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ORGANIZATION
The
Local Empowerment Foundation (LEF) provides social development
initiatives with emphasis on biodiversity, environment and agricultural sector,
rural entrepreneurship, peace-building and gender and development. LEF has grown
out of a pool of community development workers in North Central Mindanao truly
concerned about the direct link between severe poverty, local resource
mismanagement and the absence of lasting peace.
PROGRAMES AND PROJECTS
1. Community Action for
Nature’s Oversight, Protection and Yield (CANOPY)
CANOPY is an umbrella program of
all sustainable environment and agriculture project of LEF. Under this
component, LEF supports small-scale farm-based development, establishment of
household seedling nurseries of high value crops, multistorey and multiple
cropping, promotion of nitrogen-fixing trees and the preservation of endemic
flora and fauna.
LEF maintains several
agriculture research and demonstration farms in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del
Norte.
2. Promotion of
Rural Livelihoods
Fully believing that lasting
peace can come only from socioeconomic stability. LEF actively promotes the
Competency-base Economies through the Formation of Entrepreneurs (CEFE) or CEFE
technology promoted under GTZ. CEFE utilizes structured learning exercises and
adult education techniques to impart entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to
farmers and rural workers.
In partnership with several
stakeholders, LEF actively participated in the training of 68 Ex-Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels on entrepreneurship utilizing the CEFE
technology.
3. Technical Assistance to
Local Stakeholders
LEF staff provides on-call,
short-term technical services to other NGOs, cooperatives, LGUs, business and
religious in community organizing, entrepreneurship development, planning and
management, project proposal packaging, resource inventory, monitoring and
evaluation. Some of LEF partners are the Department of Education, Culture and
Sports (DECS)-Division of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Norte Provincial
Government, Servus Human Rural Development Program (SEHRDEP), Municipal LGU of
Linamon, Municipal LGU of Initao.
Illustrative Projects
1. Seedling Nursery of High
Valued Fruit Trees, Timber, Nitrogen-Fixing and Lesser used Species
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Hinaplanon, Iligan City
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Initao, Misamis Oriental
2.
Agroforestry and Sustainable Agriculture Research, Demonstration and Training
Farms/Seed and Planting Materials Production
20 hectares (ipil-ipil,
mango, lakatan, jackfruit, durian multistorey)
1 hectare (sineguelas, NFT,
mango, gmelina multistorey)
5 hectares (gmelina,
banana, mango, acacia multistorey)
3 hectares (coconut, fruit
trees, vegetable multistorey)
4. Technical Assistance
Projects
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Packaging of a proposal entitled “Promotion
of Food and Health Security Among Marginal Internally Displaced Farmers in
Lanao del Norte Through Production, Processing, Distribution and Marketing
of Staple, High-Valued Crops and Industrial Tree Crops, and the
Rehabilitation and Construction of Basic Infrastructure such as Health
Centers and Farm to Market Roads”
for submission to the European Commission (EU).
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Conduct
of entrepreneurship and peace and development trainings among ex-Moro
National Liberation Front members for a project implemented by the Lanao
Foundation, Inc. and funded by the Peace Fund-Canada.
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Packaging
of a Women’s Health Promotion Project for the entire Department of
Education, Culture and Sports (DECS)-Division of Lanao del Norte. The
project eventually won an award as Best Women’s Health Project for Region
XII.
Recent LEF Publication: April
2003
Gmelina
arborea Promotions, Planting, Wood Processing and Products Marketing:
Documentation of Best Management Practices Among Smallholder Farmers in
Mindanao, the Philippines. In Recent Advances with Gmelina arborea (eds. W.S.
Dvorak, G.R. Hodge, W.C. Woodridge and J.L. Romero).
CD-ROM. CAMCORE, North Carolina State University. Raleigh, N.C. USA.
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![[LEF main office]](images/lefmainoffice.jpg)
