In May 1990, 10 national NGO networks formed a coalition that became a forum for consensus-building. The coalition, Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), organized discussions that built consensus on issues confronting the NGO community at that time such as peace, democracy and elections.

From October 1990 to April 1991, the CODE-NGO members worked on a Covenant on Philippine Development, their collective vision for development that to this day, remains the fundamental basis for the broad unity established among the member networks and organizations. By November 1991, fifty representatives of the 10 networks deliberated on the final version of the covenant after a series of nationwide consultations and came up with a document ready for ratification.

The CODE-NGO Covenant on Philippine Development was ratified in the 1st National Congress held last December 4, 1991, with almost 700 delegates from NGOs and development agencies nationwide and abroad in attendance.

Below are excerpts from the opening remarks that was delivered by Karina Constantino-David, CODE-NGO Chairperson from 1990-98 and currently a member of the CODE-NGO Advisory Committee:

The label NGO that we have all applied and accepted for ourselves, is a testimony to the fact that when people like us started to appear on the scene of our own respective communities, most of the other people around did not quite know how to treat us. Somehow we did not fit into the neat traditional categories that were acceptable to the larger society. And so, for lack of a better term, this queer-breed was called non-governmental organizations which really meant something that was not something else that was recognizable.

A decade or more ago, only we knew who we were. Many of us did not even know that the rest of us existed. We did our work quietly. We honed our skills. We slowly built our dreams. At the beginning, we operated in small packs or small groups, misunderstood very often by the larger society but finding strength in the communities that we serve and the convictions that we held.

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[But] we are not only setting up CODE-NGO to be reactive. We were [also] pro-active. We were [also] very certain of where we wanted to go.

First, we know that there were so many of us and that many of us kept on reinventing the wheel. We need to share information, we need to share expertise so that we cut the time of the development work by learning from our mistakes and gaining from our successes.

Second, we knew that we could no longer just hide in the small communities that we used to be organizing because there is no longer a private sphere in this country. No matter how far you are from the centers of civilization, laws and policies affect every single one of us. So our second reason is to bond together to strengthen the advocacy role that NGOs could play.

Third, many of the people you see here are pioneers in the NGO world. But this pioneering spirit, to be really participative, could not stay with just a few people who started out in the NGO world. A successor generation needed to be developed.

Fourth, we wanted to ensure that by coalescing we try to assist in the formation and strengthening of regional and provincial based alliances of NGOs because the strength of the NGO community is in the close relationships and tie-ups of those who are found in the same geographic areas dealing with the same [issues] in their areas.

Fifth, we wanted to ensure that we form a self-regulating mechanism, a community of colleagues, of NGOs that would be able to police their own ranks, determine their own principles define their ethics, set-up structures based on agreements consulted with a large number of NGOs.

Sixth, all the work that we have done in the past and the work that we are to do in the future are small contributions to change. The small victories of some become the building blocks for the additional victories of others. How can we pool this together so that we create not only a national impact but also test out concrete alternatives [at the local level] on a national scale?

Lastly, perhaps the most basic reason for the necessity to come together was because of the very commitment, demands, and necessity of the services that we give to communities that we serve.

CODE-NGO’s 1st National Congress was a high point in the history of the development community. It was the first time that leaders from NGOs, cooperatives and people’s organizations from all over the country convened to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of forging a broad unity among the diverse and divided ranks of development NGOs. On November 21-23, 2012, CODE-NGO and its 12 member networks will culminate the celebration of its 20th year with the 5th National Congress.