Making Food-for-Work Work

United Nations ESCAP
HRD Section

Making Food-for-Work Work

Experience from the Philippines

Food is the main subject for poor people’s daily struggle. If provided with that food in return of community work, they can fight their way out of poverty. Here is the story on how to make Food-for-Work work.

Negros is one of the chains of islands that constitute the Philippines. The island is divided into two provinces - Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.

The post-World War Two recovery of Negros Occidental saw it dominated by the sugar industry. With more than 70 per cent of its cultivated land devoted to this crop, the province was producing almost one half of the nation's production. However, the industry was structured around large haciendas, and a large population had no significant source of sustenance beyond working as labourers on the haciendas.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Negros Occidental was devastated by the recession which hit the sugar industry in the mid-1980s. By 1985 it was evident that some 85 per cent of the people were living below the poverty line. The province was importing basic foods; the land was very unevenly distributed; irresponsible logging and traditional `slash and burn' practices had reduced the forested area to 4.5 - 5.0 per cent of land area from an ideal of 40.0 per cent; the dry season meant that farmers had a three to four months dead period when alternative work was usually essential; and overall the social infrastructure of the province was poorer than what was available in the rest of the country.

On the background of these factors a project named "Assistance to Displaced Sugar Workers in Negros Occidental" was launched in 1985. The long-term objective was to improve the socio-economic conditions in the rural area of Negros Occidental through support to the agrarian reform programme and diversification of agriculture, promotion of sustainable land-use practices in the uplands, development of irrigation facilities and social infrastructures and training for self-employment.

The basis of the project was a Food-for-Work system. With rice provided by the World Food Programme, the basic objective was to employ the poorer members of a population in a local situation to carry out work, in exchange for rice, which would achieve the local project's objectives.

People existing in poverty are unable to engage in community work, no matter how convinced they might be of the longer-term benefits to themselves and their families of that work. Their unavoidable task is to provide the family's daily food. However, the provision of 2 kilos of rice in exchange for each day worked overcomes this dilemma. Thus, food is the key to the programme. Some suggest that even if money were available instead of food, it would not be as effective as the food and would convey the wrong messages to some recipients.

One of the food-for-work projects commenced with nine households whose livelihood depended on illegal logging. In 1991 the relevant government department offered them land in the mountains under the lease scheme. The families formed into an association, accepted the offer and some key members were sent to a neighbouring island for training.

Joined ultimately by many more households, the Association came under the Food-for-Work Programme which enabled them to develop their land. This development included constructing a small dam and irrigation canal system, creating rice paddy fields, developing an area for vegetables and other crops, planting trees and building up more social infrastructures in the local village.

An NGO offered to assist the community with its development, and it placed a worker there for a period of more than two years. Moreover, many government agencies contributed to the development process. The National Irrigation Authority assisted with the very impressive system established; the local municipal government provided many material resources, including seeds and seedlings; training was arranged through several channels over the years; and of course the food provided under the Food-for-Work was indispensable.

In three years this group of households had radically altered their economic and social circumstances. At the beginning they had no land and no legal source of income; their children received no schooling; they received no social services; and poverty was a constant reality. Three years later they had a relatively prosperous community, with great pride in their achievements.

Taken from the publication: “Making an Impact: Innovative HRD Approaches to Poverty Alleviation”, ESCAP, 1997