Background
The Philippine Partnership for the
Development of Human Resources in Rural
Areas (PhilDHRRA) is a network of
seventy-two (72) non-government
organizations (as of November 2003)
involved in various development
activities in rural communities all over
the country.
PhilDHRRA traces its roots to a
three-week regional workshop in 1974
held in Swanganiwas, Thailand, where 120
rural development practitioners from 12
Asian-Pacific countries exchanged ideas
on how NGOs and governments could
contribute to the development of the
countryside. A significant outcome of
the gathering was the definition of the
DHRRA strategy for development: "small
groups become big groups when linked
together by a common purpose; their
strong potential is seen within the
perspective of small autonomous units
pursuing their own development in their
own localities and among their own
people and communities."
The loose group of NGO workers from the
Philippines who joined the DHRRA
workshop in Thailand convened a meeting
in 1978 that resulted in the
establishment of PhilDHRRA. A simple
servicing secretariat was created at the
start. As a pioneer in networking of
NGOs in the country, PhilDHRRA’s initial
set-up was just a forum of individuals
from NGOs, POs, and government. Its
initial activities included
participating in the preparation of the
Philippine NGO report for the World
Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development (WCARRD) held in Rome in
1979.
In the WCARRD conference, PhilDHRRA and
other rural development organizations
throughout the world affirmed the WCARRD
program of action. This affirmation
would later become the criterion for
PhilDHRRA’s membership.
In 1983, the idea to formalize a
national network was forwarded and
accepted. In the following year, in a
meeting in Cebu City attended by 32
representatives from different NGOs,
PhilDHRRA was formally created. Thus, it
became a network of NGOs rather than a
mere forum of individuals and friends in
rural development. It was registered
with the Securities and Exchange
Commission as a non-stock, non-profit
organization.
Today, PhilDHRRA continues to be a
national network of social development
organizations (SDOs) committed to the
pursuit and realization of agrarian
reform and rural development in the
Philippines. It is part of the chain of
DHRRA networks throughout the Asian
region aspiring for a common vision of
rural development in their respective
countries. Now in its 20th year of
development work, it operates in 70 of
the 75 provinces in the Philippines. A
national secretariat and three regional
secretariats in Luzon, Visayas, and
Mindanao manage the day-to-day
operations of the network.
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