Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

From a youth camp for juvenile delinquents in the biggest squatters relocation site in Manila, Philippines, Gawad Kalinga (GK) has expanded to become the largest poverty-alleviation and nation-building movements in the country. With the goal of “ending poverty for five million families by 2024”, GK has been working with its multi-sectoral partners and volunteers, building homes and organizing communities in more than 2,000 sites all over the Philippines. Seeking to improve its community development model, GK launched GK Enchanted Farm in 2011 as a prototype social laboratory that “[connects] the poor to the capital, technology, expertise and markets they so need.” Tapping into the resources and expertise of its institutional and organizational partners, and its millions of volunteers, the farm has transformed from a fourteen-hectare verdant lot to the Farm Village University, Silicon Valley for Social Entrepreneurship and Disneyland for Social Tourism that GK envisioned (GK1WORLD, 2014). This study describes the impact that GK’s community development model had on the transformation of GK Enchanted Farm. In particular, it details the different partnerships and individual initiatives, and their specific contributions to the process of the farm’s development. In doing so, the study demonstrates how inclusive private sector innovations can engender not only development but also good governance.