More and more women from poor areas of the world are migrating to rich countries for domestic work. Given the increasing published research on their exploitation and ‘slavery,’ much policy action has been oriented towards their protection as victims. Far from protecting the livelihood needs of these migrant workers, however, this victim-based approach has instead resulted in legitimising the protection of rich countries’ borders. An emerging perspective underscoring migrant women’s agency is producing a counter-approach that fights for migrant workers’ rights: not as victims but as workers. Yet despite this important development in research and policy agendas, increasing inequality in the global economy and stringent immigration policies render a rights-based approach ineffective. From poor countries, and with very limited livelihood options, these migrant women choose overseas domestic work often at the expense of their human rights. As migrants, they are outsiders whose rights are superseded by the rights of the sovereign, receiving-state. How is it possible then, to protect the rights of these workers? This thesis employs Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to evaluate the efficacy of these women’s agency in overcoming victimisation. This evaluation gives equal consideration to the victim and rights-based perspectives. It synthesises the Capability Approach with Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory in order to reconcile the polarised theories underlying the victim and rights-based perspectives - feminist structural theory and migration agency theory, respectively. In so doing, the study is able to refine the conceptualisation of agency from the highly ambiguous rights-based approach, to a more theoretically sound and feasible capability approach. The main hypothesis is that agency requires capability to successfully mediate victimisation; agency in itself is insufficient. The study draws on the experiences of Filipina overseas domestic workers in Paris and Hong Kong to test this hypothesis, and demonstrates how it is ‘capability’ that can turn the ‘slave’ into ‘the worker’, and protect ‘the worker’ from turning into a ‘slave.’

This research examines the function of culture and power in Development praxis, as defined by Post-Development theory, the Participation approach to Development, and Development workers in Cambodia and the Philippines. Practitioner perspectives have been gathered by means of informal interviews conducted in Cambodia and the Philippines. The primary inquiry of this thesis is whether Development is culturally destructive, whether the current paradigm can deliver effective results, and what effect power relations have on these outcomes. The research approaches Development as a contact zone, in which Southern Development workers function as border crossers, moving between the cultures of funders and local communities as they work to implement Development projects and programs. This affords practitioners privileged insight into the cultural negotiations of this contact, making their input critical to this inquiry. Their input is placed in the context of Post-Development theorists� assertion that Development is a culturally destructive discourse, and the proposal by other theorists that a participatory approach to Development adequately addresses Post-Development�s key concerns. Participation addresses issues of power and context in Development practice from a different perspective from the Post-Development theorists, and outlines a series of strategies designed to overcome well-recognised limitations of Development practice. Practitioner responses are grouped into three discussions, addressing their overall perspective on Development and Participation, their attitudes to cultural change and Development�s role within that, and their experience of power in Development funding relationships. Their responses were overwhelmingly supportive of participatory approaches to Development, and advocated a stronger role for the grassroots organisations that are pivotal to the Post-Development approach. Different attitudes to cultural change were expressed by practitioners in the two countries, however they consistently named Development as a source of positive cultural change, naming this as a key aim of their work. Finally, practitioners were critical of their relationships with funding organisations, which they felt were unduly controlled by the funders. This research concludes that participatory Development fosters cultural liberty by reinforcing collaborative cultural traits and strengthening communities to make choices about culture. While Post-Development provides important critiques of Development, its proposed alternative of turning to the grassroots is not supported by practitioners, who seek ongoing relationships with Northern organisations and individuals. In particular, practitioners desire a model of funding relationship that reflects their own practice, by conforming to the paradigm of people that underpins the participatory approach to Development. This thesis contributes to Development debates by presenting Southern perspectives that contrast with Post-Development, and by proposing a framework that can underpin further development of funding partnerships. Furthermore, it demonstrates that practitioners believe that Development is a reinforcing factor at a time when cultures are exposed to increasingly diverse cultural influences.

