I. Organization

II. Date of Establishment and History of the Organization

Centro Saka, Inc (CSI) or the Phililppine Center for Rural Development Studies, is an SEC-registered, non-profit, non-government organization.

Established in September 2005, CSI is engaged primarily in policy research, policy advocacy, networking, capability building and economic linkaging work on agrarian reform and rural development issues, in partnership with people's organizations.

It targets as audience the marginalized rural sectors* (via publications and campaigns) and policy makers responsible for rural development policy (via policy advocacy and lobbying). It also undertakes media advocacy to generate broader awareness and support for people’s initiatives for agrarian reform and rural development.

Basically, CSI operates through a network of more than 500 small farmer organizations scattered all over the Philippine Archipelago. CSI has regional liaison officers tasked with forming linkages with local small farmer organizations as well as initiating and facilitating local advocacies. CSI's networking is done through direct initiatives and through collaborative efforts with allied organizations.

Breadth of Policy Engagements

• Legislative Advocacy Arena

At the legislative arena, CSI's pro-active engagement is mainly with the committees on Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, Agriculture and Food, Liberalization, Appropriations, and Committee on Women at both the Senate and House of Representatives. These legislative committees value CSI's input on agrarian reform and rural development issues. CSI, working in partnership with major peasant organizations, actively lobbies against bills that undermine agrarian reform. Lobbying is carried out through CSI's active participation in committee deliberations, submission of position papers, and sustained media advocacy. CSI also pro-actively campaigns for the passage of bills that could secure and protect the property rights of small farmers.

• Executive Advocacy Arena

At the executive arena, CSI's engagements are with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Agriculture (DA), and its attached agencies. At the national level, CSI actively engages DAR on policy discourses about important agrarian issues like the collateralization of farmland, agrarian titles cancellations, commercial farm deferment, re-channeling of AR funds, etc. CSI conducts dialogues, sponsor briefings, fora, and other venues to disseminate information and initiate discussions on agrarian issues. CSI also assists several peasant organizations in following-up their respective pending agrarian cases at the DAR.

CSI's assistance to small farmer organizations include the launching of media campaigns for specific yet highly controversial agrarian cases that require popularization for public support.  In Mindanao, CSI working in partnership with the Mindanao Rural Congress (MRC), helps indigenous peoples in their efforts to reclaim their ancestral domains. CSI call attention to the land problems in Mindanao, specifically the conflicts between ancestral domain claims and agrarian reform coverage.

In line with the farmer's continuing efforts to fully recov the coconut levy, CSI has beein engaging the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), the Presidential Commission on Good Government ( PCGG), the United Coconut Planter's Bank (UCPB) and the CIIF Coco Oil Mills.  CSI also works with small farmer organizations and the CIIF to ensure the successful implementation of the Direct Copra Marketing program. This program enables small coconut farmers to bypass local traders and earn better income.

In addition, CSI actively engages the Department of Agriculture (DA) on the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), the core agricultural policy being implemented since 1997. CSI has been pushing for inclusion in the National SAFDZ Committee, the main body tasked to oversee the implementation of the AFMA. CSI's advocacy work in this Committee would entail hosting island-wide consultations where peasant organizations have the opportunity to engage the regional DA officials.   

As part of its advocacy against trade liberalization, CSI sits as a member of the government's Task Force WTO Agreement on Agriculture Renegotiation (TF-WAAR), the main consultative body created by the DA to look into the impact of liberalization in the agricultural sector. CSI has been pressuring government representatives to the WTO to negotiate for the maintenance of quantitative restriction on rice imports. CSI also actively consults with and mobilizes small farmers on the issue of agricultural trade liberalization.

CSI has also been monitoring government's compliance with the Socio-Economic commitments made during the Socio-Economic Summit. In particular, the Farmers-NGO committee is tasked with monitoring the implementation of government's rural land titling program, reforms to make its credit program (i.e. Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund) accessible and affordable, and the implementation of the hybrid rice program and certified seeds program.

Apart from espousing gender fair policies and legislation, CSI, via its Rural Women Center (RWC), has been pushing for the recognition of the rural women's agenda through its research, advocacy and network-building initiatives.  The RWC assists and empower rural women leaders who are belong to the Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK) or National Coalition of Rural Women and those who hail from partner organizations such as the Mindanao Rural Congress, DCM coops, and other peoples' organizations. The RWC's engagement with the executive agencies includes influencing and accessing the Gender and Development (GAD) programs and budget of line agencies, as well as the local government units (LGUs) of respective local leaders. The RWC also engages the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) and other units in governments that have key roles in establishing gender-responsive statistical system, which could help in establishing the database for rural women.

Basically, CSI will operate through collaborative efforts with its broad network of small farmer organizations. There is a dynamic relationship between Centro Saka and the small farmer organizations--the small farmers mandates the thrusts and focus of CSI's activities, while CSI provides research and advocacy assistance and facilitates unity among the small farmers' ranks.

III. Overall Context of the Work of the Organization

The Philippine government, while paying lip service to improving the lives of its constituents, has been largely neglectful of agriculture and the concerns of the poor and the powerless, whose bulk is concentrated in the agriculture and rural sector. Worse, it has been pursuing policies, such as economic liberalization, privatization and deregulation, that have been causing the economic displacement of a large portion of the population, especially the small farmers, indigenous peoples and the rural women. Poverty remains widespread and many remain landless. Government's main asset reform program--the comprehensive agrarian reform program--is underfinanced, remains incomplete and has been practically ineffectual in improving the lives of the beneficiaries. Worse, its gains are continually being eroded by land use conversions, confiscations and cancellations of land title certificates, as well as exemptions from coverage.

CSI implements its program in the context of an increasingly liberalized economy that is impinging on the lives livelihoods of millions of marginalized small farmers, farmworkers, rural women and indigenous peoples. On a brighter note, CSI now operates in a relatively democratic political atmosphere where the influence of civil society is gaining strength, albeit slowly. Civil society has been making its presence felt in issue engagements as well as in policy formulation and implementation, but much still has to be accomplished.

* (i.e. Farm workers, small owner-cultivators, indigenous peoples, rural women, artisanal fishers, upland farmers and Moro communities)