[ Report ]

                          2001 LOCOA ANNUAL REPORT

         INTRODUCTION

People who are suffering should know how to use the carrot and the stick against government. People should try both negotiation and partnership with local government for participatory democracy. 

Unfortunately, many governments in Asia still strongly pressure people, even jobless and homeless people after the economic crises of 1997.  It is necessary to strengthen people's organization so they can negotiate and be partners with government.

To strengthen community organization can be the solution for long-suffering people.

This annual report contains the major highlights, accomplishments and some issues and concerns in the processes and result of LOCOA program during the year 2001.

OBJECTIVES

For the year 2001 LOCOA identified the following objectives:

    -  Provide top level, professional CO training in Indonesia.

   - 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.

   - Cooperate with other social action networks in Asia.

   -Offer occasions for COs and others to discuss how the larger context of Asia affects the CO work and what other responses might be.

In other words, LOCOA will help COs work toward a practical, alternative vision of what social life might be. 

   MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

For the past one year, LOCOA focused its work on expanding the CO training program in Indonesia, to strengthen its membership strengthening, and to advocate for the human rights of poor people.

I.     FOCUS on INDONESIA

1. Consultant CO Training Program in Indonesia (September 24-Oct 3 2001)

LOCOA conducted a CO training program in Indonesia, specifically in West Java in 1999. We trained 25 people from 20 NGOs in West Java, such as, Malang and Surabaya. LOCOA also did consultancy as support to Urban Poor Consortium  in Jakarta. After the training LOCOA visited trainees every year to find out on how they were doing and what they needed.  However after CO training program, some sex worker group and Labour group in Surabaya also asked to us to have continue CO training program in their area.

Surabaya in West Java is an important area geographically. Although the regime of former President Suharto regime has ended, the power of the military is still strong and  fundamentalism has reappeared. Evictions are also happening in Surabaya, while in Jakarta some 20,000 families are being evicted. 

LOCOA conducted a fact finding on the situation of peoples organizations in Indonesian cities, such as, Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.  The community leaders and NGO workers LOCOA met and talked to specifically expressed the need for a community organizing program.  

Sep 24- 27 2001 NATIONAL NGO WORKSHOP IN JAKARTA

Some 25 participants from NGOs in six cities of Indonesia attended the workshop and  reflected on their work.  The participants were unanimous in saying that the Indonesian military has become more powerful, including in the areas they were working.  On the other hand, the NGO community is very much divided:  while some NGOs were independent, others were out rightly pro-government, and others still were commercial or welfare oriented.  They agreed on the need for independent and real NGOs who work among the people and assist them to form their own sustainable peoples organizations.

They agreed on a resolution to hold a community organizing training program in Jakarta between February to March 2002.

September 27-28, 2001 Surabaya Visit and Consultations

We met with the trainees who underwent the CO training in 1999, Some of them  had into organizing street children and to establishing shelter for some 100 street children.  Another had organized over 300 women workers in three factories.  Others went into organizing peasants in the rural areas in West Java.  Another had gone into organizing street vendors, while others were organizing sex workers. These COs expressed the need for support for their work in the form of providing them information and skills, especially in the area of human rights.  The COs working with Humanika-SBR, a labor federation, expressed the need for a training program so that they would have more COs to  consolidate their organizing work in 56 factories.

Surabaya which has a population of 3 million land and housing are big issues.  NGOs there estimate 25-30 percent  of the population are squatters.  When LOCOA visited the city some people were evicted by the landowner without providing them any alternative plan.  However, most of the NGOs in Surabaya are not interested to  organize urban poor communities.

September 29-30, 2001 Yogyakarta

LOCOA met with INSIST, an NGO  which has been CO training program  for young students interested to work in the rural areas. Their CO methodology is to educate organizers for one year after which they will be sent to a rural area and build peoples organizations. They also expressed interest on the development of sustainable peoples organizations.

