Gawad Kalinga Community Skoll Awardee Profile

Development Foundation

Organization Overview

Key Info

Social Entrepreneur Tony Meloto, Jose Luis Oquinena

Year Awarded 2012

Issue Area Addressed Education, Environmental Sustainability,

Health

Sub Issue Area Addressed Early Childhood to Primary Education, Health

Delivery, Livelihoods, Living Conditions

Countries Served Philippines

Website http://www.gk1world.com

Twitter handle GawadKalingaHQ

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gawadkalinga

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/GawadKaling
aHQ

About the Organization

Gawad Kalinga, meaning to ‘give care’, is a Philippines-based movement that aims to end
poverty by first restoring the dignity of the poor. The organization employs an integrated and
holistic approach to empowerment, with values-formation and leadership development at its
core. Gawad Kalinga is building a nation empowered by people with faith and patriotism; a
nation made up of caring and sharing communities, dedicated to eradicating poverty and
restoring human dignity. Their mission is to end poverty for five million poor families by 2024.
The organization was established in 2003, but the work began as early as 1994 in Bagong
Silang, the biggest squatters’ relocation site in Manila. Since then Gawad Kalinga has
expanded its work to over 2,000 communities in the Philippines, and to other developing nations
like Cambodia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Gawad Kalinga is at the forefront of peace-
building work in conflict areas in Mindanao, and reconstruction work in post-disaster
communities.

Impact

Expansion to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.

Inspired the Philippines 2012 Kalinga Bills, also called "Volunteers for Nation Building" to
institutionalize public, private, and civil sector partnerships as part of the government
poverty eradication plan.
Coordinated relief and rebuilding efforts after Typhoons Sendong (2012) and
Hayan/Yolanda (2013), building 3,000 houses and mobilizing 1.7 million volunteers.

Path to Scale

Expansion and Replication. Deepen engagement in the 2,000 villages and make them on-the-
ground “universities” to demonstrate the three-stage approach as a better paradigm for
development.

Social Entrepreneur

Starting from humble beginnings, Tony Meloto was an outstanding scholar who gained financial
and professional success. Still, he was driven to understand how poverty had been
institutionalized in his country, and began working with young gang members in one of Manila’s
most dangerous slums. Through this work he came to know a fellow volunteer, Jose Luis
Oquiñena, and together they crafted the vision of Gawad Kalinga, an organization whose name
means “to give care” and whose development approach engages all sectors of society to end
poverty, starting with housing, then adding education and livelihoods. The model emphasizes
values shared by individuals and communities, and views poverty as not merely the absence of
money, but the lack of community and sense of higher purpose. “Slum environments breed
slum behavior” is a motto, emphasizing the importance of both physical and spiritual
transformation. GK coordinates as corporate partners donate materials and employee time;
local governments invest in infrastructure; owners get tax credits for donating lands; and
volunteers provide sweat equity. Tony was ranked as the fourth most trusted person in the
Philippines by Readers Digest Asia.

Equilibrium Overview

Current Equilibrium
The Philippines has one of the worst land tenure problems in the developing world, with a high
percentage of landlessness, rampant poverty in the rural sector and poor agricultural
performance. [i] A history of colonialism and occupation has contributed to a pattern of skewed
land distribution and an entrenched and powerful elite. [ii] 70 percent of Filipino population is
classified as landless and 40 percent of those citizens (26 million people) live in makeshift
dwellings in informal urban settlements. Top-down government interventions, such as the
redistribution of four million hectares of land to landless farmers, have failed to significantly
improve living conditions (due to corruption, exemptions, weak penalties, and a faulty and
complex land valuation system). In the past, responsibility for the poor was solely in the domain
of the government. The ability of the poor and the landless to gain access to land through
established markets appears to have declined, despite the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program. There has been little progress for the poor, leaving millions of Filipinos in informal,
unsafe, and unsanitary shanties along polluted waterways, inside cemeteries and dumpsites,
and along highways. [i] Vargas, Alberto. “The Philippines Country Brief: Property Rights and
Land Markets.” Land Tenure Center. March 2003. Prepared for U.S. Agency for International
Development. http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/ltc/docs/philippinesbrief.pdf [ii] The Philippines has
experienced several major epochs which have each influenced its culture and society, and
ultimately land distribution: Spanish colonization (1565-1898), American rule (1898-1941),
Japanese occupation (194101945) and Independence (since 1946). During those different
periods, land distribution tended to be concentrated in landed elites with large masses of locals
displaced and landless. Today, land in the Philippines is either privately or state-owned (50%) or
protected forested and mineral lands (50%).

New Equilibrium
Government, business and civil society work together to deliver basic services to Filipinos living
in poverty. [i] Government (local government units – LGUs, national government agencies, and
legislators) unlock resources for the poor (i.e., extend road and electricity/water hookup for a
new GK village; reforming affordable housing legislation). Corporations donate money, in-kind
donations, or volunteers for the construction of new GK villages. Civil society provides additional
services (i.e., health, education) for GK residents. The spirit of “bayanihan” takes hold, or
becoming a hero to one another and addressing the root cause of poverty – not simply the
absence of money but an absence of shared values, sense of community, and higher purpose.
 And it brings about a new paradigm of good governance revolving around transparency,
accountability, participation, rule of law, equity, social justice, sustainability and continuity. [i]
Brillantes, Jr., Alex and Maricel Fernandex. “Is There a Philippine Public Administration? Or
better Still, For Whom is Philippine Public Administration?” Paper presented at UP national
College of Public Administration and Governance, June 26-26, 2008.
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/eropa/unpan032064.pdf

Innovation

Gawad Kalinga has a three stage community development model (“Growth Map”) starting with
Equity: basic housing and infrastructure; Empowerment: layering in additional services (i.e.,
health, education, child/youth development); and then Productivity: providing longer-term
livelihood opportunities (i.e., Enchanted Farm). Through GK’s coordinating role, individuals and
organizations donate land and receive tax benefits; local government units supplement by
providing supporting infrastructure such as roads, water pipelines, and electricity connections;
corporate partners cover the cost of building materials and provide in-kind donations; and
residents and volunteers from across the world provide the sweat equity necessary to construct
communities. Fundamental to GK’s community development is an emphasis on universal,
shared values for the individual and the community. GK residents participate in values formation
education and self-organize into neighborhood associations, with guidelines for community
living decided upon by the members and mutual adherence to an agreed set of values (i.e.,
culture/behavior change). This new culture is the key to the community’s sustainability and sets
the community on the road to self-reliance. QUESTIONS FROM SKOLL: Please describe how
GK is different from other actors working on similar interventions.

Ambition for Change

Gawad Kalinga communities become models for their surrounding areas and former slum
dwellers begin helping those worse off, creating a virtuous cycle for ending poverty.

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