Conceptualizing and applying a minimum basic needs approach in southern Philippines

Abstract

This study, a collaboration between Canadian and Filipino researchers, focuses on how the national government's Minimum Basic Needs (MBN) Approach has been implemented at the local level in some selected sites in Region XI on the Philippine island of Mindanao. This case study of MBN implementation focuses on the experiences of three municipalities and three barangays (villages) within them. The research explores, through interviews and group discussions, what the mayors, technical working groups and volunteer health workers in these areas thought about MBN and how they participated in the initiative. The objectives of the study were: to explore models of MBN data utilization at the municipal and barangay levels; to understand how the MBN data guided decision-making about community priorities and resource allocation; to examine the role that community volunteers played in promoting the use of MBN data, and in community health and development activities which ensued; and to determine what factors challenged or encouraged the use of MBN data for social development at the barangay level. In all the sites, MBN had some impact, most often due to methods of concentrating information on unmet basic needs locally and making use of it in planning and project development processes. The findings show that although there is still some way to go before MBN is effectively integrated into local planning and project development, some responses to problems have been implemented and innovative projects were undertaken or being considered.