October 1-3, 2001 Jakarta

Between January to October 2001, the government of Jakarta confiscated the means of livelihood of 49,315 pedicab drivers, food vendors, and car wash providers. At an average of three dependents, usually wife and two children, a total of 197,260 persons lost the means of living in the same period. In October 2001 the city reported it had confiscated 11,400 pedicabs and would soon dump them into the sea to serve as fish shelters.  This seems senseless for a city in which 40% of the population are urban poor and in a country in which 65% of the workforce are found in the informal sector. The other component of the city's anti-urban poor campaign was the forced eviction of urban poor settlements: for the same period, the government demolished 5,785 houses in Jakarta or 23,140 persons at the national average of four persons to a family. In the month of October alone, some 2,470 families or 9,880 people were displaced, either due to forced evictions or arson or a combination of both.

While in the stay in Jakarta, we visited public kitchens   UPC and the urban poor families had organized to serve as a center to provide immediate assistance to those who were evicted or whose pedicabs were confiscated by the government, as a forum where the urban poor and others can exchange information and strategize, and to which media and middle class sympathetic organizations and individuals can visit to  get information or to get  support. LOCOA suggested the holding of an international fact finding mission:  prominent mission members will look into the eviction and confiscation issues in Jakarta, by visiting and talking with the affected communities,   talk to national and city government officials, draw up their findings and make recommendations to civils society, the government and the international community.  Between November 4-9 this fact finding mission took place. 

The above narrative shows that a varied approach is needed to help the urban poor when they have problems with their governments. First they must be organized: nothing can be done without the solid foundation of an organized people's movement. Second , the poor need allies within their own country:  other poor people, the middle classes, academe, professionals and others, so that they will have a broad support  in their struggles. Third the poor need allies overseas. Multilateral donors are useful since through their environmental and social guidelines they committed themselves to high standards of people's participation, poverty alleviation and human rights observance. They are also under the watchful eyes of civil society groups in the major donor countries.

During the study tour in Indonesia, in the meetings between LOCOA and  community and NGO leaders and workers, it was resolved that LOCOA support the CO training program to be conducted in Jakarta and to conduct its own training program in Surabaya. The funding for the Jakarta training has already been sourced, while the one in Surabaya is proposed to be funded by CCODP.

2. Exchange program (October 29- Nov 11, 2001)

Two Indonesians, both from Urban Poor Consortium, and one Filipino from Urban Poor Associates, went to Korea October 29- Nov 11 2001.

      They visited urban poor communities and met with veteran community organizers and their supporters in Korea for the purpose of understanding what was done and what is  going on in CO work in Korea. They also met with young organizers so that they could encourage each other as young organizers. They also received lectures on the history, tradition, and background of CO in Korea and each community. Every evening they had evaluation sessions from 10:00 PM- 12:00 in order to share feelings and to deepen their undersatnding of  CO in Korea.

The following is what one participant wrote in his report:

¡°I only have one recommendation: that this kind of program continues so that we can come up with one vision of CO in Asia.  We already have our own CO ideas, concepts, methodologies separately, country by country.  What we need right now is to share them in international solidarity activities like this. I learned not only about CO but also the history of another country (how it developed along with the different political and social changes. About the different concepts and programs such as social welfare programs, strong sustainable people's organizations etc.  Probably the lesson that I will bring with me back to Jakarta is about how to sustain strong peoples organizations and programs but with different contexts so that in actual work, we can develop different tactics and strategies other than the Korean model.

3. Indonesia CO Reflection Workshop (January 18-25, 2002)

Even under the strong authoritarian regime of former President Suharto, there were initiatives to organize the  students, workers, peasants and urban poor  communities, including those launched by the  Asia Committee for Peoples Organization (ACPO) which later became LOCOA .

From January 18 to 25, 2002  a CO reflection meeting was conducted by community organizers in Yogyakarta. The participants of the workshop wanted to deepen their understanding of CO methodology on the basis of its practice in Indonesia and to reflect on issues affecting the environment, women, urban and rural communities.

