Enhancing Access and Control to Sustainable Livelihood Assets of the Manobo Tribe through Improved and Strengthened Self-governance of the Ancestral Territory - Effectiveness Review

Under Oxfam Great Britain’s (OGB) Global Performance Framework (GPF), sufficiently mature projects are being randomly selected each year and their effectiveness rigorously assessed. The Philippines’ Sustainable Livelihoods Mindanao Project (PHLB40) was randomly selected for an Effectiveness Review under the women’s empowerment thematic area. However, this particular project was designed to complement and enhance the work of four other Oxfam projects. Only one of these projects – Enhancing Access and Control to Sustainable Livelihood Assets of the Manobo Tribe through Improved and Strengthened Self-governance of the Ancestral Territory – was considered to be sufficiently mature for an effectiveness review. This project is being implemented by Oxfam’s partner, Paglilingkod Batas Pangkapatiran Foundation Incorporated (PBPF). It seeks to strengthen community governance, improve household food security, and empower women among a group of indigenous peoples (comprising of approximately 200 households) that reside in the Manobo-Mamanua Ancestral Domain of Mindonao.
To assess the effectiveness of the project in empowering women and improving household food security a quasi-experimental impact evaluation design was implemented. This involved administering surveys to 316 household in six villages – three targeted by the project and three neighbouring comparison villages. To reduce bias, propensity score matching (PSM) and multivariable regression (MVR) were used in the statistical comparison of the two groups. Progress of the project towards a number of key outcomes was assessed through this process. These outcomes include the extent to which women are involved in household-level decision-making and influencing affairs at the community level; women’s self-efficacy; the attitudes of both men and women towards the economic roles of women; and various measures of household food security, agricultural production, and income.
There is evidence that the Enhancing Access and Control to Sustainable Livelihoods Assets of the Manobo Tribe Project successfully affected several of these outcomes but not others. In general, there is more evidence that it has contributed to empowering women than enhancing household food security. In particular, significant differences between respondents in the project and non-project villages were identified for several of the women empowerment measures. These include those related to women’s perceived role in influencing community affairs, women’s self-efficacy, and the attitudes of men towards the economic roles of women.
There is little evidence that the project was successful in improving household food security. For most of the food security measures, no significant differences were identified between the project and non-project groups. However, there were several exceptions. More households in the project villages, for instance, reported being in a position to meet household needs than in the non-project villages. Moreover and very interestingly, men in the project villages were more likely to report consuming a greater variety of food types during the previous day than men in the comparison villages.
Oxfam in general and the Philippines country team and PBPF in particular are encouraged to consider the following as a follow-up to this effectiveness review:
Critically review and assess how the project can more effectively increase agricultural production and income Verify the extent women are actually involved in decision-making at the household level through qualitative methods Explore ways of more effectively promoting positive attitudes about the economic roles of women among both women and men