Community participation takes place when community members act together as subjects. It is argued here that community participation empowers when community members take decisions, or negotiate an equitable share in making the decisions that affect them. However, since participation takes place within a network of power relations it is not necessarily empowering but can take a range of forms from enforcement to empowerment, whereby empowerment may involve not only willing cooperation, but also resistance to outsider project objectives. This thesis explores these issues through a study of how people in three Philippine upland communities participated in soil conservation and livelihood restoration projects initiated by three different NGOs. The principal aim of the study was to identify and examine the changing discourses of development and participation held by the NGOs and by the members of the subject communities. The development discourses revolved around socio-ecology, described as the relationship between the culture and society of Filipino subsistence smallholders and the ecological units of their local environment. The failure of this existing socio-ecology under the pressure of increasing population density on a limited upland resource base was the stimulus for change in the study communities. The thesis compares the NGOs’ practice of engaging with the communities with their discourses of participation, and examines the importance of the relationships between the NGOs, government agencies and the communities for the success of the projects. The study identified several key factors in the empowerment of subject groups. Firstly, the need for a discourse that enables them to embark on socio-ecological change. For the Filipino communities examined here, the discourse of sustainability was validated by enabling the restoration of their livelihoods. Secondly, outside agencies, either NGO or government, may be needed to catalyse community change processes. Thirdly, the subjects need leaders who have the vision and skills to work for the desired livelihood and social development outcomes. Training activities of livelihood restoration proved highly significant in expanding women’s political space that led to opportunities for them to take up leadership, as well as giving capacity-building training for existing and future leaders which helped to equalize gender relations between men and women. Fourthly, the policy and program initiatives of host government agencies can synergize with community and partner agency activities at several levels, including resourcing and building the capacities of leadership.

This thesis deals with two related topics: core development objectives in community forestry in the Philippines, and the 'instruments' of development practice which have been used to address these objectives. The two topics have currency beyond forestry development and are at the centre of a debate about sustainable development. Community forestry aims to democratise resource access, alleviate poverty, and ensure the sustainability of forest resources. Development practice, however, has often led to contradictory outcomes. This paradox is examined from three perspectives: that of political economy, characteristics of practice, and the theory of rationalisation. ¶Four government-initiated community forestry projects in the Philippines are analysed. These projects provide an historical trend on the development and refinements of the different techniques from the early 1980s to the present. The relationship between the use of these techniques and improved outcomes in terms of the three core concerns is established. Empirical findings from the cases suggest that there is no necessary relationship between the employment of these instruments and better development outcomes. The attempt to democratise forest resource access through the use of access instruments has benefited the local elite and reinforced the government's jurisdiction over these resources. Similarly, the use of appraisal and participatory planning techniques has homogenised views of the local community and advanced a centrally determined agenda in forest management that has worked against the alleviation of poverty. Forest degradation is likely to continue, even with the incorporation of social factors into the concept of sustained-yield forest management. ¶The political economy perspective suggests that contradictory effects can be explained by the country's historical and political structure which has been shaped by an economically-driven development model and dominated by a more privileged sector. Despite genuine efforts for reform, this perspective contends that community forestry projects and related development interventions will always be influenced by political forces, and their benefits will be captured by the privileged sector. On the other hand, a focus on the characteristics of practice leads to the conclusion that contradictory effects are results of the limitations of these techniques, including their poor application. This implies that the adverse effects may be addressed through the refinement of these techniques and improvements in their application. Finally, the rationalisation thesis reveals that paradoxical effects are inherent in the use of these techniques. This perspective posits that even with the apparent shift from a state-controlled to a more participatory and decentralised approach in forest management, such as community forestry, the instrumentalist nature associated with the application of these techniques reinforces the characteristics of homogeneity, technocracy, and centralism which are inclined to produced paradoxical outcomes. ¶Both the political economy and the rationalisation perspectives provide a gloomy prognosis for community forestry. However, the recognition of the dual problems of poverty and environmental degradation in the Philippine uplands, suggests that community forestry should not be abandoned. Through a responsive mode of practice, there is room to move to improve the outcomes of the three central objectives. But responsive practice is not a panacea for all development ills. The process is bound to be slow, strategies will vary from one place to another, and success will be patchy. But because responsive community forestry practice is not amenable to central programming and control, it is more likely to result in sustainable outcomes than the present approaches.