The workshop also served to discuss preparations for a LOCOA trainers workshop to be held in April 2002 in Indonesia.

II.    Network of Community Organization

LOCOA has links with around over 1,000 regional and local non government organizations and grass roots organizations. We also have links with academicians and professionals and have established contacts with international agencies, such as, the W.B and ADB.

A number of LOCOA's Member

1. Steering Committee Meeting

The LOCOA Board of Trustees held its regular meeting on October 20-24, 2001 in Korea. The meeting had three purposes. The first was to bring together community organizers from various traditions to reflect collectively on the lessons of the last 30 years, since ACPO was established in the Philippines February 1971. The second was to identify strategies that would enable the organizers to meet the challenges of the new century, especially globalization. And the third was to provide an opportunity for the community organizers to establish stronger linkages and foster regular exchanges.   

In the meeting members shared the financial situation of each one, the number of COs they had CO and the plans of each country.  They then drew up the over all plan of LOCOA for the future:

Each group (country) convenes its own training workshops. They will review and evaluate their training methods, including their manuals. All the workshops should be documented.   

A workshop will conducted based on the reflections of the homeless people in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong;  from this, each country can conduct its own workshop.

LOCOA will provide CO trainers for the countries in need.    

Regarding finance, LOCOA will provide modest financial assistance and will help local fundraising for CO activities.  

 2. Community Organization Exchange and Exposure Training Program

LOCOA also hosted an exchange program for Korean who needed to develop ideas and to consider challenges of organizing by visiting other countries like the Philippines.  The exchange helped them understand the history and tradition of CO,  what was done and what is going on in CO work in the  Philippines. They also shared experiences with Filipino COs

From Korea to Philippines

Jea-Cheon Park, CONET, Korea. May 8-25. 2001

Visiting NGOs (May 9-11) / Visiting Field (May 13-24) /Reflection (May 13. May 21 and 24)

  3. Community Leaders Exposure Program

This program aims:

1)   To share education and training methodology for People's empowerment.

2)   To dialogue with community leaders and to understand about CO education methodology in the field.

3)   To sustainable CO network between different country

From Korea to Philippines (8 people)
Community Leaders Group (KCHR and CONET)
Duration : May. 8(Tue) - 12(Sat), 2001 / 5days 4Night

  4.Internship program  

LOCOA and SungKoghoe University in Korea agreed to provide an internship program to two Korean students of the university. The internship program aimed to help the next generation. The program took place between August 30, 2001 to January 10, 2002.

    III. Advocacy and support for Poor People

 1.   Information and Advocacy

           1)  LOCOA Internet Web-Site was set up on January 16,2001. It shares information on CO in Asia and the issues currently being advocated by NGOs and peoples organizations in different Asian countries. It was hit around 2,000 last year.

Our web's contents are: program introduction, current issue, campaign, basic information on CO and Free board.  There is a plan to include in our web-site the theme of globalization and its impact on the grassroots. 

2) LOCOA  published four issues  of its newsletter The Organizer  last year with the support of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.

3). LOCOA with the help of Korean NGOS send  second hand 50 computer units to Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia  to help develop its  network. 

4) LOCOA publish the first book of its Asian CO Series 1: HISTORY OF ASIAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION - ¡®Being with the Poor ¡¯ in October, 2001

2. Public campaign and support for urgent issues     (January - December 2001)

South East Asia

East Asia

South Asia

  [ Report ]  LOCOA Steering Committee Meeting in Korea 

LOCOA : Leaders and Organizers of Community Organization in Asia
28-B, Matino cor. Malumanay Street, Sikatuna Village, Brgy Malaya, Diliman,Quezon City, Philippines
Tel : (632) 925-8432,  426-4119, 922-0988 Fax : (632) 426-4118
E-mail : locoa2000@yahoo.com