The Alternative Advocacy Project

Working with Local Government and Civil Society to Alleviate Poverty
and Food Insecurity in CoastalPhilippines

 Supported by

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

PATH Foundation Philippines Inc (PFPI) is a private, non-stock, non-profit corporation that works to improve health and environmentally sustainable development in the Philippines and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Registered with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission in 1992, PFPI has more than 13 years of experience sharing appropriate and enabling technologies with local institutions and communities across the Philippines archipelago. Since 2001, PFPI has assisted 30 municipal and 158 barangays LGUs to plan and implement community-based and integrated population, coastal resource management and alternative livelihood strategies that are helping to improve food security and to balance income and gender inequities in rural coastal Philippines.

Women living in rural communities in the Philippines have limited access to the means to space and limit the number of children they want to bear. Studies conducted by PFPI in coastal areas reveal levels of fertility and unmet FP need among Women of Reproductive Age (WRA) that double and triple national and regional average rates. Under the Packard-financed IPOPCORM project, PFPI established a network of community-based distribution (CBD) outlets which enabled access to FP. Thirty municipal governments have endorsed Family Planning/Reproductive Health (RH/FP) as an integral component of community-based coastal resources management (CRM) to impact food security and improve quality of life in communities that depend upon coastal resources.

The project will promote the linkages between FP/RH and natural resource management and sustainable development in the Philippines and capitalize on the investments that the Packard Foundation has made in three Population-Health-Environment (PHE) projects in the Philippines (IPOPCORM, PESCODEV and WORLD NEIGHBORS), each demonstrated and documented evidence that RH/FP enhances the effectiveness and sustainability of natural resource management (NRM) efforts. It will also build upon CRM investments, policy reforms and program development gains by mainstreaming RH/FP as a “best practice” and essential CRM management strategy for food security and poverty alleviation.

Goal and Objectives

The goal of the project is to mainstream family planning and reproductive health as a “good practice” for a coastal resources management (CRM) strategy and as a means to promote food security.

Objectives of the Project:

1. Increase the knowledge of policymakers on population issues and their implications on environment and food security
2. Improve knowledge and skills of national and local executives to champion and implement PHE approaches to improved food security from marine resources

Danajon Bank and Vicinity and Estimated Population (2005)

People, Groups, and Geographic Area the Project will Serve

The Alternative Advocacy Project will work with:

• Policymakers and decision makers at the national and sub national local governments particularly around Danajon Bank
• Policymaker groups and associations that have mandates to improve health and food security and/or alleviate poverty
• NGOs and socially responsible private companies

Main Strategies of the Project

Constituency building for cross sectoral approaches to fisheries/coastal management that take population dynamics into consideration.

Capacity building of local institutions to formulate integrated Population-Environment (P-E) plan to assure food security from the sea, particularly for coastal municipalities bordering the Danajon Double Barrier Reef.

Create opportunities for policymakers from the Danajon to visit ongoing P-E projects in the country and interview community leaders and residents about the benefits and payoffs of integrated approaches.

Cultivate and foster understanding, skills and a rational approach to interrelated problems of over-population, poverty and environmental decline in coastal Philippines.

Rationale of P-E Approach

• High fertility plus rapid in-migration increases pressure on habitats of wild species (especially in biodiversity hotspots).
• High fertility plus poverty and lack of education/health services intensify pressure on natural resources.
• Needs of coastal communities to improve livelihoods are complex, multi-sectoral.
• Sectoral approaches may be ineffective and costly because they don’t interrupt the “high-fertility-poverty– environmental degradation vicious cycle”.
• Integrated approaches have the potential to break the “vicious cycle”.