203175 | Magsino, Julia

1. Development Issue

What is the dominant development issue tackled in your chosen Case Study or Policy Paper?

Include a brief summary of key points discussed relevant to the development issue.

Canares’ paper “Scaling Up Interactions, Challenges, and Opportunities for SSE in the

Philippines” discusses the state and future of Social and Solidarity Economy in the Philippines

through an extensive study of a community based enterprise founded and managed by

MUAD-Negros— “multi‐stakeholder alliance of non‐government organizations, foundations,

local government unit representatives, and people’s associations”. The CBE is situated in the

province of Negros Occindental, which was considered one of the 20 poorest provinces in the

country in 2004. Although MUAD-Negros has been long established to lead the poverty

alleviation programs in the province of Negros Occidental for years and evidently aims at

specifically tackling this development issue, the underpinning development strategy crafted by

MUAD-Negros — or LIFE (Livestock‐based Integrated Farming Enterprise)— particularly takes

on a socio-economic development approach to promote equitable growth for the farmers,

marketing collective, women producers group, and other members in the collective. This is

evidenced by its rice and papaya farming and processing activities, its agribusiness specific

business model, and achievements and challenges as a CBE (grounded in the existence or

lackthereof of credit access, grants/funding, and good policy environment).

The business model of MUAD-Negros’ LIFE development strategy can be defined by its farming

activities, and sources of income, and its value chain and collective units. After identifying rice

and papaya as their 2 primary crops considering land conditions and high market value of the

produce in Negros Occidental, farmers were trained not only to grow these crops, but also to
practice regenerative agriculture (described as “a method of farming that aims to reverse the

effects of climate change by improving soil fertility and restoring degraded soil biodiversity” in

the Nescafe Plan), circularity and interdependency in cultivation and production— in which they

“re‐organize their farms to be sufficiently cushioned against droughts and heavy rains that

frequently occur in the area” and “plan foliage for use of its livestock, livestock manure and plant

residues are used to fertilize rice or papaya (main crops) and other plants”. Their sources of

income also uphold circularity— the rice and papaya undergo quality control, and produce that

does not pass quality control undergo value adding processes to create marketable products

such as “dried fruits, powdered drinks, candies, jams, jellies”, to meet market demand in diverse

and sustainable ways. The value chain of the CBE are made up of 4 main stakeholders— LIFE

Family Farms, Marketing Cooperative, Women Producer’s Group, and the Consumers/market—

that all have vital roles in the production, quality control, processing, distribution. This is

supported by collective units of farmers organizations with varying social aims to support each

step of the value chain process.

All key players of the value chain and farmers organizations are members of the community

(some even family or neighbors) that “fosters a system of co-responsibility”. Canares

underscores this as the key defining quality of the case of MUAD-Negros as a CBE against

other forms of organizations— “a range of development actors that are collectively organized

and oriented towards social aims that are prioritized above profits and shareholders”and where

“natural and social capital are integral and inseparable from economic considerations,

transforming the community into an entrepreneur and an enterprise”. With this tightly

interwoven organization, MUAD-Negros was able establish relationships with other

organizations (including governments, funding institutions, and the private sector) in the form of

grants and funding, support for the improvement of their framework, allowing them to achieve an

increase in household income growth and size of the community’s assets, and ultimately better
credit access for the farmers. However, Canares outlines that challenges at the farm-level

(climate change/weather, land fertility, ageing of farming households, with 40% of households

not able to have increase in income), enterprise-level (lack of capacity to meet market demands,

DOLE and Dizon Farms as dominating market competitors, and inability to grow profits at

desired level needed for scalability/expansion), and from the environment (distrusting banks

despite the CBE’S legalization efforts, taxation and policies meant for large corporations that

apply to the CBE, and lack of support systems specifically for agribusinesses).

