Alan Ibale

Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform

HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Women possess the inherent right to “equal treatment to land and agrarian reform”

(CEDAW, art. 14 (2) (g)). This right has to be fulfilled by the Philippine government. The

Philippines ratified the CEDAW on September 4, 1981. This legally bound the Philippines

to fulfill the enjoyment of international rights of women A Primer from the Office of

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights defines obligation to fulfill as a

means: “to take steps progressively to realize the right in question.” It stresses that non-

discrimination and equality is the fundamental and overarching right of women provided

by international human rights treaties. With regards to agrarian reform, this means that the

government must set mechanisms that will eliminate gender-based discrimination and

inequality in the provision of agrarian services to rural men and women (CEDAW, art. 2).

In January 1975, by virtue of a Presidential Decree No. 633, the National

Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) was instituted. During its first

decade of operation, the Commission’s original mandate were to organize a national

movement of women, conduct policies review and advocacy works, act as clearing house

of information on Filipino women and monitor implementation of CEDAW (NCRFW

website, 2006). This “integrationist” gender mainstreaming did not impact much in the

welfare of typical Filipino women at the grassroots. Porter and Sweetman (2005) explained

that “integrationist mainstreaming approach simply aims to integrate women into existing

development framework.” This approach isolated women as a disenfranchised group with

unique interest rather integral part of development whose gender roles and needs

continuously evolve through time. Despite this, the lobbying activities backed up by

pressures from the international community, led to the passage of numerous pro women

legislations in the Philippines such as: Women Nation Building Act, Anti Sexual

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Harassment Act, Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2000 and Act Providing Assistance to

Women engaged in Micro and Cottage Business Enterprises among others (UNIFEM

2006). Although these laws were passed, their poor or non-enactment became the major

stumbling blocks of empowering women.

In 1986, after the twenty-year dictatorial regime of President Ferdinand Marcos that

was ousted by the revolutionary government of President Corazon Aquino; a new gender

mainstreaming program emerged. The four entry points of this gender mainstreaming

included: 1.) Policy, 2.) People, 3.) Enabling Mechanisms, and 4.) Programs. Unlike the

“integrationist” approach of the initial program, at this time NCRFW shifted to situate

women in the development mainstream; it envisions a “gender-responsive society where

women and men equally contribute to and benefit from development” (NCRFW, 2006).

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) was one of the agencies that adopted

this mainstreaming framework. In 1991, the DAR through its Bureau of Agrarian Reform

Beneficiaries Development (BARBD), started to implement the gender mainstreaming in

agrarian reform (BARBD, 2006). The agrarian reform program is currently implemented in

1,610 “agrarian reform communities” that constitute more than 1.5 million hectares of

agricultural lands that are distributed to more than 800 thousand farmers plus another 152

thousand farmers that are under the non-land transfer component called leasehold program

(BARBD, 2006). To date, there is both major success and constraint in gender

mainstreaming, particularly in legal reforms that brought equality in land and property

rights and the insufficiency of budget for agrarian reform that hinders achievement of

mainstreaming goals (Deininger et.al, 2001).

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Policy creation and amendments were the initial steps adopted by the DAR to

implement gender mainstreaming in “agrarian reform communities” in the country. Gender

and development (GAD) become one of the six major “key result areas” of agrarian reform

program in the Philippines. The DAR through BARBD has conceived a customized gender

mainstreaming program for agrarian reform. This was piloted in one the agrarian reform

communities before it was launched nationwide. Corollary to this GAD program was the

legal reforms. In 1993, the DAR issued Administrative Order No. 2 to rectify the unequal

access of spouses to land ownership and productive opportunities under the agrarian

reform program.  The said order says that “farm workers who are husband and wife may be

entitled to three hectares each…” and that “separate Certificate of Land Ownership Award

shall be issued to each spouse” (World Bank, 2006). Based on 1995 yearend report of

DAR, out of 800,267 farm title holders, there are 225,803 women farm title holders. This

means that only 28% of farm title holders are women and 72% of farm title holders are

men. Although the disparity is still wide, the effort to equalize property rights was a good

start for rural women in agrarian reform.

The four main stakeholders of gender mainstreaming program under the agrarian

reform include: 1.) sponsor, 2.) change agent, 3.) target, and 4.) advocate. The sponsor

referred herein is the local chiefs of DAR offices who act as executive officers responsible

in implementing GAD programs at the frontline. The change agents are the DAR focal

persons and members of technical working groups that are tasked to plan and implement

the gender mainstreaming in all levels of hierarchy from top management to grassroots,

particularly in farmers and women organizations that are supported by the DAR. The target

is the people in the community in general and the rural women in particular. The other

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

target is the people in the bureaucracy who are given gender sensitivity trainings to

effectively carryout GAD. And finally, the advocates are those “individuals or groups who

want to change who wants to achieve a change but lacks the power to sanction it”

(NCRFW, 2006).

