The Project Description

The overall objectives to which this action shall contribute are the development of IP communities in ARMM that recognize and practice the rights of minority at all levels, and the improvement of living conditions of the most marginalized population in the ARMM.

Specifically, the program aims:

a.  To gather cultural information and baseline data and eventually set and facilitate the formulation of the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP);

b. To capacitate and equip the indigenous peoples in ARMM with fundamental and rights-based knowledge and skills towards the promotion of indigenous knowledge, systems and practices (IKSPs) and eventually increase their active participation in local governance;

c.  To capacitate and equip indigenous peoples in ARMM with necessary knowledge and skills that will eventually build and support sustainable livelihoods and manage natural resources;

d.  To design, implement and facilitate the inclusion of the ADSDPP within the LGU planning instruments of Community Development Plans (CDPs); and institute strategic advocacy campaign that strengthens and enhances IPs ability to exercise their collective rights in ARMM.

Achieving the specific objectives, the action shall design and implement four interrelated components:

1) Cultural Mapping and formulation of ADSDPP;

2) CapacityBuilding for Empowerment and Strengthening of Self-Governance;

3) Advocacy for Socio-Legal and Administrative Reform;

4) Implementation of ADSDPP and its integration in the local development plans.

The activities under the four components are expected to deliver the following results and outputs:

1. Obtained legal recognition (Resolution, Ordinance, Executive Order or any similar legal instruments) of the rights of IPs in the ARMM, to be at par with IPs in other ethnographic regions achieving for them equal protection before the law in the context of international and Philippine laws.
2. Capacitated a total of 5,092 IPs (see target groups above) and 50 more government officials in ARMM to a level of pro-active readiness to exercise IP rights as provided by the 1987 Constitution and laws, using the primacy of customary law and principles of self-governance.
3. Have enhanced knowledge and skills of 38 IPs to do applied research and documentation of IP cultural integrity leading to self-delineation of their ancestral domains/lands, recording of ethnographies and indigenous knowledge, and revitalization of their social organizations.
4. Have equipped 2280 IP farmers and fisherfolks with necessary knowledge and skills that would eventually transform them into more productive actors in the sustainable development of livelihoods and ancestral domain as well as managers of their natural resources.
5. Have instituted and operationalized substantial and mandatory participation by groupings of Indigenous Women in the abovementioned legal recognition processes, community organizing, entrepreneurial skills training, and formal accreditation of their indigenous roles, whenever applicable.
6. Have equipped 176 IPs with knowledge/skills to act as experts on environmental resource accounting principles for incorporation in the Barangay, Municipal, Provincial and Regional Development Plans; and on quality assurance standards to monitor clean air and safe water.
7. Have formulated 4 (one for each ethnic grouping) research-based ADSDPP involving all sectors based on the rights-based approach to development framework (RBA), including an FPIC Protocol.

Component 1 Cultural Mapping: Baseline Setting and formulation of the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP), including

1. the Conduct of Participatory Rapid Assessment (100% demographic survey in 76 Barangays, 83 sessions for the focus group discussions (FGDs),
2. interviews for 253 key informants,
3. documentary review and analysis,
4. conduct of 2 series SWOT analysis workshops).

The information gathered is to be systematically analyzed to formulate the ADSDPP as well as OVIs (objectively verifiable indicators), and benchmarks for the implementation of the entire project. The component shall also initiate to design a culture-sensitive data base on existing population, ancestral domains/lands and indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSPs); and start setting up of linkages with Local Authorities, OSCC, and NSAs. This component will be implemented in the first six months for the 4 ethic groupings in ARMM, including 8 trainings on ADSDPP formulation.

It shall also conduct 164 results-oriented community-based workshops/learning sessions on research and documentation of genealogies, ethnographic evidence, and community mapping for self-delineation of ancestral domains (pusaka); produce self-written field ethnographies on “adat” or “ukit”, collection of customary laws and other determinants of cultural integrity, social cohesion and survival; initiate activities to establish indigenous knowledge network to promote IP education in the ARMM.

Component 2 CapacityBuilding for Empowerment and Strengthening of Self-Governance:

1. collect jurisprudence on decided cases using customary law;
2. develop training modules for IPs on the systems and procedures of the judicial processes (ADR), the tribal barangay justice system, human rights documentation, and other para-legal training;
3. provide support on the accreditation process of IPs in the ARMM to serve in judicial processes/systems, social services, environmental protection, local development initiatives and bodies, human rights action centres, and development of indigenous peoples’ organizations;
4. conduct gatherings for Consensus building on the socio-legal status of IPs in the ARMM.
5. The activities will be implemented during months 7 – 28 of the project.
6. Component 3 Advocacy for Socio-Legal and Administrative Reform:
7. construct Empowerment and Sustainable Development (ESDEV) Indicators adhering to MDG, Constitution, international law and IPRA in the form of an ESDEV Report Card to be incorporated in the ARMM development agenda;
8. conduct knowledge enrichment and skills training to enhance capability of IP ancestral domain communities to lobby for the passage of a regional Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act for ARMM;
9. Conversion/creation of Tribal barangays for IPs in the ARMM;
10. Increase awareness of the right to Free and Prior Informed Consent to apply to all public and private development interventions/initiatives, and
11. Increase efforts at administrative reform and establish linkages with the NCIP/NGAs.

This component will be implemented simultaneous with component 1 and 2 activities in months 3-32.

Component 4 Plan and Protection Formulation and Implementation: This component shall be initiated upon the completion of the demographic survey and in Component 1. It shall implement activities that facilitate the formulation of a rights-based, holistic framework for ADSDPP. This component shall be implemented during months 7 – 32 upon the formulation, validation and acceptance of the ADSDPP, including 152 sessions for embedded training of the subproject implementation identified in ADSDPP; 6 Trainings each on Marketing, fund management, accountability and fiscal management trainings.

Priority subprojects are incorporated in the barangay development Plans (CDPs) and acquire LGU counterpart in the allocation/management of the LGU internal revenue allotment (IRA).