ENDEAVOR
This is a milestone year for Gawad Kalinga (GK), as it marks 30 years from the shaping of its vision of transformation.
In 1994, Tony Meloto began his work in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, the biggest relocation site for informal settlers in Manila. During the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, the GK pioneers reflected on this verse from St Luke’s gospel: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” This inspired them to launch an audacious mission “to end poverty for the poorest of the poor in our nation,” or, in more concrete terms, “to end poverty for five million families by 2024. On July 28, 2003, GK formally declared this vision to the public.
In 2006, Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation (Gawad Kalinga or GK) and its chairman Meloto received the Magsaysay Award for “harnessing the faith and generosity of Filipinos the world over to confront poverty in their homeland and (experience) the dignity of a decent home and neighborhood.”
Last year, an expanded vision was formulated, GK2050: Building Pathways for Sustainable Community Transformation. This was based on the GK pioneers’ reflections on what had been achieved during the first two decades that impelled them to make “a courageous commitment to do more to realize the vision of a Philippines that is finally free from poverty.”
During the first decade (2000-2010), they focused their efforts on organizing poor communities into kapitbahayans (KBs) through a vision and values transformation process guided by caretaker teams. Bright and colorful GK communities became badges of honor for the new homeowners who acquired a sense of identity and dignity.
Across the seas, Filipino migrants in Australia, Canada, Europe, Singapore, and the United States of America were organized into “a network of nation-builders to rally resources for the vision of a poverty-free Philippines” – a strategic move as it provided overseas Filipino professionals and business leaders an opportunity to share their blessings with their compatriots in the homeland.
Leveling up in its second decade, 2011 to 2020, GK applied “the spirit of mission, the science of development, and the system of organization and leadership” on multiple platforms of synergy to support Barangay Walang Iwanan, conceptualized as the convergence hub of 10,000 of the 40,000 barangays in the country, thereby “providing GK with a massive footprint to deploy large-scale interventions against poverty.”
While serving as Communications Secretary under then President Noynoy Aquino, I participated in the launching of GK’s massive community immersion in Bantayan Island, Cebu that was supported by Governor Gwen Garcia and the provincial government. We returned to Bantayan in February 2014, when the EDSA Day celebration was held in different provinces in Visayas and Mindanao that had experienced destructive typhoons.
The people of Bantayan demonstrated their resilience and strong determination to rebuild and rehabilitate their communities, buoyed by the GK spirit.
President Aquino also spoke at the GK Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan that now serves as a “platform to raise social entrepreneurs, help our local farmers, and create inclusive wealth in the countryside.”
Indeed, this second decade was significant as it marked “the evolution of GK from a non-profit organization implementing its own programs to an agent of convergence providing solidarity platforms on which institutions and individuals can work together.”
As GK celebrated its 30th year in 2023, its leaders discerned that the convergence of Covid, climate change and conflict “pushed poverty to unprecedented levels not only in the Philippines but across the global community.” Three challenges emerged: “availability and affordability of food, rising cost of healthcare, and high rates of learning poverty among young children.” To overcome these challenges a two-pronged change strategy was crafted: First, “building capacity for each poor family to overcome their barriers to progress;” while second, “organizing cohesive communities that will support these families on their journey out of poverty.
Hence, this is GK’s Vision 2050: “A nation of caring and sustainably productive communities built on faith and patriotism where no poor family is left behind.” Compare this with its original antecedent formulated in 2003: “to end poverty for five million families by 2024” – a clear shift from quantity to quality. The concomitant Mission 2050: “Organize communities towards zero poverty, zero exclusion, and net zero carbon.” Whatever numbers arise – and these would more likely escalate, the objective is to bring these down to zero. This implies comprehensive, full-scale efforts to ensure that no one is left behind in society’s onward march to progress.
This is a monumental task, considering that poverty is inter-generational, and compounded by the glaring reality that the Philippines has one of the most skewed income distribution patterns among emerging economies. GK’s pioneers acknowledge that within the next two decades, the Philippines will have one of the youngest demographic profiles: average age would be 21 years old; at least 30 percent would be below 15 years old.
It is imperative to focus on improving the capacity of the young poor today, a tall order, considering that the Philippines was one of the last countries to adopt the normative 12-year basic education system. As shown by the 2022 Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) report, the country’s youth are six to seven years behind their compatriots in terms of basic competencies.
GK has begun carving pathways toward attaining its Vision and Mission 2050 by establishing model ecosystems in three pilot areas, namely, Camarines Norte, Samar, and North Cotabato that will model the implementation of the following growth strategy: “Create profit for non-profit enterprises which will embody preferential value creation through better wages and compensation packages for the poor; directly source from farmers and fishers; and (implement) conditional capital transfers to trigger agricultural productivity, and value-adding processing centers.”
At the grassroots level, attention to basic needs will be intensified: “Because every hungry person needs to be fed, every home must have access to clean water, every jobless person needs to be given an opportunity to earn, and everyone regardless of their limitations need to be given a chance to participate, GK will push for local and global partnerships that will work hard towards achieving the goal of zero.”