Learning from Gawad Kalinga: Rebuilding Communities To End Poverty

MANILA: GK has this slogan:

Building communities to end poverty.

In only 5 words, Gawad Kalinga has discovered the secret, the practical formula for eliminating poverty. UP with GK! Down with poverty!

No poor left behind. Note that what GK is trying to do is:

Not ending extreme poverty, as the World Bank would like us to do. World Bank, why do you want to leave millions of the poor behind?

Not reducing poverty, as the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization, or FAO, desires, and as our very own National Economic & Development Authority, or NEDA, would have it. That is, towards a decline in the number of poor. FAO and NEDA, why not reduce poverty to zero?

Can we really end poverty? Now, finally, I have the Bill Gates I had wanted all along, saying "We can end poverty by 2030" (Julie Bort, 21 January 2016, Business Insider, businessinsider.com). That's 14 years from now. By that time, I will be 91 years old, near the end of my life, but I will die happily!

Nonetheless, Bill Gates' prescription for progress on poverty is too complicated for my country, the Philippines, calling for all these:

Defeat of infectious diseases
Improved treatment of women
Access to health care (family planning)
"Expanded economic opportunities"
"Greater social participation and public leadership"
Affordable & better tech: vaccines, crops, smartphones & tablets

Whatever. That's a tall order, Bill, actually, economically. Too much, too soon.

So I go back to the GK formula: Building communities to end poverty. It must be the community itself to end its own poverty, not some higher power or benevolent donor with or without any hidden agenda.

The latest scheme to start building communities that GK is pursuing if not prescribing is social enterprises.

As I begin to write this, they are holding the 4th Global Social Business Summit 20-22 January 2017 at the GK Enchanted Farm in the village of Encanto, town of Angat, province of Bulacan in Central Luzon, the Philippines, with the theme, "Social Market: Disruption for shared prosperity now." According to the Facebook page, this time they are showcasing over 50 Filipino Social Enterprises. "We will be the land of the free," says Tony Meloto. "A new generation of fearless Filipinos will no longer surrender our country to corruption and poverty."

Note the keywords: shared prosperity now. This is happening at the 35-ha GK Enchanted Farm in the village of Angat, a Tagalog word that literally means higher. Indeed, Angat is hilly and mountainous. That's the literal meaning. The GK-acquired meaning of Angat now is:

People's lives being commonly elevated because of shared prosperity now.

Via social entrepreneurship. About that, Wikipedia says:

Social entrepreneurship is the use of the techniques by start-up companies and other entrepreneurs to develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a variety of organizations with different sizes, aims, and beliefs.

Unlike the usual selfish entrepreneurship or business, social entrepreneurship is either non-profit or aims for profit for the company along with a positive "return to society."

Now, let me contribute to the movement by introducing a qualifier via The Code of Conduct for Social Enterprises. Creatively, I based this one on the US Press' New Code Of Conduct under Donald J Trump, President, as listed in "An Open letter to Trump form the US Press Corps" (Kyle Pope, 17 January 2017, Columbia Journalism Review, cjr.org):

(1)     Access

(2)     Ground rules

(3)     Airtime

(4)     Truth

(5)     Details of government

(6)     Standards

(7)     Teamwork

(8)     Playing the long game.

(You may want to read in this same blog my earlier essay on it, "Stars War," 20 January 2017, Add Journ, blogspot.com. The US Press Corps had threatened war on Donald Trump, now President of the United States of America. They didn’t know what they were doing!)

The US Press Corps did not actually call its list of 8 A New Code Of Conduct but it might as well be, as it dictates how the US media will now behave against The Tramp. In our case, let us be more creative and transform it into a code of conduct for a social enterprise, because we want each enterprise to have:

(1)     Access
This is access not only to public but also to private resources. While the US Press Corps rely only on government to allow access to data & information resources, each social enterprise should seek access to both public and private resources, including financial. Better, public and private resources should be offered to nurture social entrepreneurship startups.

(2)     Ground rules
There must be from the very beginning ground rules set, and these are best contained in a business plan agreed upon by all parties concerned. Among other things, there should be Vision, which is the Dream, and Mission, which is how to achieve that Dream.

(3)     Airtime
All the active participants in the social enterprise should be entitled to airtime, that is, be listened to, at any time during the implementation of the business plan for the social enterprise. There should always be time for feedback as well as feedforward, and those actively involved should be able to contribute ideas and/or solutions.

(4)     Truth
In conducting a social enterprise, all the time the truth shall prevail. No, not the "objective truth" as the media would have it. Now, the truth shall be defined in this manner, adopting the Rotary 4-Way Test: (1) Is it true? (2) Is it fair to all concerned? (3) Will it build goodwill and better friendships? (4) Will it be beneficial to all concerned? There is no objective truth, only subjective!

(5)     Details of government
The implementation of a social enterprise must be transparent. When called for, details of the business must be available to any participant.

(6)     Standards
There must be high moral and ethical standards set for the social enterprise to operate within a community or group of communities. In fact, these must be set in consultation with the villagers directly involved or affected by the enterprise.

(7)     Teamwork
Always, there must be assured teamwork among all the parties involved in the business. There must be established leadership and there must be followership. Since this is a social enterprise, its Board members must be representatives of the public (government), private (business), civil society (NGOs, POs), religious groups (Catholics, Protestants), and the poor themselves. A social enterprise must be a partnership. This kind of partnership has been inspired by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics' or ICRISAT's strategy called Inclusive Market-Oriented Development, or IMOD, when Filipino super manager William Dar was still Director General of ICRISAT. IMOD is: All for one, one for all.

(8)     Playing the long game.
A social business is a long-term investment by everyone, from manager to janitor. As long as it serves the public according to its rules previously accepted by the public, an enterprise can last forever.

Naturally, the Vision of the social enterprise is the eradication of poverty in the community where it is based, nothing less, nothing more. To repeat, eradication of poverty is not reduction; it is complete removal. Eradication is not alleviation either; it is the removal of the causes of suffering because of poverty.

Let me now go back to that part of my title based on the theme of Gawad Kalinga: "Rebuilding Communities To End Poverty."

Rebuilding, because we already have the villages out there, with their pockets of poverty. How do you rebuild communities to end poverty? We learn from Gawad Kalinga. (Image from Kalipay Negrense Foundation, kalipaynegrensefoundation.org, which I painterized)

Out of my creative mind, and as I have been thinking of social enterprises of another form for more than 3 years now, I'm thinking of the Cooperative as a vehicle for rebuilding a community. I see each coop itself as a natural beginning of a social enterprise, even enterprises, plural, as the Coop already has a claim of legitimacy in the village where it currently operates.

But the current coop must be restructured so that it becomes completely social in scope as well as in operations. For this, I see Teamwork (#7 in the list above) as the most crucial factor, as the Coop Board should be represented by all sectors of society, from the government up down to the poor farmer.

By the composition of such a Board, the Coop becomes an active instrument for inclusive development – with no poor left behind. The poor are required to become active participants towards their own development, not simply waiting for the benefits of social welfare.

(For more of my idea of the Coop as a vehicle for social enterprises, see my essay, "IMODest Proposal: A Coop Revolution for millions of poor farmers," 28 September 2013, Common Cause, blogspot.com.)

Let GK build new communities; the rest of us have to rebuild old communities. To rebuild a coop to rebuild a community is a doable social enterprise anywhere in the Philippines. Thank you, Gawad Kalinga for showing us the way! Danggay Foundation will support any such initiative. @

23 January 2017. Essay word count, excluding this line. 1523