Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement

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Core Strategies

Sustainable Development through Good Governance

Philippine development is in a deep bind, mainly because government has failed to deliver.

Governance is a complex issue, governance for sustainable development raises expectations even higher. Governance that bring about bad results are often attributed to the election of bad governors who are corrupt, incapable, unaccountable, and unresponsive to people’s needs. Elections in the Philippines have always been marred by cheating, manipulations, vote-buying and voters’ intimidation resulting in the assumption of power of many officials who are unfit to govern. The last two national elections in May 2004 and 2007 particularly attest to that.

But lack of citizens’ participation is a crucial part of the problem. This is not only due to structures that deny or limit citizen involvement in governance matters but also the civic inertia cultivated by continuing government failure.

For the past 50 years, PRRM has been educating the masses in democratic governance, especially at the local level. The passage of the Barrio Council Act in 1954 which paved the way for the election of barrio (village) officials has been duly credited to PRRM’s efforts at building democracy at the grassroots. PRRM was also involved in the campaign for the passage of the Local Government Code of 1991 as well as in monitoring and review of its implementation.

PRRM engaged in an 18-month Strategic Planning Process to assess lessons from its work over 50 years and to develop scenarios for the future. It included the participation of economists, environmentalists, scientists, sociologists, political analysts, and cultural leaders. They echoed the sentiment of chapter members, staff and board members of PRRM in that:

The key to sustainable development is the effective participation by, and cooperation among, the local people, the local government units, and the local business sector, in local development. In other words, the “localization” of development efforts.

PRRM labours to show a different way of doing development and have it adopted into government policy and practice. Its community-based programmes cover agriculture, fisheries, energy, health, environment and entails a great deal of community organizing and capability building to enable the rural poor and local citizens find their way out of poverty and get government to do its part and deliver.

Core Features of the PRRM Approach
Thematic Areas
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PRRM Annual Report 2010
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Publications

Journals, Books, Articles, Features and Commentaries on national and international policy, grassroots developments and initiatives and rural reconstruction movement. Read more

Community and Habitat No. 13: Community resilience needs a change in mindset

Community resilience needs a change in mindset
THIS ISSUE OF PRRM’S COMMUNITY & HABITAT JOURNAL IS focused on the intertwined issues of climate change, energy and food.