The “sponsors” or local chiefs of DAR provincial offices as key promoters of

gender equality in agrarian reform have no extensive formal training in the gender

planning as a specialized field. Moser (1995) stressed that aside from the fact that

incompetence in gender planning will impact negatively on the gender-based programs,

grafting gender into the existing planning discipline is far more difficult for policy makers

who have no formal training on gender planning (p. 5). This limitation is further

aggravated by the lack of budget to run gender mainstreaming programs in agrarian reform

communities. As reflected in table 1, These two major constraints impacted negatively in

the 2005 national yearend assessment of DAR wherein GAD achievements almost

stagnated at the average of 50% from 2003 – 2005 (BARBD, 2006).

Table 1. Agrarian Reform Communities Level of Development Assessment

Key Result Area 2003 2004 2005
Land Transfer Improvement 90.96 91.27 92.27
Basic Social Services 83.50 85.05 86.77
Economic & Physical Infrastructure Support Services 62.95 65.68 67.44
Organizational Management 66.32 66.26 66.18
Farm Productivity and Income 65.20 65.76 65.61
Gender and Development 48.86 50.57 50.60
Overall Rating 68.75 70.26 71.02

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Source: Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, 2006 www.http.barbd.org

Another limitation, as reflected in Table 1, is the fact that GAD seemed to be a

separate targets like any of the five “key result areas.” This disintegration oftentimes

creates a mindset that GAD is not an integral part of other programs rather than cultivate

awareness of its inseparability with other programs. The fact that there is a wide disparity

of achievements between GAD and the rest of the five “key result areas” is another glaring

symptom that GAD is not implemented as planned by the “sponsors” or local chiefs.

The change agents are usually the DAR provincial training officers who are

designated as Gender focal persons. GAD works is just one of the many tasks of these

training officers. This constraint oftentimes limits the Gender focal persons to holding in-

service gender sensitivity trainings for DAR field staffs and DAR-assisted farmer and

women organizations. These frontline workers lack competencies on gender. They may

have the basic knowledge about gender but they have problems on how to apply this on the

field level. Aside from the lack of budget to properly implement a gender program, the two

more implicit causes of this inefficiency is the lack of conviction on gender ideologies and

resistance to change among DAR field employees. For these same reasons, change agents

of the DAR have focused mainly on productive roles and prefer not to recognize the

“practical gender needs” of women.

The target which includes the people in the agrarian reform communities and the

DAR field staffs will usually undergo training on gender and development. Corollary

activities include organizations of women into self-help groups like a savings group,

association or cooperative. Through these activities the gender strategic needs are honed.

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Women were taught with simple bookkeeping, handicraft-making, facilitating skills and

managing small business. These skill building and organizing helped rural women in

developing their “strategic gender needs”, however, their participation in these activities

became centered on economic contribution rather than responding both to “practical

gender needs” and “strategic gender needs” of women. Moser (1995) explained that this

“efficiency approach” to gender programs simply looks at the “delivery capacity and

ability of women to extend working days.” This burdened women with extended work

hours on performing their “reproductive”, “productive” and “community managing

activities” (p. 57). As of December 2005, out of 458,975 total membership of DAR

assisted organization, there are 54,351 women who are elected officers and in terms of

membership, 50% of total members are women (BARBD, 2006). These figures show that

there is a good representation of women numerically. However, this aggregate number

does not mean that in every organization the leadership is well distributed between men

and women; because oftentimes the leadership circles are dominated by men.

The advocates are oftentimes represented by local non-government organizations

and private individuals who share the same mission of advancing gender equality and non-

discrimination. These stakeholders usually help the DAR provincial offices in policy

advocacy at local and national levels. They also help in provision of trainings to the

women organizations assisted by DAR.

The enabling mechanism is one the critical entry points in gender mainstreaming.

In 1994, the Philippine government, through its Department of Budget and Management

(DBM), allocated 5% of every agency’s fund for GAD. In 1999, DBM introduced the

performance based budgeting policy. This policy forced other agencies to comply with the

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

5% mandatory allocation for GAD. As a result from 19 complying agencies, the number

rose to 69 agencies (United Nations, 2003). The DAR set aside 5% of its budget for GAD;

but due to overwhelming GAD activities to be done, it can only do so much. In addition,

the fact that, the agrarian reform will soon end on 2008; the budget each year had gone

slimmer. This budget constraint negatively impacted on the mainstreaming program of

DAR.

