“Developing social enterprises (SEs): towards increasing incomes in communities”

 John Paul Abaincia

 To contribute to directly addressing poverty in marginalized communities, CODE-NGO partnered with the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) for the project “Strengthening the Demand from Below for Local Economic Development and Resilient Livelihood”. This project aims to capacitate local CSOs and community-based organizations in developing their existing or planned social enterprise (SE) or community livelihood projects and in engaging the national and local government processes, such as the Bottom-up-Budgeting (BUB) or the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP) to support such projects.

The activity supports the conduct of seminars on a) PEF’s Program on 5Cs (SE development in cacao, cane sugar, coffee, coconut, and climate smart agriculture and fisheries), b) the value chain approach to developing SEs and c) the BUB/GPB process and how communities can integrate community livelihood and SE development in these processes.  The goal of the project is to help CSOs, farmers’ cooperatives and community-based groups to develop sound proposals for an SE or livelihood project and be familiar with possible partners from both government and private sectors who could support their ideas.

Given the increasing adverse impact of disasters and calamities, the seminar also highlights the importance of integrating the aspects of resiliency in developing SE projects.  Resource persons from PEF also discuss the foundation’s financing windows for social enterprises.  

The provincial seminar for Zamboanga del Norte was conducted in Dipolog City last June 9-11, 2014 for the partner coconut farmer cooperatives of the Agri-Aqua Development Coalition (AADC) and Center for Social Development and Concern (CESCOD), members of MINCODE and PHILDHRRA-Mindanao, respectively.  Representatives from the Philippine Coconut Authority–Region IX and the Provincial Agriculture Office also provided information on the situation of the coconut industry in the region, opportunities for crop diversification and value-adding processes in coconut, preparations against the dreadful ‘coco-lisap’ which has already affected the coconut areas in Luzon, and the government’s support programs for the farmers. 

Similar provincial seminars were also held in early July 2014 in Guimaras for SE stakeholders in coconut and climate-smart agriculture, with partners Western Visayas Network of Social Development NGOs (WEVNET) and Guimaras Alliance of Civil Society Organizations (GACSO), and in Pampanga, for SE stakeholders in climate smart fisheries, with partners Partnership for Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA) and Center for Emergency Aid and Rehabilitation (CONCERN).

Other provincial seminars will also be held in late July 2014 as follows:

• In Ifugao, for SE stakeholders in coffee, with partners Cordillera Network of Development NGOs and POs (CORDNET) and Ifugao Network of Development NGOs and POs (IFNET); and
• In Camarines Sur, for SE stakeholders in cacao and rice (system of rice intensification or SRI), with partners Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD) and Caritas Diocese of Libmanan Inc (CDLI).  

John Paul Abaincia is the Project Assistant of the Bottom-up Budgeting for Social Enterprise Project of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO).