Conceptualized by: Daniel B. del Rosario, Jr., MDM

  1. Problem Context

From all the visual images of the magnitude of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines, what we see are the unimaginable miseries of the victims. But beyond what we cannot see, is the fact that the disaster is already turning once proud and self-reliant coastal communities into mendicant communities. The disaster wiped out their shelter and all other properties they labored to acquire though the years. Most of all, the disaster robbed them of their human dignity as they are reduced to begging even for one decent meal for the day. In coastal areas, where there are no other economic opportunities except fishing, the disaster has created entire communities of beggars. More than receiving intermittent relief assistance, these coastal communities want to REBUILDtheir normal lives. One of the fishers in Naborot, a small island barangay in the municipality of San Dionisio articulated it: “if only we could go back to fishing, we do not need any relief assistance.” But it appears that going back to fishing is not possible at this time. Almost all fishing boats in Northern Iloilo towns were destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan.

Any delay in helping these coastal communities help themselves create additional disasters. The disaster had actually denied these coastal communities of their right to decent life. Any effort falling short of helping them recover their life would undermine all the collective efforts various development actors are earnestly trying to provide. Their fishing livelihood wastheir life. It is what brought meals in their table, sent their children to school, built their shelters, and provide for any other basic needs. Now it is gone.

Northern Iloilo is composed of 11 municipalities, 9of them are coastal towns with 116 coastal barangays (villages) with total population of 201,445 (2010 Census). The municipality of Estancia and its neighboring municipalities have been dubbed as the “Alaska of the Philippines” in reference to its rich fishing grounds. Thus, it could be said that the economy of Northern Iloilo is largely driven by the fishing industry. With the decimation of Northern Iloilo’s fishing industry, it has resulted to displaced employment and economic activities in related industries – operations of fish ports in the area, fish vending at municipal markets, ambulant fish vending, fish processing, exporters’ operations, gas stations and many other subsectors. Eventually, the displaced harvest will drive up the prices of fishes from the municipal waters as under-harvesting becomes acute.

It must be said that among the sub-sectors of fishing industry, it is the sub-sector of small fisherfolks that are more affected. They are the erstwhile operators of small and mid-size non-motorized and motorized fishing boats and whose fishing activities were limited only on municipal waters. The commercial fishers had larger vessels capable of deep-sea fishing in open seas. The commercial fishers usually have multiple businesses and well capitalized, and therefore deemed to recover their fishing business much easier than the small fisherfolks.

Lastly, if the fishing households are not immediately assisted to recover their livelihood, they will be forced to migrate to mainland areas and cities/metropolis and would create a multitude of social problems elsewhere.

  1. Strategic Response: Mix of Short-term and Long-term Solutions

While relief operations are still needed to address the most common needs of the victims such as food, water, medicines and temporary shelter, some components that introduce the phases towards rehabilitation should be introduced quickly. Prolonging relief services as “stand-alone” response will not be helpful in the long-term. It will promote a culture of mendicancy. But a more sustainable rehabilitation should be preferred. In the coastal communities, a focused rehabilitation of displaced fishing livelihood is critically urgent. Once the fisherfolks are assisted in recovering their livelihood, it is assumed that they would acquire the capacity to rehabilitate gradually their destroyed homes, bring decent meals in the table, send their children to school, and address other basic household needs. Once they gainfully employ themselves through fishing, they graduate from begging. While the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan decimated part of their lives, they are in the position to REBUILD the dignified lives they had previously. Entire coastal communities would not need anymore any relief services.

The obvious logistical assistance that could help small fisherfolks recover their livelihood is the provision of fishing boats – both non-motorized and motorized. It will immediately address the regular household income wiped out by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. But a sustainable development approach should guide the project design, implementation, and replication – otherwise, we do more harm than good. REBUILD Project is not just about logistical assistance but a facilitation of a good mix of organizational and institutional development, installation of management and oversight systems, documentation and monitoring.

The short-term impact of the REBUILD Project is the fact that direct beneficiaries with their families graduate quickly from dependency on relief services. By rebuilding their livelihood, they gradually rebuild their lives. Government and donors will not anymore strain resources to prolong relief services, or build their destroyed homes, or subsidize medical and education needs of their children. By being productive again, they will do these themselves. Proudly, and reclaiming their dignity again. Aptly, the mantra of this REBUILD Project: “Rebuild their livelihood, rebuild their lives.” The battlecry of REBUILD Project: “One coastal community at a time, one fishing boat at a time, one family at a time...”

  1. Project Objectives

Short term: To help the affected small fisherfolks rebuild their fishing livelihood so they could once again be self-sufficient.

Long-term: To empower the organized beneficiaries so they could reverse the continuing depletion of their fishery resource base.

