Proponent : Center for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CARRD)

Country : Philippines

Budget : USD 3,008

ACTION PLAN PROPOSAL

1. Title and a description in one sentence

Capacitating and mobilizing youth leaders to promote tenure security and participation in social
groups among younger members of agrarian reform households in Panay Island, Philippines.

2. Problem

Farmers are deemed one of the marginalized sectors in society with poverty of over 31.6 percent,
almost double of the overall poverty incidence in the Philippines recorded in 2018 at 16.6%. While
the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) has been able to distribute 4.8
million hectares of land, the full benefits, however, have yet to be fully realized as 27% of these
lands still have to undergo parcelization process to obtain individual land titles.

The slow-paced implementation of CARP served as witness to the aging profiles of farmers. In a
survey conducted by CARRD in 2019 covering 544 assisted farmers, more than 60% have ages 50
and above. Despite being advanced in age, 76% of the respondents still have children or dependents
who are still in school and half of them reported as sole breadwinners in their households. This is
further aggravated with having larger household size as 76% of the farmers have more than three
household members to care for and support. This puts pressure on the aging farmers to earn with
the high dependency ratio among farming households.

While these issues are observed, the youth members of these farming households have limited
direct participation in supporting their parents in the negotiations with CARP implementing
agencies. Moreover, they have less involvement in community level activities, including participation
in cooperatives, where their parents are relying for support. Youths’ participation in economic
activities is also limited as reflected in the number of household members with sources of income.

3. Solution

In cognizant of these issues, the overall goal of this project is to build the capacity and enhancing
participation of youth leaders in CARP covered communities in facilitating discussion on agrarian
justice and cooperative development among younger members of agrarian reform households.
Educating these leaders on issues that directly affects their family’s livelihood is also timely and
relevant as the Philippines will be holding its national election in May 2022. The initiative help
enlighten the minds of the younger generation in choosing the best leaders of the country who are
supportive of the welfare of the farming households as well as to combat misinformation being
spread in the social media.

The project will have 2 components:

 Educating youth leaders on agrarian reform related issues – The Project Coordinator shall partner
with senior paralegal volunteers of CARRD in training youth leaders of farming households on land
rights and agrarian reform processes as well as voters’ education. The assigned paralegals shall list
down names of 20 identified youth (ranging from 15-24 years) from 3 farming communities.
Parental consent shall be secured by paralegals before inviting them for the proposed youth trainors
training sessions.

CARRD will maximize the existing training modules on agrarian reform and community organizing
which we used in conducting our basic education sessions with the farmers. However if it’s
necessary, we will modify the modules to fit in the learning requirements of the youth. We will
develop a separate module for voters’ education.

There will be at least three (3) training sessions including planning for community mobilization that
will be organized. This will be done through face-to-face provided that we will adhere to the
protocols of the local government units. Participating youths shall be oriented about family farming,
CARP and its processes and procedures, leadership and negotiation and voters’ education. The
Project Coordinator, in coordination with the senior paralegals, shall create an electronic platform to
facilitate information exchanges as well as respond to queries among trained youth across 3
communities. Regular monitoring of queries shall be done by the project coordinator and assigned
paralegal volunteers.

Mobilizing youth leaders as new breed of community facilitators – The 20 trained youth leaders
will be fielded in their respective communities to facilitate cascading of the learnings they acquired
from the training and to encourage other younger members of the community to participate in
discussing issues affecting their communities. At least two (2) community-based learning sessions
shall be organized per community. Discussion will revolve around involvement of youth in agrarian
reform processes, in farmers cooperative development, election related issues as well as exploring
opportunities for a possible youth formation that CARRD may want to support in the future.

4. Feasibility. Why are you (or your team) in a good position to implement this solution? (150 words
max)

The three (3) target communities are currently service communities of CARRD where we are
supporting the resolution of more than 10 agrarian reform cases mostly with issues on parcelization
of collective land titles and whose beneficiaries are parents or relatives of the target youth
participants. Moreover, we have dedicated senior paralegal volunteers residing within or nearby
these communities that can provide ready technical assistance especially during the community
mobilization and also as resource person during trainers’ training.

