DAR hosts forum on rural development

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in cooperation with the Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) recently conducted a forum on rural development with experts on agrarian reform and community land use program at the Richville Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

The Asia Pacific Policy Center (APPC) and the Asian Non-Government Agencies Coalition (ANGOC) presented in the two-day forum the studies on land use and rural progress in the country.

DAR Secretary Nasser C. Pangandaman said the forum seeks to strengthen the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program by looking deeper into the problems that affect the rural populace. “This is very timely in the light of the on going initiatives in Congress and the Senate on the proposed extension of the CARP,” he added.

APPC executive director Carlos Abad Santos, who presented a study on access to land and rural development in the Philippines, disclosed that the rural poor still sees CARP as an important program of the government that helps them achieve better lives. “Although the program is not perfect, a lot of our rural poor still benefit from it,” he said.

The said study is the Philippine counterpart in the four-country research initiative, funded by CIRDAP entitled: “Knowledge Generation and Policy Dialogue on Access to Land and other Natural Resources by the Rural Poor in Four Asian Countries. Aside from the Philippine experience, the research also includes a review of rural development programs in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal.

Dr. Nasreen Khundker, research director of CIRDAP, said the over all goal of the research is to recommend action points to program implements and policy-makers on how the rural poor could have better access to these resources and at the same time achieve security of tenure. “There must be a concrete program of action for women and indigenous groups in order to mitigate hunger and poverty,” she said.

CIRDAP is a regional organization of 14 countries that promotes regional cooperation among national decision-makers and planners through the conduct of research and training on integrated development.