PAMANA AREAS
Background
Samar Island has been one of the strongest seats of insurgency, largely driven by poverty which has been a perennial challenge to the three island provinces. As of 2009 National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) report, Eastern Samar ranked 4th among the poorest provinces in the country, while Northern Samar ranked 10th and Samar ranked 17th.
The widespread poverty in the Samar Island is largely attributed to inaccessibility or lack of road networks, particularly in the municipalities along the tri-boundaries of the three provinces. These towns are notably the most vulnerable to communist insurgency activities, as security forces even experience difficulty covering these areas. Inter-barangay roads are also wanting, constraining access of communities to social services and economic opportunities.
Aside from poor connectivity, the Island’s vulnerability to natural disasters and calamities further disadvantages it and contributes to its low agricultural productivity and backward economy. Massive flooding and landslide rooted from continuous decrease of forest covers of the island due to human activities like kaingin and logging, on top of the conversion of forest lands to agricultural, residential and commercial land, are also a challenge particularly for the province of Samar.
Given this, convergence efforts under PAMANA will focus on addressing three major issues:
1) low economic productivity
2) poor road connectivity and inaccessibility of conflict affected areas
3) governance issues
Following are some of the more specific interventions/programs/projects which apply in the Samar Island PAMANA Zone:
Projects | Brief Description/Components | Indicative Amount |
SECURITY | | |
Capacity Building for Peace and Order Councils (POCs) July 2012 to July 2013 | Strengthening of local POCs to carry a comprehensive peace and development agenda that includes ensuring protection of service providers from harassments and extortion activities. Enhancement of peace and security coordinating mechanisms through close coordination/ collaboration with LGUs, community and other stakeholders regarding prevention of “Permit-to-Carry” campaign and other extortion activities, and measures towards resolving insurgency-related and other HR violation cases. | P 3M |
SOCIO-ECONOMIC | | |
Inter-municipal and Inter-provincial Road Projects 2013-2015 | These are critical road networks that will provide access to the most vulnerable municipalities. | P 4B |
Construction of Production Support Infrastructures 2012-2015 | Construction of production support infrastructures such as farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities and irrigation facilities. This builds on the provinces core strength which is its agricultural potential. | P 750M |
Livelihood and Microfinance Projects for Vulnerable Sectors and Poor Families 2013-2015 | Socio-economic upliftment through provision of basic social services - livelihood opportunities - employment for vulnerable sectors (out-of-school youth and women) - social protection and support for poor families (4Ps, health services, etc.) - sustainable and gender-sensitive livelihood | P 90M |
POLITICAL | | |
Promotion of Transparency and Accountability Programs 2012-2015 | The Samar Island has a thriving alliance of concerned citizens organized as the Samar Island Peace and Development Forum (SIPAD), which has chapters and member organizations in each of the three island provinces. Foremost in its advocacy is the promotion of transparency and accountability in project implementation and governance processes in response to the distinct need for such. Other than PAMANA’s own transparency and accountability mechanism, these CSOs would stand to benefit receiving additional support in order for them to expand their monitoring and advocacy activities to as many projects and areas, even outside the PAMANA communities. | P 3M |
Voter’s Education and Advocacy Campaign for Electoral Reforms 2012-2015 | Sustained voter's education to address situations of massive vote-buying and advocacy campaign for electoral reforms | P 6M |
Capacity Building for Local Government Units 2012-2013 | Conduct of the following trainings and capacity development: - Fiscal Management - Value-chain analysis - Barangay Governance - Conflict Sensitive and Peace Promoting Programming - Organizational Development and Strengthening of Local Social Infrastructures - Disaster Risk Reduction Management | P 12M |
