September 7, 1994
DAR MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 15-94
GUIDELINES IN THE DEPLOYMENT OF ARC DEVELOPMENT FACILITATORS (DFs)
1. The Department of Agrarian Reform is serious in its pursuit of developing viable agrarian reform communities to make CARP implementation truly meaningful. It is through the development of ARCs that DAR can contribute to poverty alleviation and countryside development. SHADcT
2. This thrust requires the concerted efforts of Central and Field officials and staff who have a common understanding and appreciation of ARC Development.
3. In support of this thrust, DAR through BARIE, has launched a nationwide capability building called the Agrarian Reform Community Organizing and Development Course (ARCOD), with the assistance of other DAR units and partner institutions such as FAO-TSARRD. Every agrarian reform program technologist designated as ARC Development Facilitator is required to undergo the ARCOD training prior to deployment.
4. In recognition of the crucial role that development facilitators play in ARC development, the Standard of Performance for the Municipal Agrarian Reform Offices (contained in Memorandum Circular No. 8 dated 22 April 1994) explicitly stated that each ARC should have at least one full time development facilitator. It is the DF who immerses and integrates with the community and acts as enabler/catalyst.
5. Results of ARC Assessments being conducted by the regional and provincial offices show that a large majority of ARBs organization in the ARCs are in the low levels of development.
6. Among the persistent issues always raised during assessments and in the conduct of trainings, are those which confront the development facilitators such as:
a. DFs' failure to implement ARCOD re-entry plans (REPs) for their ARCs due to additional tasks outside their ARCs.
b. Irregular visits to ARCs due to these other assignments make it extremely difficult for the DFs to fully integrate with and be accepted by the community.
7. Due to the above problems, many of our development facilitators fail to live up to their role as enablers/catalysts. As a result, the development of our ARCs and the ARBs organizations move at a slow pace.
8. The following directives are therefore, hereby reiterated:
8.1 Each ARC should have at least one full-time development facilitator. There can be more depending on the size of the ARC. Further identification of additional ARCs should not be done unless additional personnel can be assigned to attend to ARC Development. This is not a game of numbers but of having truly viable ARCs.
8.2 There should be proper selection of development facilitators and each development facilitator should undergo the ARCOD Course prior to deployment except in instances when there is a need to augment the number of DFs in the ARC or if replacing a DF with another personnel is unavoidable. In such cases, the concerned staff should be given a comprehensive agrarian reform community orientation by the Beneficiaries Development and Coordination Division (BDCD) prior to the deployment and they should automatically be included as participant in the next ARCOD Course. In the absence of such situations, no ARPT should be deployed without having undergone the ARCOD Course.
8.3 Re-assignment of DFs from one ARC to another or to a non-ARC area should be done judiciously. Immersion, integration with and acceptance by the community takes time. If the DFs are constantly moved or reassigned, institution building in the ARC suffers. If this can not be avoided for certain valid reasons, the DF should not be abruptly pulled out. Instead, the DF should accompany his/her replacement to the ARC, introduce him/her replacement to the ARC, introduce him/her to the community and familiarize the new DF with the situation in the ARC in order to hasten the learning process.
8.4 Development Facilitators are expected to do both Land Tenure Improvement (LTI) and Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) work but this should, as a general rule, be confined to the ARC. Given eight (8) elements/KRAs (key result areas) of a viable Arc, many things have to be attended to. It would be very difficult for DFs to successfully attend to all the activities in the ARC if they have assignments in other areas.
8.5 The task of developing viable ARC is not the sole responsibility of the DF. Being a generalist, the DF can not be expected to have all the technical skills required in ARC development such as physical planning, project preparation, financial and economic analysis, agricultural development, etc. At the minimum, the DF should successfully attend to institution building. A pool of technical experts at the provincial level should be formed to provide assistance to the DFs and the ARBs organizations in the ARCs.
This team should form part of the ARC Task Force which serve as integrators and provide coherence to all the activities being initiated in the ARCs. The team will be trained under BARIE's Technical Skills Enhancement Program (TSEP) as soon as funds are raised for this purpose.
8.6 The ARC Task Force should be operationalized at the Provincial and Regional Levels in order to provide clear directions to ARC development. ACTESI
For compliance.
September 7, 1994.
(SGD.) ERNESTO D. GARILAO
Secretary, DAR