Sectors of activity :

People’s organizations in agrarian reform, urban poor rights to shelter and housing, ancestral domain claims of the indigenous peoples, community based child labor elimination  work, community based women workers union organizing, development NGOs “successor generation program”, documentation of the stories of people’s empowerment. 

In the context of peace and development initiatives in Mindanao,  post-conflict community organizing and community development activities., including mediation and conflict transformation.

Structure and functioning:

The structure of the organization  is lean and flat  that  was approved in the last Board of Trustees meeting in February 2000 (the  new structure is being discussed as of the present). The changes are focused on the streamlining of functions and personnel due to expansion. The CO Multiversity has a pool of trainors that is intergenerational in character. There are people who have been in the work for 25 years and there are trainors who were trained by the institution itself.

The CO Multiversity also serves as the secretariat of PHILCOS,  therefore, there is a  pool of resources of community organizers that the training programs of the  institution can mobilize. They are also co-learners and co-trainors since the cycle of action-reflection-action continues to be the main pedagogy of the modules project team will be composed of the project coordinator, project assistant, 3 trainors and 2 members of the Board of Trustees.  They will be the policy makers as well as assist in strategizing for the project. They will also serve as the group responsible  for monitoring and evaluation of the undertaking..

Organizations and social movements involved:

The following groups will be involved in the project : farmers, sugar workers, fisherfolk, women, youth, persons with disabilities, the elderly, labor, the informal sector and urban poor who are networked with the Philippine Community Organizers Society (PhilCOS), the National Peace Conference  (NPC), National Federation of Labor  Agrarian Reform Desk, AR NOW and AGRIAQUA Development Coalition (AADC).

Peace and Development Advocates, a loose formation of former MNLF combatants who are engaged in peace processes at the community level, will also be involved.  Their counterpart from the women’s sector is the Bangsamoro Women’s Federation, who also comprise a significant percentage of the population in the Peace and Development Communities (PDCs) in SZOPAD.

Previous accomplishments :

For the whole month of April 1999, three batches of PO training were conducted with the support of OXFAM U.K.  A fourth batch was organized since there were more people requesting for the training and there were resources still left from the grant. All of the trainings were accomplished by  August 1999.  A total of 81 participants co-trained and co-learned in the training workshop.  The theme of the training was on “Building the Capacity of POs for Local Advocacy”.

One of the recommendations of the evaluation of the training was  the need for regular and sustained learning interactions of the PO leaders between and among themselves. The participants said that the training was very enriching, since they come from various sectors and they learned a lot from the experiences of co-participants.  They could not rely on the NGOs assisting them to organize this kind of training because they  do not have the funds and they also have a limited number of staff.  An NGO like CO Multiversity is more in a position to organize a national PO training because they are more in contact with the various NGOs and POs all over the country.