An inter-agency development program on economic development has benefited 100 new small and micro-enterprises (SMEs) and 5,000 new jobs were created in the province of Quezon.
The International Labor Organization (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) implemented the program in partnership with the government of Japan and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security.
In Bondoc Peninsula, south-eastern part of Quezon province in the Philippines, people earn less than $1 per day.
Lack of decent work, extreme poverty and armed conflict pushed people to vulnerable forms of employment and forced them to accept whatever work is available just to survive.
In 2009, the magnitude of poor people in Quezon Province reached over 580,000 or 32.5 per cent of its population.
The program also benefited over 4,000 farmers and fisherfolks through training, seed banking including fishing and farming inputs for increased income and productivity.
Through a local economic development approach, the partnership used local resources and invested in developing skills and creating opportunities at the community level.
These included industries such as buri weaving, coco-sugar, coco-coir and geo-nets.
In Unisan, a municipality in Bondoc Peninsula, the Buri industry created over a hundred jobs and extended income opportunities for inmates in the provincial jail.
These products will be featured in a trade fair to be held on 10 June 2013 at the Rockwell Tent, Makati City. Local communities from Bondoc Peninsula will bring their products made out of buri and raffia.
The trade fair will also showcase upland rice, native swine and organic lechon, coco sugar and vinegar, organic soap, arrowroot cookies and flour and vermicompost products.

Source: Manila Bulletin - June 10, 2013