lowering the prices o electricity led by the Freedom rom Debt Coalition.

The Foundation was also a co-convenor to a cluster o CSOs participating in the United Nations Civil Society

Assembly to ensure that policies aecting the attainment o equitable economic growth are considered in

the United Nations and government programming.

As an advocate, FSSI increased its media engagement earning recognition by key media groups as a

center or mover or social enterprise, generating interest o government portals here and abroad through

our stories written and carried by popular bloggers.

What we accomplished in 2011 was to help social entrepreneurship gain ground through our media

engagement and policy advocacy. This is the social enterprise that embodies not just the participation but

the empowerment o marginalized social sectors who are themselves directly involved in natural resource

management.


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The previous medium term program o FSSI delved mainly on providing nancial services to individual

enterprises selected on the basis o enterprise-specic 3BL criteria. Financial services to enterprises

remain as a major eature in the new ramework plan. What was dierent in 2011 was that we made

them understand the role o our partner enterprises in the empowerment o marginalized social sectors

and in natural resource management o the larger ecosystem. Hence, in both ocus and open access

(non-ocus) areas, we hope to see our partner enterprises contributing eectively to both the social and

environmental pillars o sustainable development.

To move the new strategic program orward, our development services sta conducted a series o

consultations with existing partner enterprises. As o end 2011, FSSI maintained partnerships with 61

enterprises/cooperatives, o which, 40 are considered active and 21 are considered or exit. O the

40 active partners, our area teams conducted consultations with 18 partner enterprises with regards

the integration o 3BL-LED objectives in their plans. O those already consulted, 15 expressed strong

interest and capacity to integrate the objectives in their plans.

A common assessment o the area teams is that many partners readily identied their programs as being

in-line with FSSIs 3BL-LED. This opens up the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding o what our

partners were already doing and to integrate these in uture 3BL-LED agenda setting and implementation.

Empowering social entrepreneurship

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A new eature in the list is the inclusion o Start-up Enterprise Loan, Bridge Financing Loan and Business

Development Services Loan. These inclusions are brought up by the necessity to enhance delivery o

nancing services to commodity-based enterprises. The other types o nancial services are already existing

but categorized in the past under the subsector-based programs.

The total portolio is distributed according to the type o nancial services, geographical areas and

enterprise ownership. Portolio distribution per type o nancial service indicated highest investmentthrough developmental deposits in cooperative ederations, cooperative banks and rural banks. This was

ollowed by loans or micronance projects o CFIs and or enterprise loans. The investments were given

BOX 2. Portolio distribution per type o fnancial service in 2011

through developmental deposits; CFI

micronance, CFI wholesale loan and

guarantee represent investments to

partners under the previous program, the

Micronance Eco-Enterprise Program

(MEEP). The enterprise loan combined

investments to various partners under

the previous programs COCOBIND,

Sustainable Partnership or Eco-

Enterprise Development (SPEED) and

Sustainable Waste Management Eco-

Enterprise Program (SWEEP). Equity

investments reerred to investments in

Pilipinas Eco Fiber and COCOBIND-

Irosin (See Box2).


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in sum, the total development portolio decreased rom PhP 410 million in 2010 to PhP 386 million in 2011.

The decrease rom 2010 to 2011 can be attributed to the decrease in loans that supported both enterprise

and micronance projects. The amount is still higher than the PhP 359 million total in 2009 but this may

be expected to steadily decrease urther in 2012 due to low approval in 2011 (See Box3).

BOX 3. Project approvals per type o fnancial service in 2011


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In summary, while we saw some slight decrease in total development portolio rom 2010 to 2011, we

remain condent that our social investments were airly distributed and primed where we intended them,

and these are in community-based nancial institutions and in enterprises owned and operated by CSOs.

We are hopeul that as we roll-out our development services, we would see changes in our social

investments to urther highlight our assistance to value chain developments in partnerships with

cooperatives and other CSOs.

BOX 4. Portolio distribution per geographical area in 2011

BOX 5. Portolio distribution per type o enterprise ownershio in 2011

Asset Management

41%

Mindanao21%

NGO-owned30%

Stockcorporation

12%

Single proprietorship13%

Visayas4%

Luzon34%

Cooperative-owned45%

In terms o portolio distribution per

geographical area, Luzon accounts

or 34 percent o investments received

by 28 partners, Mindanao with 21percent o investments that went to 19

partners, and Visayas with 4 percent o

investments that went to 9 partners. The

bulk o 41 percent o investments went

to seven (7) cooperative ederations and

banks through developmental deposits,

guarantee and wholesale loans (See

Box4).

