Eradicating Poverty Completely by 2020
Concepcion, Iloilo

“Poverty is our greatest challenge. But we have set our dream to eradicate poverty with passion, professionalism and good governance.”

This statement of Mayor Raul Banias of Concepcion, Iloilo, best illustrates the conviction of the leaders and residents of this coastal area in their efforts to free the fourth-class municipality from poverty. The measures they have adopted have earned the municipality the distinction as a “living university” and a “laboratory of replication” of pioneering initiatives.

At the fore of these initiatives are the “Zero Poverty 2020” and “Harnessing Synergy in Integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Programming” programs. Spearheaded by Mayor Banias, himself a medical doctor who is aware of the requirements for people to be healthy, the programs helped in halving the incidence of poverty in the area in a span of only four years, and increased income and reduced infant mortality.

Accomplishments in MDG

When rated against the benchmarks set by the Millennium Development Goals1 (MDG) established by the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the community’s accomplishments have been quite impressive.

For instance, poverty was reduced from 87% in 2000 to 47% in 2004. Moreover, the survival rate for elementary level increased from 67.28% in SY 2000-01 to 85.20% in SY 2003-04. Likewise, the secondary level survival rate increased from 86% to 87% during the same period, while the completion rate for the elementary pupils increased from 68.65% to 92.20%, although there was a decrease in the completion rate in the secondary level from 92% to 86%.

For 2004-05, the literacy rate in the community was 92.69% and the pupil-textbook ratio was 1:5 at the elementary level. Meanwhile, the number of day-care centers increased from 47 in 2003 to 52 in 2005. Also, one private elementary and one public tertiary school were established in the same period. These are in addition to the 18 public primary, 18 public elementary and two public secondary schools.

While there are more girls at the age levels of 6-12-years old and 13-16-years old (56% and 55%, respectively) who are not in elementary school than boys of the same age level (43.9% and 44.6%, respectively), there are more female students enrolled in college (350 in 2002-03 and 413 in 2003-04) than male students (206 and 199 during the same periods).

In terms of women organizing, the municipality recorded 17 women associations with 340 members as of 2005.

Meanwhile, the rate of under-five mortality remained the same, with eight deaths in 1990 and the same number in 2004. While there was a zero percentage decrease in maternal mortality ratio with one death due to pregnancy in 1999 and the same number in 2004, there was a 17% increase in access to reproductive health services by 2004. Also, the contraceptive prevalence rate increased from 28% in 2001 to 45% in 2005.

The town of Conception has zero incidence of HIV, AIDS, TB, malaria and other major diseases. Nevertheless, AIDS-prevention services were still conducted through counseling and education and information campaign on STI-HIV/AIDS. These were carried out by support groups and advocacy organizations, such as barangay health workers, women’s organization, BSPO and family planning volunteers.

The mortality rate of pulmonary tuberculosis decreased from 9.6% in 2001 to 3.4% in 2005, while morbidity decreased from 2.8% in 2001 to 2% in 2005.
Housing data showed a 12% decrease in households who are informal settlers and a 1% decrease in households with makeshift housing as of 2004.

Zero Poverty 2020

The Zero Poverty 2020 program, launched by Mayor Banias in August 1999, has about 19,600 beneficiaries or 60% of the more than 34,000 population of the municipality. The beneficiaries are mostly small fisherfolk, marginal farmers, rural women, unemployed people, those in the informal sectors, micro entrepreneurs and public school children. The town is composed of 25 barangays, 11 of which are island barangays that are difficult to reach.

The program employs convergence strategies with a vision of creating a highly competent and dynamic local government that would act as an agent of change in partnership with civil society. It aims to completely eliminate poverty in the area by 2020. Mayor Banias believes that, more than financial logistics, the best resource to decisively address poverty issues are committed and responsive LGU personnel. Hence, the LGU personnel were required to undergo a paradigm shift in public service, to one that is responsive to the constituents’ needs and to poverty eradication.

Among the program strategies were LGU bureaucracy reengineering, program redirection, decentralized and shared management, strategic partnerships with institutions, strategic networking and resource mobilization, and community empowerment.

The component projects include human-resource development, socio-economic initiatives (micro-enterprise development, livelihood enhancement, and housing and shelter improvement), resource management (people and environment coexistence [PESCODEV], Bantay Dagat or Coastal Security, agrarian reform, community development, and community-based eco-tourism), health initiatives (social health insurance, rural health unit upgrade, and Project COPE [Integrated Reproductive Health Program], education (early childhood development and Project RAUL [Reform in Accelerated and Unified Learning], and infrastructure development (Kalahi-CIDSS).

The program has resulted in a transformed bureaucracy that is more responsive to the constituents’ needs, especially in delivering social services to eradicate poverty. In its first year of implementation, 55% of 98 households in the Poverty Free Zone were provided with sustainable alternative livelihood that added 35% to their income. Four hundred ninety-nine households accessed micro-finance for their micro-enterprises which resulted in a 25% increase in income. Fifty-nine households accessed micro-finance that improved their shelters, while 175 beneficiaries had savings mobilization and capital buildup.

The establishment of seven Marine Protected Areas, which was designed to regulate fish catch and replenish marine and fishery resources in six barangays in five islands, resulted in small fisherfolk reporting an increase of five kilos in their daily catch equivalent to P200. The regular monitoring of municipal waters netted 1,152 apprehensions that generated PhP3,300,500 in penalty fees in the past three years, giving the town additional income.

