1. History

LOCOA continues the work of the Asia Committee for People's Organization (ACPO) which beginning in 1971 instituted community organization (CO) in several Asian countries.  It was composed of three persons recommended by the Office of Human Development of the Asian Bishops and three by the Christian Conference for Asia-Urban Rural Missions office.  It initiated CO work in Thailand, Hong Kong and India and strengthened it in the Philippines, Korea, Pakistan and Indonesia.  In the early 1990s, ACPO was dissolved by the Church groups for reasons of their own.

LOCOA seeks to replicate ACPO's work, such as: introducing CO to countries where it is not existing, training COs on a long or short term basis (one to seven months); organizing exposure trips for COs and their support groups; arranging workshops in which national groups can exchange tactics and experiences; circulating information through e-mail and newsletters; arranging for research and evaluation; and working with other Asia-wide bodies to help make people's participation a reality.

It should be noted that LOCOA retains the ecumenical nature of the network and indeed expends it to include Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist member.

LOCOA was born at a meeting of ASIAN CO persons held in Baguio City, Philippines in November 1993.  The meeting was an evaluation of CO work in Asia.  One of the results of the meeting was a successor to ACPO.  It has became LOCOA, though in 1993 it had no name.

Over the next three years meetings were held in Delhi, Hong Kong and Manila to work out the goals and methods of the organization.  A meeting was held in South Korea in September 1997 at which a program of action was formulated in some detail for 1998 and in a general way for 1999 and 2000.  The tasks for 1998 included a visit of 12 Koreans to Manila to study the CO work being done there.  The most elaborate plan was for a training team to go to Indonesia to work with young Indonesian COs.  This plan was delayed because of the turmoil in Indonesia in those years but it took place in 1999, providentially in time for the democratic space that opened up that year in the country.  Individual LOCOA members visited and helped their colleagues in other countries when they had chances to travel.

2. Goals

Provide top level, professional CO training.  This can be done in workshops, consultations and long or short term on the job training programs.  To achieve this and the following goals the staff in Manila and the organizers in different countries must share the work. Organizers in all countries will be asked to travel to assist in the training programs.

• Initiate CO programs in countries and areas of countries where CO doesn't exist.
• Set up a network of CO practitioners who use the Internet as their means of communication.
• Bring CO persons together to evaluate, exchange experiences and learn from another and To reflect on new initiatives in organizing.
• Arrange visits of CO persons to CO areas in other countries to broaden the experience of both groups of persons.
• Publish articles, manuals and books that will help COs do their work more effectively.  Also provide organizers with useful materials and videos put out by other groups.
• Cooperate with other social action networks in Asia.
• Make a special effort to link the organizing work to the religious traditions of the people.
• Offer occasions for COs and others to discuss how the larger context of Asia affects the CO work and what other responses might be.
• Included here might be discussions on global trade, and the compromises that might be made in our lives between an all out consumerism and a sustainable future.
• In other words, LOCOA will help COs work toward a practical, alternative vision of what social life might be.

LOCOA : Leaders and Organizers of Community Organization in Asia
25-A, Mabuhay Street, Brgy Central, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel : (632) 925-8432, 426-4199, 922-0988 / Fax : (632) 426-4118
Email : locoa2000@yahoo.com

You can see the old version of LOCOA web-site here!