DAR Assesses 3 ARCs on Organizational Maturity

In line with the various programs for beneficiaries’ development, the regional office of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Cotabato mandated the five DAR-ARMM provinces to conduct an organizational maturity assessment (OMA). For Basilan, three (3) agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) were subjected to such evaluation. These are Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Integrated Development Cooperative (SCARBIDC) and Lamitan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (LARBECO), both in Lamitan City, and Mangal Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Cooperative (MARBEDCO) in Sumisip township.

 LARBECO

OMA is part of a bigger picture which is the agrarian reform community (ARC) level of development assessment or ALDA. The ALDA’s key result areas to examine are land tenure improvement, economic and physical infrastructure support services, farm productivity and income, basic social services, gender and development and organizational maturity.

Pendatun Mambatawan, of the regional OMA team, congratulated DAR-Basilan for conducting such initiative on assessing the ARCs. He stated that among the DAR-ARMM provinces, only Basilan regularly conducts ALDA despite fund constraints.

 SCARBIDC

OMA sub-areas are organizational maturity, resource management, social enterprise operations, and local governance and alliance building. Upon computation of the raw data, results will place the assessed organization in any of the following: Level 1- low level of development, level 2- lower medium, level 3- medium level, level 4-higher medium, and level 5-high level. At least a rating of level three is required for an organization to access projects under Agrarian Reform Communities Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) program.

MARBEDCO

LARBECO shall be included in the third batch of ARCCESS projects while Sta. Clara is due to receive two units of hauling trucks and MARBEDCO’s project proposal for mechanized rubber-coconut production which will come in the form of one (1) unit farm tractor with trailer is already in the pipeline.

Comprising the DAR-Basilan OMA team are staff from the beneficiaries’ development and coordination division. (MAD)