In terms o ownership, 45 percent o

the developmental portolio was in

cooperative-owned enterprises that

included cooperative ederations and

cooperative banks. The second biggest

chunk representing 30 percent o

development portolio was in NGO-owned

enterprises including stock corporationsorganized by NGOs. This was ollowed

by 13 percent in single proprietorships

and 12 percent in stock corporations

(See Box5).


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TUBIGON, BoholThe women smiled heartily, their laugh lines and crows feet framing

their eyes in glee as they said, We are denitely happy! We only asked them how theywere doing and their response was a great welcome. They have been weaving rafa palm forgenerations and all are all members of the Tubigon Loomweavers Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

Our dream is for the Cooperative to prosper so that our children can continue the weavingtradition, said Serilla Bustalino, 52, a mother of ve children. Weaving has enabled us toput them to school and put food on our table.

Beside her was Victoria Mara, 51 and a mother of two. Mara has been a rafa weaver for 22years. Like most of them, she learned weaving from her parents and is now teaching herown children to weave. She showed us her beautifully-woven rafa infused with yellow and

pink patterns; the seasons favorite, according to her supervisor.

Gondina Cansineco is already 60 but she continues to weave for the Cooperative. Laughingwith the group was Cheronita Segiren,38, who weaves her own pattern despite the markettrends. The Tubigon Loomweavers MPC has been in the business of rafa weaving since1993, although the community association of skilled women weavers was formed earlier in1989. With the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the associationgrew and eventually became a cooperative in 1993. The cooperative has been into weavingtraditional products like sleeping mats but is now experimenting into converting woven

The Tubigon weavers experience:Value chains that matter to the poor

3BL-LED STORY


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products into fashionable home and lifestyle products such as bags, wallets, placemats,curtains, table runners, decorative rolls and fashion accessories using distinctive Boholpatterns, craftsmanship and artistry.

Rafa weaving is a century-old tradition in Bohol because of the abundance of rafa or buripalm. Buri (Corypha elata Rox) is known as buli in Visaya. Through the years, however,supply of raw material has been insufcient and the Fiber Industry Development Authorityhas developed plantations in buri palm baranggays in Bohol.

After harvest, buri palm leaves are dried, bleached, dyed and woven using two-harnessbamboo and wood based traditional loom weaving equipment. The cost of a raw beris PhP 150/kilo and PhP 200/kilo of ne ber. The men harvest the Buri leaves and drythem until they can be shredded to produce ne or raw bers. Fibers are delivered tothe Cooperative for dyeing and weaving. Gathering of the rafa, setting up and dryingtake from three to four days.

In actual production, a weaver can nish a standard 24x10 meter mat in one day. With

a total of 150 weavers in Tubigon, 40 of which are regular weavers in the plant, theCooperative can produce a maximum of 3,600 mats in a month. A major local buyer nowis the Bohol Bee Farm in Panglao Island, a main tourist beach resort, while other buyersin nearby Cebu order about 1,000 dinner placemats and 150 table runners a month.

The average income of a woman weaver is about PhP2,000.00/month. This is enough toaugment the family income derived mostly from rice farming, shing and other contractualjobs such as carpentry and tuba or coconut wine production. In most instances, thehusband who is in between jobs does the knotting while the children also help in theweaving.

Market potential of rafa weaving is huge. Rafa is a material that can be converted intohigh-end products, because of its versatility and natural appeal. A branded woven rafawallet infused with leather and other materials fetches some USD 100++ in the Americanand European markets. A branded rafa dress cost some USD 900++.

But there are still many challenges to the Bohol rafa loomweaving industry. Productionwas not as high as we projected because we dont have any orders from abroad. But

buyers love the new raw materials, the new patterns. We have 40 regular weavers; wecan do 1,000 rolls in a month for plain rolls. However, we cannot produce as much forpatterned rolls, said Trina Sumayang , General Manager of the Cooperative.

