PhilDHRRA’s Philippine Asset Reform Report Card in ADB’s Poverty Study

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) cited PhilDHRRA’s Philippine Asset Reform Report Card (PARRC) project in its December 2009 publication, “Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints, and Opportunities.”

This ADB poverty study highlighted the role of institutions and civil society as they respond to poverty in the Philippines. It enumerated several reasons behind the relatively slow decline in poverty rates in the country touching base with rural development issues, like, lack of quality employment for many poor people (particularly in the agriculture sector), inequality across income brackets, high population growth, natural disasters, and long-standing conflicts in various regions.

In the publication, PARRC was set as an example of how a civil society group mobilized its network of NGOs and academics nationwide in assessing the government’s four asset reform programs, namely, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, Urban Development and Housing Act, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, and Fisheries Code. It reinforced the need to sustain asset reform efforts while identifying key areas of improvement to further optimize benefits.

To date, PARRC is the largest of its kind, surveying 1,851 agrarian reform beneficiaries in 32 provinces, 468 beneficiaries of various socialized housing programs in 19 provinces, 108 holders of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims/Titles (CADCs/CADTs) in 29 provinces, and 92 coastal municipalities. The study was undertaken in partnership with the Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI), John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (JJCICSI), People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform (ARNow!) and NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR).

A copy of the PARRC publication is on the web.