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety <as opposed to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid <defined as all foreign inflows to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid <both loans and grants> on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

This research was in the area of self-directed learning, largely resulting from the researcher's experience with it whilst in Australia. However, the intent of this study was to consider factors which would affect the implementation of self-directed learning principles into the Philippine context. Education in the Philippines can be described as primarily engaged in the transmission of knowledge. The structure and culture of education in the Philippines is one that largely supports a teacher-directed learning environment. Students are conditioned to be dependent on teachers and are used to studying with the security of a clear structural plan with very limited opportunities to apply self-directed learning principles. This approach to education produces static knowledge and denies the expression and cultivation of the learner. Hence, there is a need to promote self-directed learning as part of the curriculum. In attempting to introduce self-directed learning (SDL) in the Philippines, it is important to analyse student and instructor characteristics which could influence the extent to which it is applied in the undergraduate university curriculum. This research project gathers in-depth information on the conduciveness of integrating self-directed learning in the undergraduate curriculum of De La Salle University (DLSU) in the Philippines. This exploratory study aimed to respond to the statement "What is the level of readiness for self-directed learning of undergraduate students from De La Salle University? What are the student's perceptions of education, their role in the educational process, the role of peers and the role of their instructors? What is the instructor's education orientation? What are the perception of instructors on the purpose of education, the nature of learners, characteristics of learning experiences, management of learning experiences, evaluation and the relationship between the educators and learners and between learners themselves? Are these perceptions similar and would it be possible to introduce self-directed learning principles to an undergraduate curriculum for traditional students in De La Salle University?" The response to these questions could be used in determining whether self-directed learning principles could in fact be applied in the Philippines, as well as determine the appropriate balance of pedagogical and andragogical instruction techniques. Twenty-three instructors and one hundred students from De La Salle University in the Philippines participated in the study. Instructors completed the Educational Orientation Questionnaire and students completed the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Survey. Follow up intewiews were also conducted to confirm findings resulting from the survey. Findings indicate that instructors have an orientation that is a combination of both pedagogical and andragogical techniques and that students perceive themselves as having self-directed learning readiness. As a number of learning situations already utilise andragogical and self-directed learning principles, the challenge is to promote and encourage SDL and implement it on a wider scope. Some recommendations have been included in this research on how to implement it in De La Salle University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references.