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Ingrid Hoffe, Program Ofcer of the European Chamber of Commerce (ECCP), said, Economicslowdown worldwide affected us previously but global market is now improving. Exportersare willing to work with us but we have problems with the dyeing and volume of production.We talked with the DTI because we needed to work on the quality of the product. Rafa bercan not absorb dyes. There is a specic material in a rafa ber that causes it to not absorbcolours efciently. There is color inconsistency after the dyeing process.

Hoffe and the ECCP together with DTI have been helping the Tubigon Loomweavers Multi-Purpose Cooperative in product development. FSSI infused some PhP 500,000 in the formof a grant for this purpose in May 2011. Phase One of the product development involvedmaterial development and expansion of the number of patterns and recycled materials andthe infusion of other natural and recycled materials like rags, newspapers and seaweeds. The

weavers were able to develop around 80 designs.

Phase Two focused on the sustainability of the industry including the training of new weavers.DTI came in and trained weavers to create and infuse new materials. Trainees were askedto develop materials for interior design using softer and undyed rafa ber with just threeor four color accents. They also helped in developing alternative dye materials that couldbetter absorb colors. ECCP brought new materials that were developed to Germany andthe response was enthusiastic, Hoffe said. Buyers looked forward to checking out how thesenew materials would sell in the European market.


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Hoffe also said that they chose trainees who wereyounger but have the heart to appreciate weaving asan industry and as a career. We chose people whowere really interested in the weaving. We did value-formation training, endurance training and learningto further harness their weaving potential. Wewant to inuence people in their way of thinking,Hoffe explained.

There was an additional challenge for trainees tobe creative and develop their own ideas. FourteenTubigon trainees were absorbed by the Cooperative,but eventually only seven became full-time weaverswhile the other seven remained as part-timers.Phase Two also focused on the marketing of theproducts. Electronic yers of products during therst phase were displayed initially at the MaterialsLibrary in Cebu City. Hoffe said that the interestfrom the foreign market is high but they are

also concerned with the capacity of the TubigonLoomweavers MPC to meet the eventual demand.

Hoffe believes that the focus now should be thestrengthening of the local tourism market, spreadingthe good news about the product and promotingthe materials through cooperation with the Cebuexporters. She says that while the Dutch andEuropean markets are interested to look into thelocal rafa market, the biggest challenge in theexport market is consistent quality and volume ofproduction. There is much growing together andworking together for the local weaving industry,Hoffe stated.

The women weavers of Tubigon LoomweaversMPC already have the skill to catapult themas major players in the rafa industry. What isneeded now is the heart to stay throughout theindustry development. Blair Panong, Senior Tradeand Industry Development Specialist of DTI-Bohol,believes that the local industry needs to work onstandardization and better product development.

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DTI is also working on boosting other parts of the rafa weaving industry value chain thatinclude not just the suppliers of raw bers and the weavers but the in-between sectors suchas the transport sector, and suppliers of other materials or accessories that are incorporatedwithin the rafa industry. These include producers of buttons, leather, zippers, crystals, and othermaterials to accessorize the woven rafa and complete a specic product.

DTI, in coordination with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is also doingmarketing feasibility studies on improving the technology of dyeing rafa bers. The localindustry is minimizing environmental hazards such as using harmful chemicals in bleaching andcoloring the bers by using isodized dyes or water-based paints that have passed Departmentof Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) standards. A ltration system is installed toclean up waste materials from the bleaching chemicals and dyes.

Rafa weaving is a very tedious process. The Tubigon women weavers are not only weaversbut are already designers. They have learned the art of blending colors and creating their ownpatterns, a skill that requires patience and a good eye for a good design.

They do not have an in-house designer but they do work together to convert the rafa matsinto gorgeous, functional and decorative products. They collaborate in mastering the craft ofproducing rafa that could already approximate cloth materials that would be converted toartistically designed products. As we learned when we rst met them, they also weave happinessin their works.


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Danilo Morales, 54, tends to his 66-acre farm inLopez Jaena, Negros Occidental, with his elderchildren. He gladly welcomed us and showed ushis organic farm planted with huge upo or bottlegourds (which we helped harvest), string beans,watermelon and rice. He uses a deep well system

to irrigate his farm, all the while lamenting thatthe National Irrigation Authority (NIA) took along time to nally respond to their call for anirrigation system. When we visited Danilo, hehad just nished a meeting with the NIA and hecheerily told us that his community will nallybenet from the government irrigation system.