  1. Protocol for Selection of Project Partners

Needs-based:

  • Small fisherfolk residing in a coastal barangay (village) in Northern Iloilo whose identification would be meticulously verified
  • Small fisherfolk who used to own and operate a fishing boat, motorized or non-motorized, that was totally or partially destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan
  • Small fisherfolks residing in island barangays will be prioritized first as they are deemed to be more vulnerable and disadvantaged than their counterparts in mainland coastal areas
  • No referrals will be entertained that would undermine the protocol for selection in every site.
  1. Mode of Project Implementation
  • Project partners (beneficiaries) will be organized. Thus no facilitation of individual requests. Project Management Office (PMO) will be in place with on-site Field Officers/Community Organizersdirectly supervising project implementation as designed.
  • Direct implementation – while all other implementation partners are welcome, the actual implementation, specifically the selection of project partners (beneficiaries) and the mechanics would be directly between the PMO and project partners for obvious reasons. There would be variations if some donors would strongly recommend a particular site, but not specific beneficiaries even if they are not eligible according to the selection protocol.
  • Customization of intervention. It is expected that fishing practices and diversity of fishery resource base would determine the type of fishing boat and fishing gears needed.
  • Institutional and Organizational Development with strong formational component.
  1. Major Components of REBUILD Project
  1. Database of Small Fisherfolks

One of the more critical component of REBUILD Project is the establishment of a digital database of all affected small fisherfolks in Northern Iloilo segmented per municipality, per barangay, per sitio. A well-documented database of affected small fisherfolks would be quickly established, maintained, verified and updated regularly to be the basis for selection of beneficiaries. An important feature of the database is the precise inventory of damages on their fishing boats – whether total or partial. If partial, what approximate percentage are the irreplaceable parts and those that could still be repaired. The project will initially rely on available secondary data from appropriate government agencies like DA and BFAR, but would swiftly validate the accuracy of these data from the ground. Primary data gathered at the ground would increase the accuracy of database.

  1. Needs-based Identification of Project Partners/ Beneficiaries

This selection process will be insulated from any influence-peddling dynamics of any kind. Thus, selection process will not be by any political party affiliation, nor religious affiliation or any other institutional or creed affiliation but only and strictly on the basis of need in the context of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan devastation. In sites where there are greater number of beneficiaries who cannot be provided their needed fishing boats or have their partially damaged boats repaired at one-time basis, a transparent process of raffle would be conducted to determine the batches of beneficiaries.

  1. Database of Project Partners/ Beneficiaries

With every turnover of fishing boat, whether repaired or entirely new, the small fisherfolk will have comprehensive information covering himself and his entire family. All data will consist the Masterlist of all project beneficiaries.The database will also serve as the baseline information of all project beneficiaries which shall in turn be the basis for gauging whether the project had accomplished its intended impact over time.

  1. Needs-based Provision of Materials

The provision of materials will be determined by the extent of actual damage on fishing boats, either total or partial. If partial, parts that are still intact, and parts that can still be repaired should be documented. This kind of detailed physical inventory will provide PMO the accurate guide of the appropriate materials to be provided. A mix of possible assistance package could be the following: a) for those totally damaged, a simple provision of entirely new fishing boat is required; b) for those partially damaged, costing should be accounted for the parts that are beyond repair.

As for totally damaged fishing boats, REBUILD Project will facilitate the provision of all materials required to build the fishing boat measuring approximately 15 ftincluding engine (Loncin Brand, 5-7 horsepower, gasoline powered). Whether it is provision of entirely new fishing boat or repairs, there is absolutely no cash outlay. Skilled labor would be directly paid by PMO.

  1. Labor – counterpart of project partners

It is presumed that some participating small fishers have the skills to build their boats. Thus, to facilitate a “sense of ownership”, labor counterparting would be required. In sites where there are no available skilled laborers, external experts would be tapped to supervise the building of boats. Building the boats on-site is preferred to facilitate a high degree of ownership, transparency and real participation among beneficiaries.

  1. Provision of Operational Logistics

To ensure the success of their initial operations, part of the package is provision for fuel requirements that would last for 15 days. Fishing gears will also be provided but only those that are environmentally recommended, as well as other items (ice chest, anchor, life vests, rechargeable flashlights, etc.)

  1. Developmental and sustainable provision and operations of fishing boat.

The provision of fishing boat is not dole-out. Providing it entirely free or as grant is disempowering. It is proposed that 30-40% of the total amount would be amortized at the lightest arrangement only at the 4th month after operation since they would still be rehabilitating gradually their physical structures. At the second year, a more substantial repayment scheme would be implemented. The amount collected will have a separate account, to be maintained by the community but covered by project management oversight, that would exclusively be applied for providing additional fishing boats to those not served yet.

