The success of projects focused on addressing women’s needs has always been dependent on women’s participation and involvement in decision-making. This is true for the experience of women in Agusan del Norte.
It all started with a women’s health and safe motherhood project implemented in Agusan del Norte from 1999 to 2003. The project aimed to address the province’s high maternal mortality rate through improving women’s access to reproductive health services, increasing awareness to address cultural beliefs in maternal health, upgrading health centers and putting up birthing centers, hiring midwives per barangay, and rehabilitating roads for better access to health services and facilities. A total of five (5) municipalities and 26 barangays benefitted from the project in its five-year implementation. By 2003, 26 women’s organizations were established. For sustainability, the provincial government committed to continue the project and adapted it as part of the province’s program. It gave a grant of Php25,000.00 for each women’s organization, to be used as a startup fund for a livelihood project. The different women’s organizations started consumer and merchandise stores and micro-lending mechanisms as forms of livelihood in their respective communities.
The Agusanong Kahugpongan sa Kababaihan sa Agusan del Norte (AGUKAKABA, Inc.), federation of the 26 women’s organizations was also formed in 2003. AGUKAKABA Inc. was instrumental in establishing the Sanggunian ng Kababaihan (Women’s Council) at the provincial level. The council legislated the provincial Magna Carta for Women, five years before the national Magna Carta for Women was passed into law. AGUKAKABA, Inc. also focused on continuing the reproductive health and safe motherhood project and sustaining women and youth participation through the different enterprises that were established. It adopted a holistic approach in addressing women’s needs through promotion and improvement of agriculture, including farming, gardening, and container farming, and conducting pre-natal check-ups, immunization, and parents’ education. This approach addresses women’s concerns regarding the 4Bs in her life: bana (husband), bata (child), baboy (pig/ livelihood), and balay (home).
In 2010, AGUKAKABA, Inc., became a member of Lakambini (national farmer organization). Through the MTCP2, Lakambini was able to facilitate the building of linkages and networks for the federation at the national level. These engagements at the national level also helped establish relationships with other Lakambini member organizations. Different capacity-building activities focused on financial management, organizing and strengthening of chapters and clusters, and expansion of membership was also conducted. AGUKAKABA, Inc. actively participated in voters’ education campaigns and leadership training for women leaders. The MTCP2 was also instrumental in the profiling of Lakambini member organizations. Women’s participation in different activities was also sustained by ensuring that 30% of participants in activities should come from women organizations. AGUKAKABA, Inc. also participated in policy advocacy and legislative engagement, specifically in pushing for distribution of Coco Levy Funds and in providing a gendered critique of the Rice Tariffication Law (RA 11203).
AGUKAKABA, Inc. has grown into a federation that not only operates and addresses women’s needs at the local and provincial levels but also engages with different campaigns and networks at the national level. Currently, it has 31 community-based organizations, all of them with their own enterprises, and are duly recognized by their local governments. Fifteen (15) of the 31 organizations are cooperatives that own consumer stores and are focused on micro-lending, hog-raising and buy and sell of agricultural products. All 31 organizations maintain strong relationships with their local governments and different government agencies.
Kooperatiba sa Kababaihan sa Puting Bato
The Kooperatiba sa Kababaihan sa Puting Bato is one of 26 women’s organizations formed through the reproductive health and safe motherhood project. Its members are mostly indigenous women of the Mamanwa and Manobo tribes in Agusan del Norte. Through the years, they continued to work on their advocacies on maternal health, violence against women and children, women’s rights, and capacity building of women. They were also able to increase their funds from PHP 10,000 in 2001 to PHP 1 million in 2003. Membership also increased, from 20 women members in 2001 to 225 members (with 40 male members) in 2019.
Through their membership with Lakambini and MTCP2, they were able to focus on political education and women’s rights, trainings on gender sensitivity, integrated and diversified organic farming, and strengthened their working relationships with their municipality and other government agencies.
In 2016, the organization became a cooperative and changed its name to Puting Bato Community Multi-purpose Cooperative. The cooperative now has PHP 6 M in assets, owns two (2) buildings, three (3) lots, and a consumer store. Its members benefit from health savings as a component of their livelihood program, emergency loans, a funeral/ mortuary fund, educational loans, and basic life insurance.
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