In the Philippines, about 38 per cent of the total population resides in rural areas where poverty remains a significant problem, especially in remote upland communities. Soil erosion has been a well-recognised problem in these areas, resulting in a number of impacts on the livelihoods of the rural poor. The development and dissemination of soil and water resource conservation (SWC) techniques has been seen as essential to achieving improved and lasting outcomes for the livelihoods of upland communities, with benefits spilling over beyond the farm boundary. The participatory development of a cost-effective means of controlling soil erosion, natural vegetative strips (NVS), has increased the adoptability of SWC for many upland households, enabling them to incorporate agroforestry and other practices in their farming systems. The Landcare Program in the southern Philippines has facilitated the adoption of these practices over the past decade. However, the impacts of adoption on the livelihoods of farming households, and the externalities that adoption may deliver, have remained speculative. This thesis first explores whether the adoption of Landcare practices has resulted in improved livelihood outcomes for upland farming families. Second, it analyses the potential for the piecemeal adoption of these measures to deliver tangible benefits at the watershed scale. Finally, using a benefit-cost approach, these outcomes are compared to the costs of the research and extension projects that have helped achieve them. The analysis is carried out in two upland municipalities, San Isidro and Pilar, in the Province of Bohol. Landcare households in Bohol dedicate a large percentage of household resources to the production of rainfed rice, which is the primary source of subsistence for adopting households while upland plots play a secondary role. The adoption of NVS alone did not typically generate significant economic benefits, yet created the stable platform on which more commercial investments were being made, especially through NVS enrichment. In San Isidro, the average annual income of adopters generated from upland activities was estimated to be more than double that of non-adopters, with a difference of over PHP 7,500. In Pilar, the net impacts of adoption were estimated to be only around PHP 3,700, given that many households had not enriched their NVS at the time of the survey. At the household level, the benefits of adoption are therefore contingent on the ability of the household to make further investments in their farming system, stemming from improved soil stability. Several case studies were used to describe the process of and constraints to farm development. The average impacts on incomes were found to be significant at the household level, with the potential to lift a household above the poverty threshold. Yet the marginal nature of the upland farming systems limits the aggregate on-site benefits. The expansion of activities into Pilar and Alicia was estimated to increase the net annual benefits, reaching PHP 2,270,000 (around AUD 60,000) per year by 2009. In absolute terms, this impact is still quite modest, but needs to be considered together with the off-site impacts and the costs of the Landcare Program. In Pilar, one of the clearest impacts of erosion due (in part) to upland cropping has been the sedimentation of the Malinao Dam. The significance and distribution of forgone revenue from irrigated rice as a result of sedimentation is largely determined by factors including the timing of rainfall events, the allocation of water between users, and the value of alternative land uses. Furthermore, the upland agricultural landscapes of Bohol are diverse and complex, with numerous sources and filters of sediment. A terrain analysis model was used to model the impact of incremental adoption of Landcare practices within the landscape. The results show that the spatial distribution of adoption is likely to be as important as the extent of adoption when it comes to delivering off-site benefits. The aggregate level of losses avoided as a result of Landcare was estimated to be around PHP 1,023,000 (AUD 26,900) over a 20-year period at a discount rate of five per cent. The results of the livelihood analysis and watershed modelling were combined in a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and compared to the costs of the projects and other investments that have helped bring about the impacts. The results showed a positive but small NPV of around PHP 3.5 million, equating to around AUD 91,000, for the 20 year period simulated, using a 5 per cent discount rate. The sunk costs of the early phases of theLandcare Program, however, continue to provide the basis for ongoing livelihood projects that utilise farmer groups as a means of extension. Furthermore, when the expansion of the Program into other nearby municipalities can draw on the original research or learning hub, rapid adoption can be achieved at relatively low cost and provide a significant return on investment. Overall, the evidence presented indicates that the net economic impacts of the Landcare Program in Bohol are positive, even when taking into account the prior investment in research and training. The major beneficiaries of the Program are the individual households who adopt the conservation farming practices, with these benefits largely generated by the farming opportunities stemming from improved soil stability. The diversification and commercialisation of the upland component of the farming system has mainly utilised land and labour at low opportunity cost, though limited access to these resources prevents some households from proceeding along the identified farm development pathway. The focus on livelihood development does not deny the seriousness of downstream watershed problems arising from upland agriculture. However, it is agued that given the relativity of on-site and off-site benefits, the focus and primary justification of the Landcare Program should remain on improving the productivity and livelihoods of upland farmers through facilitated, farmer-led, group-based research and extension, with these downstream impacts being seen as side benefits of what is essentially a livelihoods program.

<p>This paper examines the role of the pioneer Filipino filmmaker Jose Nepomuceno and his films in the Philippine quest for independence and in the process of nation-building. As all of Nepomuceno's films are lost, most of the information was gathered from old newspaper articles on microfilm in different archives in Manila. Many of these articles were hitherto undiscovered. Nepomuceno made silent films at a time when the influence of the new coloniser, United States, was growing, and the Spanish language was what unified the intellectual opposition. Previous research on Nepomuceno has focused on the Hispanic influences on his filmmaking, as well as his connections to the stage drama. This paper argues that Nepomuceno created a national consciousness by making films showing native lives and environments, adapting important Filipino novels and plays to the screen and covering important political topics and thereby creating public opinion. Many reviews in the newspapers connected his films to nation-building and independence, as the creation of a national consciousness is a cornerstone in the process of building a nation and defining "Filipino". Furthermore, the films of Nepomuceno helped spreading the Tagalog culture and language to other parts of the Philippines, hence making Tagalog the foundation of the national Filipino language.</p>

Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, and Thailand, have all chosen outward-oriented strat-egy over inward-oriented strategy to gain economic growth. This approach was due to the Asian miracles development. Therefore, protectionism had to cave in (Edwards, 1993). This thesis aim with the help of income terms of trade and GDPCAP to study the relation between trade and growth for these countries mentioned. Therefore, see if income terms of trade would work as an engine of growth for these countries. The purpose is to find a posi-tive correlation between the variables. ITT capture the price and volume effects when trade increases. That is why, ITT is used in this thesis, for the purpose that exports alone cannot explain growth if imports are left out. Time series was conducted with help of a unit root test, co-integration, and Granger causal-ity test. In each test made, the result provided showed of statistically significant values, hence, ITT is of relevance for growth in these countries, during 1980-2006.