2/F PhilDHRRA Building
59C Salvador Street
Loyola Heights
Quezon City 1108
Tel/Fax: 63 2 4266737
Contact: Mr Ernest Lim
www.anihan.org/index.php

AR NOW! is 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 formed around the urgency for a national campaign that would seek to revive agrarian reform and rural development in the national agenda.

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AR NOW!'s primary goals are:

• To drum up public support for the faster distribution of private agricultural lands and the eventual completion of the programme;
• To pressure congress to increase and sustain financial support to agrarian reform;
• To document and popularise the positive impact of agrarian reform to justify its continuity beyond 1998; and
• To conduct policy research and advocacy in support for the agrarian reform campaign.

Pressuring government to implement land reform effectively. In 2000, AR NOW! took the lead in organising the Great Jubilee Pilgrimage Against Hunger, a 40-day, 2,000-kilometer journey covering 50 towns and 28 cities in 28 provinces in the country. The Jubilee Pilgrimage sought to popularise the spiritual and social meaning of the Great Jubilee Year of 2000 by highlighting issues and solutions advocated by civil-society organizations, in particular those related to three main issues (return the land, rest the earth, recall the debt). During the Pilgrimage, 62 local problem cases, 81 percent of which directly affected farmers and focused on land issues, were brought to the attention of various local and national government agencies. The pilgrimage served as a "muscle-flexing" exercise for the participating people's organizations in their negotiations with government.

Using media for public advocacy. One key element in the success of many AR NOW! advocacy efforts has been effective and sustained media work both in print and media broadcast of agrarian reform in general, and local issues in particular, which are critical factors in pressuring concerned government agencies to action. These experiences can help to inform civil society organisations interested in doing similar campaigns on land reform issues.

Building capacities of member organizations. AR NOW! also assists its local partners and organisation members to design and strategize immediate and long-term activities such as conflict management, negotiation, media advocacy, campaign planning and strategizing at the community level. These are aimed at strengthening the capacity of these civil-society organizations to effectively deal with their own agrarian reform advocacy at the local level while collaborating with AR NOW! at the national level.