  1. Organizational and Institutional Development

By design, REBUILD Project does not end with the repair of partially damaged or replacement of totally destroyed fishing boats. While the repair and provision of fishing boats would definitely rehabilitate their decimated fishery-based livelihood and rebuild their lives, it provides the entry-point by which these small fisherfolks rebuild also their weak leverage in influencing the policy environment that should be the key to ensuring the sustainability of their fishery resource base. Without achieving this long-term organizational and institutional objective, even the provision of fishing boats would not deliver the desired economic impacts in the long-term if their fishery resource base (specifically the municipal waters) would continue to be threatened by resource depletion due to illegal encroachment of commercial fishers, unregulated destructive fishing, overfishing, to mention a few among other factors. History has seen that individually, the small fisherfolks are disenfranchised from participating in the formulation of fishery policies. Individually, they continue to be alienated from availing of government inputs as agencies like DA, BFAR, DOLE, DTI, DOST, LBP among others, prefer to partner with organized groups.

Active membership at the local-level organization would be required for all beneficiaries. Parallel with the organizing efforts would be the facilitation of institutional development that would seek to enhance the capacities of small fisherfolks. Some of the Organizational and Institutional Development efforts would be the following:

  • Capacity-building: once organized, various capability-building processes would be facilitated that would help them maximize the potentials of their fishing livelihood. Value-adding technologies by processing some of their fresh harvest would maximize their income.
  • Resource-generation: once they have increased their capacities, the organized small fisherfolks would be increasing also their absorptive capacity, specifically in availing of available inputs and services for the fishery sector that are usually channeled through organized groups. Most of all, they would be encouraged to mobilize internal savings.
  • Enterprise Development: determined by the database of small fisherfolks, and enhanced by the internal savings they mobilized, possible economic enterprise that would basically be resource-based, and having match with the available skills among them would be explored and implemented.
  • Policy Advocacy: the organized small fisherfolks will have increased leverage in influencing the policy environment that gives direction to regulatory and enforcement components in safeguarding the fishery resource base that feeds them.
  • Mainstreaming into policy-making bodies: the organized small fisherfolks would be encouraged to be involved in the different development and policy bodies to represent better their sector’s concerns. Starting at the barangay level, they will join the Barangay Development Council (BDC), all the way to Municipal Development Council (MDC). To safeguard their resource base, they will join the Fisheries and Aquatic Resource management Council, both at the barangay and municipal levels. Eventually, the different organized groups would be federated (Northern Iloilo Federation of Small Fisherfolks) to attain a more empowered, efficient and cohesive organization
  1. Project Oversight

The REBUILD Project will have a fully-functional Project Management Office that will oversee the project implementation as designed. The Administrative component will take care of the logistical management, while Operations component will supervise and monitor all project activities at the sites as well as coordinating and monitoring all beneficiaries and organized groups. Both components will have efficient bookkeeping and documentation. An External Audit will regularly conduct financial and logistical audit to ensure judicious utilization of project resources.

  1. Project Policies in Operating the Fishing Boat
  • The beneficiaries would be covered by Agreements that would define their required compliance with Project Implementing Rules and basis for possible sanctions for non-adherence and non-compliance.
  • Simple bookkeeping and documentation will be prescribed for beneficiaries.
  • Required regular meetings for the whole organized small fisherfolks in the site for fine-tuning the mechanics, facilitating accountabilities and responsibilities and over-all Project Monitoring and Documentation. Some regular meetings will also be allotted for skills enhancement, education sessions, values formation and other capability-building processes.
  • In no circumstance shall a beneficiary be allowed to sell or transfer ownership of the availed fishing boat.
  • The beneficiaries will only employ fishing practices that are environmentally sound. Non-compliance could be the basis for forfeiture in favor of other small fisherfolks not yet served.
  • The beneficiaries will be required to repay 40% of the amount of availed fishing boat at the lightest scheme. The collected repayment will be banked, recorded and posted at the community center by the community-assigned treasurer. If the amount could finance another boat, it will be utilized to procure materials. They are all victims, but they learn to become responsible for each other.
  1. Cost per Fishing Boat plus operational inputs: PhP20,000.00 (US$ 456.00)– tentative cost only

BREAKDOWN OF COSTS
A. PROVISION OF FISHING BOAT
Materials / 10,000.00
Engine / 5,000.00
Labor / 3,000.00
Operational Inputs / 2,000.00
TOTAL / 20,000.00
B. REPAIR / 8,000-12,000

Note: Currently, we are facilitating the piloting of REBUILD Project in Bgy. Naborot, San Dionisio, Iloilo – the only island barangay of this municipality. Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan passed directly over this small island on its way to the mainland. As we progress, and finish the first batch of new fishing boats and repaired ones, we will be coming up with an accurate and actual costing – fully documented and itemized. The REBUILD Project targets to facilitate the provision of 400 new fishing boats and 100 repaired ones. We will dovetail with the efforts of other agencies/ institutions and accurately assess the remaining small fisherfolks who are not addressed. If resources will allow, we will aim to provide for the rest of small fisherfolks, starting with island barangays. Very recently, we expanded our pilot areas into three mainland coastal barangays –Odiongan, Agdaliran and Borongon.