We met up with Morales with the FSSI VisayasArea Program Officer Glaiza Veluz and thewomen members of the Broad Initiatives forNegros Development (BIND) women ledby Eva de la Merced. Morales is one of themember-farmers of BIND, a non-governmentorganization that had been helping farmersin many Negros Occidental towns to pursueorganic farming.

BIND is a network of various organizations thathas engagements in the area of organizing, anti-genetic modied organisms and strengtheningthe organic movement in the province. BINDsought FSSIs help to bridge-nance a project that

they have been implementing with the DENR.FSSI poured in PhP2 million to support BINDscomplete implementation of projects for itsreforestation projects, food security and organicagriculture projects. BIND and FSSIs partnershiphad gone a long way. As Benedicto Sanchez saidin a newspaper article:

Gladly putting their organicfarms in a BIND

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BIND prides itself as a prime mover of the organic agriculture movement in the wholeNegros Occidental province, consolidating nongovernment, government, producers andfarmers into the network to push their provincial government to fully support the organicsmovement. This nally led to a declaration of the province as a Negros Organic Island in2005 after a Memorandum of Agreement was signed by both Governors Joseph Maranonof Negros Occidental and George Arnaiz of Negros Oriental. BIND contributed greatly infacilitating meetings of small farmers, hacienderos (owners of vast tracts of farmlands) and

civil society advocates for the implementation of the long-term and medium-term programsthat eventually led to the formation of the Negros Organic Producers Retailers Association(ONOPRA).

Among the small farmers association implementors include farmers associations likeMoraless Lopez Jaena Farmers Association and other BIND-assisted groups. My shift toorganic farming from the traditional was difcult because I needed capitalization, Moralessaid. The shift started ve years ago and still ongoing but Morales is glad that the organicsmovement has boosted his agricultural productivity with the help of BINDs support in thearea of marketing and promotions. Like most farmers in the countrys sugar barons lair,Morales was once a farm worker in a hacienda, (earning PhP160/day on a no-work-no-pay

I know FSSI since its birth. It has provided the BIND with a bridgeloan to nish its contractual obligations with the DENRs in therst community forestry in Barangays Bagong Silang in SalvadorBenedicto and Marcelo in Calatrava. That community was the rst

in Western Visayas.I managed that forestry project which nearlycame to a standstill halfway through its timeline. We accomplishedour performance billing on time. DENR nished its eld inspection.What went awry was the government fund releases which we useto pay the staff and for subsequent subproject accomplishments.

The three-week payment period sometimes stretched to threemonths. With no project funds, BIND had to borrow funds from itsfood security and organic agriculture projects. But these internallyborrowed funds mature fast since they could create a chain reactionon the non-accomplishment of other projects.

Thank God for FSSI who came to the picture as the cavalry to therescue. With the FSSI br idge loan, which amounted to the remainingproject funds, we nished the remaining activities. We need not lookover our shoulders to make sure there was money in the bank forsalaries and remaining subprojects.

When I reect on the situation in 1996, I realized that the FSSIpartnership experience was a prototype of what we now callpublic-private partnerships. Its loan served to bridge the ties amongstakeholders such as BIND, DENR, and peoples organizations sothat additional linkages can prevent projects from being stymied

for lack of funds.


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basis). Now, Daniel Morales is a proud and self-reliant organic farmer who can afford to puthis four children to school. For their marketing,BIND established Greenshoppe, a consolidatorof farmers organic produce. The Greenshoppehas embraced all ONOPRA products such asorganic vegetables, honey, baskets, crafts, gingerbrew powder (salabat), herbal medicinal oils,muscovado (minimally processed cane sugar) andothers. It has also been a prime mover of theNegros Organic Market located in Bacolod City.

That the Negros Organic Market has becomea hit among many Negrenses and now a touristattraction proves that the organics movementhas changed the hearts, minds and stomachsof the people in the region. Located beside theNegros Organic Market is a restaurant thatserves all-organic food and beverages.