The last entry point of the gender mainstreaming is the GAD program in agrarian.

In agrarian reform, the activities undertaken include women’s entrepreneurial and

organizational and gender training, organizing, networking, credit accessing and small

scale retailing, and handicraft making among others. The gender and skills trainings for

women are conducted in collaboration with partner agencies. On GAD and handicraft

skills, the DAR used to collaborate with government agencies like the Department of

Social Welfare and Development, state colleges and universities and Technical Education

and Skills Development Authority. Women are either members of DAR-assisted farmers’

organizations or exclusive women’s organizations. At present, out of 3,793 DAR assisted

organizations which is comprised of 369,474 members nationwide, 49% are women.

Although, there is almost a 1:1 ratio of men and women in DAR-assisted organizations,

most of these organizations remain male-headed in general. On networking and lobbying,

women’s organizations or sectoral representatives have national and regional level of

affiliations with other women’s organizations. On credit accessing, only 62% of all women

involved in DAR-assisted organizations have access to credit. This access to credit is

through the DAR-assisted cooperatives or special lending window of partner development

banks. Handicraft making is one of the income generating activities wherein women are

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Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

involved into. The best products in the agrarian reform communities are mostly produced

by women; these include embroidered or woven mats, hats, pastries, sweets, and processed

meats among others. In general, the gender-related activities are more focused on the

economic activities of women and there are very limited activities that could address the

practical gender needs of women.

All the above activities are carried out with the assistance of DAR field personnel

who are mostly community based. These field workers are called “Development

Facilitators” are the one who assist the women’s organization in their day-to-day

operations, resource generation, meeting facilitation and community mobilization among

others. These “Development Facilitators” have basic training on gender. It is often up to

them to cultivate their basic training, because the DAR have meager budget to send them

to continuing in-service training on the field of gender. These Development Facilitators are

professionals and “generalists” workers who do not specialize of a certain fields. They are

trained to perform various tasks in the field of rural development. To address these

constraints the national office of DAR have recognized the immediate need to educate and

raise the awareness of its field implementers on the field of gender and development and

access resources to finance capacity building interventions that are centered on putting

gender equality in agrarian reform (BARBD, 2006).

The interplay and interdependence of “policy”, “people”, “enabling mechanisms”

and “program” is vital in the success of gender mainstreaming in agrarian reform; the

absence or weakness in one entry point is crucial to the entire gender program. On one

hand, the legal reforms, policy creation and GAD program integration were contributory to

some of the achievements of gender mainstreaming; on the other hand, the ever reducing

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Alan Ibale
Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

budget, lack of gender training of staff and nearing completion of agrarian reform on 2008,

have impacted negatively on what have been laid down. In summary, DAR was able to

foster non-discrimination and equality to a certain extent, but it was unable to implement

the four entry points. This suggests the complexity of gender mainstreaming as a program.

Unlike other programs, which can be implemented just for the purpose of achieving

program indicators, gender mainstreaming needs professional and personal commitment

because it involves “social construction” that is rooted in culture; and to understand

something that is culture-based would require deeper consciousness and conviction. Hence,

the inability to fulfill one of the entry points is enough to jeopardize the whole gender

mainstreaming program.

References

Moser, Caroline O.N. (1995). Gender Planning and Development Theory, Practice and Training.
New York, Routledge.

Porter, Fenella, Sweetman, Caroline. (2005).Editorial. Gender and Development. 13(2) 2-10

Deininger, Klaus (2003). Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction. Oxford, Oxford
University Press.

United Nations (2003). The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women and its Optional Protocol Handbook for Parliamentarians, Switzerland, United Nations
Publications.

Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Retrieved December 27, 2006 from http://www.ohchr.org/english/

Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development.

Retrieved December 26, 2006 from www.http.barbd.org

National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women

Retrieved December 26, 2006 from
http://www.ncrfw.gov.ph

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Final Paper: Gender mainstreaming in Agrarian Reform
HS 238f: Gender & Development
Professor Kelly Ready

Gender and Law - Women's Rights in Agriculture.

Retrieved December 26, 2006 from http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y4311E/y4311e04.htm

Worldbank.
Retrieved December 26, 2006 from
http://www.info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/7924/Philippine.htm

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