CARRD is a known partner of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and other CARP-
implementing agencies in Panay Island. We are considered as partner both at the local and national
levels especially now that DAR is implementing a five-year project funded by the World Bank
entitled “Support to Parcelization of Land to Individual Title (SPLIT)”. CARRD is one of the CSOs
consulted during the project preparation and now in the implementation of the project. CARRD
being the host organization of the ILC-NES Philippines, regular discussions with the SPLIT project
team at the national level have been organized between NES members for feed backing purposes
 and updating of cases. Outputs from these engagements are essential inputs in facilitating
engagement with the youth especially that their families’ landholdings are target of the SPLIT
project.

5. Activities and timeline. What activities will you execute in the next 6 months under the fellowship
plan? Indicate the main milestones (250 words max)

The following are the proposed activities necessary to meet the desired objectives of the project.

Proposed activities Timetable Milestones

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

Designing of monitoring system and tools M&E tools developed

Meet with the paralegal volunteers to identify 20 youth participants

and map out youth participants identified

Secure consent from parents before engaging the 20 parents’ consent

youth listed from the mapping exercises secured

Modification and preparation of training modules Training materials

prepared

Conduct trainers’ training among 20 youth 20 youth leaders

leaders capacitated

Cascading and small group sessions at the 80 youth from

community level farming HHs oriented

Monthly Team Meetings Monthly reports

generated

Reporting to Future Leaders Fellowship Experience shared

Conduct of Project Evaluation Terminal report

drafted

6. ILC connect. How can you take advantage of the ILC network to be more effective to solve the
problem / scale up the solution? (150 words max)

The ILC Network will be a great help in providing inputs and suggestions in the proposed project
based on their experience in implementing a similar youth project. Through ILC’s mentoring and
coaching sessions, a fellow will have venues to share experiences and challenges in designing and
implementing the plan and to seek appropriate assistance to address these challenges. Fellows,
through the help of ILC can organize more thematic and reflection sessions on improving project
planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
7. Global Land Forum Youth. Assuming there will be a face-to-face GLFY in March 2022 (COVID
permitting - fingers crossed), how do you think your experience in the programme and your plan can
contribute to and take advantage of that moment?(150 words max).

The GLYF can provide opportunity among past and current fellows to learn about how they designed
and implemented their respective plans. My experience in implementing my proposed plan will also
serve as my guide towards improving my organization’s services particularly among the youth. This
forum is a venue for a neophyte like me to establish new partnerships and improve linkages among
other fellows in the international arena. Likewise, my participation in this forum will be a
manifestation of how should the youth be more engaged in the issues which affects us as well as our
communities. Through this, there will be more youth activists to pursue and participate on land
rights and other issues in the rural sector.

8. Evidence. How would we know that your plan is successful? How do you monitor the results? (150
words max)

To ascertain and determine the success of the project the following indicators will be monitored:

Indicators Targets

Goal: To build the capacity and # of youth directly participating 100 youth from 3 farming
to enhance the participation of or are involve in land tenure communities
youth leaders in CARP covered related activities and community
communities in facilitating engagements
discussion on agrarian justice
and cooperative development
among younger members of
farming households.

Output 1: Youth leaders are # of youth trained as community 20 youth leaders

equipped and mobilized to facilitators
facilitate orientation and
% of trained youth engaged in 80% of the trained youth
discussion on land tenure and
facilitating community-based leaders
community-related issues
small group sessions

Output 2: Youth members of
farming households are aware
of land rights and the CARP
processes as well as issues that
affects family farming
# of youth who are oriented and 80 youth members of
participated in the discussion on farming households
land rights and the CARP
processes as well as issues that
affects family farming

1. Indicate a general budget