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1. Farmer Movement Oversight of Mexican Government Agricultural Programs

Author:
Jonathan Fox and Carlos García Jiménez
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
In Mexico’s state of Guerrero, a broad-based, collaborative social accountability campaign led by a network of agrarian community leaders contributed to improving a large-scale free fertilizer program, targeted at smallholders. In 2019, the newly-elected federal government took over a state government subsidy program that had been synonymous with clientelism and corruption, promising to clean it up and include access to organic fertilizer. When the program’s historic deficiencies persisted during its first year of transition to federal management, farmers responded with widespread, confrontational protest. To address this chaotic situation, veteran activists and community leaders from across the state transformed protest into proposals, launching a participatory, statewide monitoring and advocacy campaign with the Guerrero Network of Ejido and Communal Commissioners. The campaign advocated for the validation of program beneficiary rosters in community assemblies, based on federal agrarian law, also using the official public information request system. It helped to ensure the distribution of fertilizer to smallholder farmers, reduced diversion of fertilizer for corrupt or electoral purposes, and promoted more inclusion of women and indigenous smallholders. Despite these achievements, the Network’s proposals for transparency, peasant participation, accountability, and agroecological transition were rejected by the government officials responsible for the fertilizer program. In response, the campaign coordinators shifted their focus to other government agricultural programs and coordinated with agrarian leaders in other states to launch their own advocacy platforms. This organizing process led to the second Agrarian Convention of Guerrero, which included participation of agrarian leaders from a dozen other states, followed by regional meetings and state conventions in half of the country’s states. On April 10, 2023, five thousand agrarian leaders gathered in Mexico City for the First National Agrarista Convention. Reflections on this experience include: The focus of the farmer oversight campaign on immediately felt needs generated social energy and inspired a new organizing strategy. The state-wide mobilization to promote better fertilizer delivery was grounded in revitalized civic life in historic local participatory governance institutions that were created following the Mexican Revolution. Elected leaders of these ejidos and agrarian communities gave the campaign both scale and legitimacy. Though mainly driven by grassroots organizing, the farmer oversight campaign also used technical open government tools. The campaign combined the monitoring of agricultural programs and local problem-solving with social mobilization, scaling up advocacy for greater recognition of peasant movement oversight to the national level.
Topic:
Agriculture, Government, Social Movement, Farming, and Community Organizing
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico

2. Movement-building for Accountability: Learning from Indonesian Women’s Organizing

Author:
Nani Zulminarni, Valerie Miller, Alexa Bradley, Angela Bailey, and Jonathan Fox
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (Women-Headed Family Empowerment, known as PEKKA) is an Indonesian organization whose work is rooted in a vision of women’s collective power and participation for social change. Since 2001, PEKKA has addressed entrenched social exclusion through popular education, intensive leadership development, and social accountability and policy advocacy. Thousands of marginalized women have overcome stigma and entered the public sphere to engage in politically savvy, sustainable collective action. This emphasis on autonomous grassroots voice is grounded in 2,559 village-level cooperatives that are also scaled up to district, provincial and national levels (PEKKA 2017). PEKKA’s combination of national advocacy with grassroots organizing and countervailing power has influenced national social programs and broadened women’s access to the legal system. Improved access to the courts allows women to obtain legal documentation of their own civil status. This allows women to legalize a marriage that was valid under Islamic law or file a divorce case that will enable her to be recognized as the head of her family. The experience of gaining legal documents may build the knowledge and confidence required to obtain a birth certificate for their children, thereby securing opportunities and access to social services, including education, for the next generation. PEKKA engages in cross-sector alliance-building with local government, Islamic authorities, national policymakers, and international development agencies. This creates the political space and legitimacy needed to navigate complex cultural and political dynamics and deflect those forces opposed to public accountability and social inclusion. PEKKA’s grassroots members promote social accountability, monitoring access to services and solving problems through collaborative engagement with authorities—though without using those terms. What makes PEKKA’s approach to social accountability distinctive is its emphasis on building a broad, autonomous social base as the foundation for projecting grassroots women’s voices, combined with its multi-level approach to advocacy. PEKKA takes scale into account by engaging with authorities from the village level to national and international levels. PEKKA’s long-term efforts to build a broad-based organization with more than 31,447 members have brought fresh and reimagined language, analysis, and strategy ideas to the transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) field. Key lessons from PEKKA’s accountability strategies include the following: 1. Address underlying institutional and cultural causes of social exclusion to create the confidence and space needed for women to exercise their voices and take collective action. 2. Use economic empowerment to build social foundations for autonomous voice and civic engagement. 3. Build countervailing power through action strategies that scale up member voice, leadership skills, and opportunities for participation in all aspects of the work. 4. Produce diverse forms of evidence for multiple audiences to advance advocacy strategies and maximize impact. 5. Cultivate allies and relationships inside and outside government, and at multiple levels, to expand impact and deflect opposition.
Topic:
Social Movement, Women, Accountability, and Community Organizing
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Southeast Asia

3. Movement-building for Accountability: Learning from Indonesian Women’s Organizing

Author:
Nani Zulminarni, Valerie Miller, Alexa Bradley, Angela Bailey, and Jonathan Fox
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (Women-Headed Family Empowerment, known as PEKKA) is an Indonesian organization whose work is rooted in a vision of women’s collective power and participation for social change. Since 2001, PEKKA has addressed entrenched social exclusion through popular education, intensive leadership development, and social accountability and policy advocacy. Thousands of marginalized women have overcome stigma and entered the public sphere to engage in politically savvy, sustainable collective action. This emphasis on autonomous grassroots voice is grounded in 2,559 village-level cooperatives that are also scaled up to district, provincial and national levels (PEKKA 2017). PEKKA’s combination of national advocacy with grassroots organizing and countervailing power has influenced national social programs and broadened women’s access to the legal system. Improved access to the courts allows women to obtain legal documentation of their own civil status. This allows women to legalize a marriage that was valid under Islamic law or file a divorce case that will enable her to be recognized as the head of her family. The experience of gaining legal documents may build the knowledge and confidence required to obtain a birth certificate for their children, thereby securing opportunities and access to social services, including education, for the next generation. PEKKA engages in cross-sector alliance-building with local government, Islamic authorities, national policymakers, and international development agencies. This creates the political space and legitimacy needed to navigate complex cultural and political dynamics and deflect those forces opposed to public accountability and social inclusion. PEKKA’s grassroots members promote social accountability, monitoring access to services and solving problems through collaborative engagement with authorities—though without using those terms. What makes PEKKA’s approach to social accountability distinctive is its emphasis on building a broad, autonomous social base as the foundation for projecting grassroots women’s voices, combined with its multi-level approach to advocacy. PEKKA takes scale into account by engaging with authorities from the village level to national and international levels. PEKKA’s long-term efforts to build a broad-based organization with more than 31,447 members have brought fresh and reimagined language, analysis, and strategy ideas to the transparency, participation, and accountability (TPA) field. Key lessons from PEKKA’s accountability strategies include the following: Address underlying institutional and cultural causes of social exclusion to create the confidence and space needed for women to exercise their voices and take collective action. Use economic empowerment to build social foundations for autonomous voice and civic engagement. Build countervailing power through action strategies that scale up member voice, leadership skills, and opportunities for participation in all aspects of the work. Produce diverse forms of evidence for multiple audiences to advance advocacy strategies and maximize impact. Cultivate allies and relationships inside and outside government, and at multiple levels, to expand impact and deflect opposition.
Topic:
Social Movement, Women, Accountability, Community Organizing, and Grassroots Organizing
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Southeast Asia