Farmers may willingly go into organic farming butwithout proper certication, they cannot markettheir produce as such. BIND had been activelyorganizing intensive training its members onorganic certication since 1999. They sent theirstaff to the Green Net Thailand and after a year,BIND organized a series of trainings on growersgroup certification based on internationallyaccepted International Quality Control System, asystem that safeguards the integrity of the organicquality of a product where all those involved in

the product-growers like handlers, distributors,buyers and storekeepers--are properly identied,registered and trained on standards andrequirements for organic certification. Thispaved the way for the establishment of Organic

Products Certification in Negros in 2003composed of 18 peoples organizations asmembers that pioneered the ParticipatoryGuarantee System, a mechanism that evaluates,certies and labels organic products.

As the Organic Agriculture Act of the Philippinesrequires third party certication, the Negros

Occidental government organized the NegrosIsland Certification Services. This is mostlya certification process needed primarily byexporters of organic products.

De la Merced of BIND stated that organicagriculture helped strengthen the local economybut there is a great need for them to work oncapacity-building for the small farmers in theareas of capitalization and trainings. Anothergreat challenge that she saw is the conuenceof the big producers and hacienderos and

the communities. At this stage in the NegrosProvinces experience on the organics movement,some big producers are already opening theireyes to the reality that social enterprise is theirlink to the so-called small farmers.

This space in the movement became an openingfor a potential building of the triple bottomline social entrepreneurship and local economydevelopment consortium that would be initiatedby BIND and other stakeholders like farmers

groups and individuals, big producers andlandowners and the government such as theDENR, Provincial Government, Department ofAgriculture and the DOST.

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BINDs strength in governance and organizing blends well foran effective advocacy for building and strengthening sustainable

communities through organic agriculture. It may take sometime before the whole Negros provinces produce 100 percentorganic products but with BIND, its peoples organizations,and federations, that part of the future is at hand .


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Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development (APPEND)

Association of Foundations (AF)

Convergence for Community-Centered Area Development (CONVERGENCE)

Federation of Peoples Sustainable Development Cooperative, Inc (FPSDC)

Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)

Green Forum Philippines (GF)

Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Society Southern Philippines Education

Center for Cooperatives (MASS-SPECC)

Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE)

National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO)

National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)National Council for Social Development (NCSD)

National Secretariat or Social Action (NASSA)

Partnership o Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA)

Philippine Business or Social Progress (PBSP)

Philippine Network or Rural Development Institute (PhilNet-RDI)

Philippine Partnership or the Development o the Human Resources in

Rural Areas (PHilDHRRA)

Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS)

Philippine Cooperative Central Fund Federation (PCF)

Womens Action Network or Development (WAND)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY


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COMMITTEES

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

GOOD GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON:

Florencia Dorotan, WAND

MEMBERS:Benedict Balderrama, PHILSSA

Norand Pepito, NCSD

INVESTMENTS AND FINANCE COMMITTEECHAIRPERSON:

Sylvia Paraguya, NATCCO

MEMBERS:

Virginia Juan, APPEND

Rene Fortuno, PBSP

Norand Pepito, NCSD

Rachel Cadiogan, NCCP

Martin Milo TanchulingFDC, Chairperson

June RodriguezCONVERGENCE, Corporate Secretary

Sylvia Ibing ParaguyaNATCCO, Treasurer

Betta Socorro SaleraPCF, Auditor

Norman Oman JiaoAF, Vice-Chairperson

Mercedes Ched CastilloPhilDHRRA, Member

Virginia Juan

APPEND, Member

Aurora Luz Nennette Villaviray

Ex-Ofcio Member, DoF

Atty. Alexes Alex Enriquez

Legal Counsel

PROJECTS COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON:

Betta Socorro Salera, PCF

MEMBERS:

Florencia Dorotan, WAND

Sam Ferrer, Green Forum

Reuel Velarde, PhilNet-RDI

Agnes Bolanos, MINCODE

Norand Pepito, NCSD

Christie Rowena Plantilla, FPSDC


Rachel Cadiogan, NCCP

Bamba Salazar, HEKS

June Rodriguez, CONVERGENCE

Erma Ramos, PhilDHRRA

INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON:


MEMBERS:

Norman Jiao, AF Barbara Salazar, HEKS

Sam Ferrer, Green Forum Florencia Dorotan, WAND

Mercedes Castillo, PhilDHRRA Reuel Velarde, PhilNet-RDI

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY

CHAIRPERSON:

Mercedes Castillo, PhillDHRRA

MEMBERS:Benedict Balderrama, PHILSSA

Sam Ferrer, Green Forum



Documents

2011 FSSI Annual Report