The People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network, Inc. (AR Now!) is an advocacy and campaign center for the promotion of agrarian reform and sustainable development. It is also a national coalition of 15 civil society organizations involved in agrarian reform advocacy in the Philippines. It was established in 1997 as a response to the need to distribute private agricultural lands under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) which was passed in 1988. Many agrarian reform advocates looked at the poor performance of land distribution and saw the imperative of pursuing agrarian reform beyond the first 10 years of CARP implementation. Consensus was thus formed around the urgency for a national campaign that would seek to revive agrarian reform and rural development in the national agenda.
Mission:
To engage government to seriously implement agrarian reform by waging nationally coordinated campaigns for pro-agrarian reform and sustainable rural development (ARRD) policies and programs, and to bring back ARRD as a national agenda and development imperative.
Vision:
To achieve peasant empowerment, agrarian and aquatic reform and rural development, sustainable agriculture/ fisheries and food security, gender sensitivity and equality of men and women, and appropriate and adequate support services
Objectives:
Enactment of pro-ARRD policies in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government;
Attain increased access and control of land and water resources by marginalized farmers and fishers;
Gain increased access to support services for productivity development;
Undertake efficient and sustainable campaign initiatives.
Activities/Main areas of work:
Conduct of national campaigns on agrarian reform and agrarian reform issues;
Support to local agrarian reform initiatives;
Conduct of policy research, analysis and advocacy;
Conduct of legislative lobbying;
Documentation of cases and experiences on agrarian reform implementation and issues
Networking and coalition building
Coverage:
Philippines (nationwide)
Beneficiaries:
People’s organizations, rural women organizations, AR advocacy groups, legislature, executive agencies involved in CARP implementation.
Membership/Affiliations:
1.Founder/member, Reform CARP Movement
2.Founder/member, KILOS AR
3.Co-convenor, Farmer sector, Land Watch Philippines
A Case Study on Alliance-Building for Philippine Agrarian Reform