At the same time, farmers in three barangays adopted alternative farming technologies designed for sustainable agriculture. Also, the Tampisaw Festival that promotes community-based tourism in four island-barangays provided additional economic opportunities to 5,710 residents while it emphasized the protection and enhancement of natural resources.

The program’s health-care component saw the decrease in morbidity from 14.6% in 2002 to 10.7% in 2003; mortality from 3.53 per 1,000 population in 2002 to 3.43 per 1,000 population in 2003; maternal mortality from 240 in 2001 to 128 in 2002 and to zero in 2003; and a decrease in water-borne diseases from 5.34% in 2002 to 3.92% in 2003.

Meanwhile, family-planning acceptors increased from 28% to 38%, and social health insurance was distributed to 1,333 beneficiaries.

In education, 750 preschool children benefited from the construction of 20 day-care centers in the past six years; eight elementary and primary schools were constructed in the past three years; and 3,111 pupils were provided with workbooks and textbooks. The result was a 15-percent increase in reading proficiency. Moreover, through the establishment of Gulayan sa Eskwelahan (Vegetable Farm in the School) in 34 schools, additional food was provided.
The construction of 23 infrastructure projects benefited more than 16,000 constituents or 60% of the population in 22 barangays in the municipality. The construction of a modern children’s playground, a reading center and a training center in barangay Loong benefited more than 2,000 residents.

PHE program

The municipality directly tackled the issues of population, health and environment after the PHE program was launched, with the goal of enhancing the quality of life through improved reproductive health and environment.

Since 2000, the health-service providers and volunteers in Concepcion’s three pilot areas had been successfully convincing couples of reproductive age to practice family planning. About 70% of the town’s population or more than 23,900 people benefited from the program.

Using the slogan “With Family Planning, Your Health is Ensured, Your Environment is Saved,” the PHE program dealt with the complexities of population, health and environment, reproductive health and coastal resource management. It helped empower communities and taught necessary skills on how to plan their lives, decide on the size of their families, improve their health-care services, work on community projects and preserve mangrove areas and fishing grounds.

The PHE program involved three strategies: 1. Appreciative community mobilization that targeted marginalized groups around the theme of PHE; 2. experience-based advocacy which used evidence from community experiences to influence decision-making on PHE; and, 3. behavior-centered programming which identified key family planning and coastal resource management behaviors and developed communication materials.

The program created a host of positive impacts on the LGU. It helped increase the quality, accessibility and availability of family planning and reproductive health services; improved the knowledge, attitude and skills related to family planning, promoted community-led coastal resource management; and improved community support systems and created a sound policy environment for family planning and reproductive health and environmental management.

The program proved that integrated PHE programming is an excellent tool that can help address poverty and population issues in a municipality.

The PHE program entailed Family Planning Action Sessions where couples participated and trained 40 Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) peer facilitators. It included the training of fisherfolks, local policy decision-makers, family planning volunteers and municipal health and environment officers on coastal-resource management, which generated increased support for mangrove reforestation and facilitated community action plans in the establishment of marine protected areas. The organization of seven barangay and municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils led to coastal cleanup drives and coastal law enforcement.

As a result, family planning acceptors increased from 1,280 in 2002 to 1,550 in 2004, and 1,233beneficiaries in social health insurance during the past five years.
A research team from the University of the Philippines in 2003 even reported that more species of fish have returned in the municipal waters.

It is apparent that the implementation of the PHE program enhanced the quality of life of the beneficiaries. The strategic plan was designed to empower communities and help them improve their lives and preserve the environment.

As a result, the PHE program had been adopted as a model for reproductive health and environment programming by LGUs in the Northern Iloilo Alliance for Coastal Development and in the Alliance of Northern Iloilo for Health and Development.

A ‘laboratory for replication’

One of the best features of the municipality’s initiatives is the championing of people empowerment that resulted in the beneficiaries’ very high degree of program ownership. This was achieved by making the community members, such as the small fisherfolk, participate in every stage of the projects—from assessment, enforcement of policies to monitoring—using indigenous and scientific approaches.

Among the other innovative features on sustainability and replicability are the LGU’s deliberate effort—through ordinances, human resource development and other measures—to institutionalize the sustainability of the programs’ components beyond the term of the implementing administration and project funding.

The components of the Zero Poverty 2020 Program have already been proven to be replicable when these were adopted as working models by other LGUs. Some of the projects were adjudged as best models for similar programs or projects by government agencies in other areas. As an example, the PESCODEV Project, which established links between population and environment in the fight against poverty, became the model for nine other neighboring municipalities and forged a multi-LGU partnership in the flagship program on coastal resource management.

It was chosen as the pilot area for KALAHI-CIDDS-KBB, a community-based poverty-reduction project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. It was also pilot site for the Poverty-Free Zone of the Department of Labor and Employment in eradicating poverty and as replication area of “Good Practices in Local Governance: Facility for Adaptation and Replication” (GOFAR) for the child-friendly program.

At the same time, because of the increased absorptive capacity of Concepcion and the enhanced capability of the program implementers, many of the town’s initiatives were jointly implemented with national agencies. The projects were also piloted for replication nationwide. This has earned the municipality the distinction of being considered a “living university” a “laboratory for replication” of pioneering initiatives by the national government, international NGOs and funding institutions.