2. Sustainable Development Theory and SDG Alignment

Why does sustainable development matter in the Case Study/Policy Paper? Discuss this by

meaningfully relating (A) one theory or perpsective encountered in our course and (B) one

pertinent Sustainable Development Goal. To concretely support your argumentation, you may

cite relevant examples, statistics or outcomes

Sustainability in the MUAD Negros case can be defined by its tightly interwoven framework and

how its key stakeholders in the value chain are interdependent on each other, and most

importantly, on the environment. When we are asked to define how developed (or

underdeveloped) a country or a market is, the natural instinct is to described it in terms of

economics terms that quantify either production/consumption (ex. the GDP or Gross Domestic

Product of a country, “market size” which estimates the number of consumers in a certain

market) or income/expenditure (ex. GNI or Gross National Income of a country, CAGR or

Compounded Annual Growth Rate often expressed in millions or billions of USD). This

approach, however, only looks at economic growth. On the other hand, a Nested Systems

Perspective, as we have discussed in class, “embeds the social and economic systems within

the environment”, where “society reflects the mediating social relationship that the production
and exchange of goods and services entails” and “ecology (the environment) circumscribes

human life and activity”. This theory reminds us that sustainable development is and must be

holistic— just as interdependency of the community and the environment (that is unpredictable

and ever changing key factor for agriculture) is given great importance in the achievements and

unique framework of the MUAD-Negros CBE. Specifically, how the practice of regenerative

agriculture, circularity and interdependency in cultivation and production, value adding

processes, as well as community and culture grounded organizational structure play a

foundational role in how the CBE’s economic growth is dependent upon the farming

environment and the relationship among the community members.

The Sustainable Development Goals and its corresponding targets helps us get both a broader

and specific understanding of other factors to be considered in long-term socio-economic

welfare for the MUAD-Negros CBE. In particular, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth,

which seeks to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and

productive employment and decent work for all” defines the importance of sustainable

development in the case of MUAD-Negros. Targets 8.2 (DIVERSIFY, INNOVATE AND

UPGRADE FOR ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY), 8.4 (IMPROVE RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IN

CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION), and 8.C (DEVELOP A GLOBAL YOUTH

EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY) underscores the importance of “establishing farming as a lucrative

enterprise” to encourage future generations to engage in continuing the LIFE farms and to find

ways to advance its framework and operations for scalability and/or expansion. Canares

mentions that “Miller (2010: 10) suggested a provision of shared services, where networks of

social enterprises create aggregations of financial power of many small enterprises.....that can

leverage economic power at scales of efficiency similar of that of larger companies” can make

scaling up MUAD and other CBEs possible. The need for insurance, research and development,

financial services, legal expertise, technical support, among others. is supported by Target 8.A
UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO BANKING, INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES and Target

8.B INCREASE AID FOR TRADE SUPPORT. This also underlines “external” factors (the

“society” ring outside the “economy” ring in the Nested Systems Perspective) that requires

“strong policy framework from the Philippine government” that can help empower equitable and

sustainable growth of MUAD and other CBEs.

3. S-L Reflection | The Personal in the Larger Scheme of Things

(A) What did you learn about your partner, stakeholders, and/or community from your shared

Service-Learning experiences during the semester?

During my shared Service-Learning experiences, I learned that the Baking Center of the BBMC

employ and train people from their own community, but lacks the finances and lucrative

incentives in order to make them stay and continue baking goods for Pan de Cooperatiba.

Because of other job opportunities that may offer better compensation than that of working at

Pan de Cooperatiba, their bakers and other employees often come and go, making production

and income difficult to sustain.

(B) What discovery did you make about yourself as an Atenean, as a Filipino citizen, and as a

person (citizen of the world)?

I can get so caught up in pursuing my own needs, building my career, and “preparing for the

future”, that I forget to think about others who do not have access to the same opportunities,

support, and resources as I do. I learned through my NSTP program that not only can I lend

them access to these through the brandbook and tutorial videos we made for them, but that I

can also learn from them to become strong, resilient, resourceful, and positive.

(C) How have your views or positions changed vis-à-vis your partner’s havings, beings and

vulnerabilities - their issues, mission, and whom they serve?

For BBMC as a whole, I learned that their aspirations go beyond self-sustaining basic needs of

money, food, water, shelter, clothing etc. That as all human beings, they yearn for a life well

lived—a purpose— and that they hope to achieve this and create an opportunity for other

members to achieve the same through their organization and activities.

References:

Canares, M. (2013). Scaling up: Interactions, challenges and opportunities for SSE in the

Philippines. In Potential and limits of social and solidarity economy. United Nations

Research Institute for Social Development.

Regenerative agriculture. Nestlé. (n.d.).

https://www.nestle.com.ph/csv/communities/nescafe-plan/regenerative-agriculture#:~:text

=Regenerative%20agriculture%20is%20a%20method,and%20restoring%20degraded%20

soil%20biodiversity.

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth. The Global Goals. (2024, January 23).

https://www.globalgoals.org/goals/8-decent-work-and-economic-growth/