The collapse of the emerging markets and its ricochet effect of on advanced economies may not be the end of globalization. But it is certainly the end of an era.

A year after the financial meltdown that engulfed most of Asia, fortune appears to be smiling on the "tigers" once again. Far from being doomed to years of depression or stagnation, the stricken economies of East and Southeast Asia are bouncing back, at almost everybody's surprise. The recovery, led by South Korea but being hotly followed in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, does look genuine and quite vigorous. There are even glimmers of recovery in the one economy in the region that has been passing through a real nightmare, Indonesia. And yet, the "tigers" have yet to regain their old self-assurance. They worry that, having grappled their way to recover, their luck might be about to turn.

This is helped by continuing uncertainly elsewhere in the world. The yen continues to rise against the dollar, suggesting that Japanese monetary policy remains too tight and that the country's exports will soon begin to feel the pain. This, along with similar rise in the Euro, suggests a gradual shift by investors out of dollar assets. A failing dollar could bring trouble for the United States, and for its Federal Reserve, which continues to dither about raising interest rates, and by how much. The benign trend of a strong dollar and weak commodity prices seems to be on the turn, bringing worries of higher inflation.

China, and regional political stability, is always hard to predict. That country's economy appears to be undergoing a slow collapse rather than a crisis. But is now in the midst of a war of words with Taiwan, which could merely be one of their periodic bouts of sabre-rattling but has the potential to turn into a sabre-clash at any moment. The region is also waiting nervously to see whether North Korea is about to test a new long-range missile, for if it does all number of bets will be off. East Asia has indeed bounced back. But its recovery still looks pretty fragile.

Facing an old adversary

The one thing that has remained constant amidst the flux is the inequality among and within our societies.
In the past ANGOC has sought to address the issues of poverty and inequality in Asian societies through a combination of advocacy and on-the-ground initiatives. Agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture, and participatory and people-centered development have figured prominently in ANGOC's work program. In 1994, however, the network began to re-define its program focus to reflect its increasing concern for food security.

Food security , or the lack of it, is perhaps the most telling indicator of a person's, family's, or nation's state of affairs. People can argue over the necessity of any number of life's amenities, but few will dispute the idea that the perennial lack of food is proof of deprivation. The level of food security is also a good measure of the level of poverty. Among poor families, purchasing decisions are easy to make most if not all of their income goes to buying food. Hence, a family forced to go without food must be very poor indeed.

By prioritizing the enhancement of food security, ANGOC had hoped to address poverty where it is most visible and where the success or failure of its efforts would be least subject to speculation.

All out for Food Security

In 1998 ANGOC declared its all-out commitment to food security in its strategic action plan for 1998-2001. It launched a project designed to enhance food security in 200 Asian rural communities by securing for them greater access to productive resources, promoting resource conservation and empowering them to make economic and political decisions that affect their day-to-day lives.

ANGOC's Strategy to achieve this goal is three-pronged.

1. Capacity building. This strategy is designed to "Strengthened" the network and to prepare it for the task it has taken on . It would need an efficient and effective management information system (MIS), greater involvement from its member, and financial stability.
2. Policy advocacy. ANGOC realized early on that just one wrong-headed policy or law could wipe out many year's worth of hard-won gains. Hence, there should be no let-up in efforts to secure policy reforms that favor or support equitable land or resource redistribution, sustainable agriculture and people's participation.
3. Strategic networking. This involves maintaining and cultivating partnership and alliances at the global, regional, national and local levels.

A look at last year's goal and accomplishments

The Regional secretariat had commitment itself to a number of target outputs for 1998-1999. In the area of Capacity Building, we are supposed to set up an efficient and effective management information system
More specifically, we should have an updated database on food security from information gathered from 150 rural communities in 8 Asian countries. To date we have completed the baseline survey in 140 villages in 7 countries and are currently processing the data.

We have also made considerable progress towards setting up a functional information/communication system among our members. We have completed the inventory of our members' technical readiness for electronic exchange, conducted training for Internet users, established e-groups, and generally made an improvement communication and information exchanges within the network.

As far as the enhancing our members' involvement is concerned, we have signed up7 country focal points (CFPs), just one CFP short of the target. We have actively recruited for new member in Cambodia and Thailand and have received an application from CNAC in Cambodia. Discussions within the network NGO in Thailand are underway.

We have also made some headway in improving the secretariat's operational financial and administrative systems. We have developed and are implementing systems for financial reports, forms, and other items and have kept our financial books in order. Raising the target for institutional savings has been hard going, however.
The secretariat had more consistent success with its Policy advocacy targets. We have defined the organizational framework for 1999-2001, mobilized program funds amounting to US$ 316, 000 and hired enough people for ANGOC's work program. We are keeping up with our targets for policy proposals and we will have conducted the 2 regional conferences before the year-end.

ANGOC is also making the most of its partnerships and alliances. It is on the steering committee of a number of ongoing conferences and for a: the Global Forum on Food and Nutritional Security ; the Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty; the World Civil Society Conferences; The International Forum on Capacity Building . It is the Southeast Asia regional Node for the Knowledge Network; the secretariat for the East Asia Pacific Regional NGO Working Group on the World Bank; member of the ADB-NGO Forum and the Sustainable Agriculture Networking and Extension; and a committee member of the Agrarian Reform Now!
ANGOC has also made initial contacts with ASEAN for possible collaboration on issues concerning trade. It has formalized its relations with SEARCA and UPLB in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding.

The Work Program for 1999-2000

The Secretariat now submits its work program for 1999-2000 for your consideration. Food security for the Asian rural communities selected the 200-Village project will continue to be the central concern of the work program. This will have three components: Agrarian reform and resource rights (ARRR); Sustainable agriculture and resource management (SARM); and Participatory local governance (PLG), along with a number of Support projects.

Each of the sub-programs will employ the same three-pronged strategy of capacity building, strategic networking and policy advocacy. Specific projects have been lined up for each of the sub-programs.
This coming year, ANGOC will move its policy work into high gear. We will remind our governments and intergovernmental institutions of commitments made both in WCARRD and in the World Food Summit. Although countries are not bound to implement them, these commitments or expressions of intent to commit can still be used to good effect.

The Millenium round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is expected to have even more profound effects on Asian agriculture and food security , and so cannot be left to the old guard. In 1993, when the Uruguay round, the last big push towards global free trade, was completed, it was said that poor countries would benefit most. Six years on, and only two months before the proposed launch of a new "millenium round" of trade liberalization talks in Seattle in November, that claim sound hollow. Developing countries have three main complaints. First, that they are being forced to open their markets closed. And third, they lack the resources and information to negotiate effectively, to implement trade agreements and to exploit world trade rules to their advantage.
In particular, the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) effectively undermine the sovereignty of nation state where policies on food production and food security are concerned. Hence, ANGOC should focus its policy advocacy on this particular aspect of the talks. At the same time, ANGOC intends to widen te scope of its initiatives in sustainable agriculture as well as its advocacy work in this regard through its membership in GFFNS and SANE.

Target outputs for 1999-2000

ANGOC has lined up specific target outputs for the coming year. In so far as Capacity Building is concerned, ANGOC plans to strengthen its MIS by: 

• completing its database on 200 villages in 9 countries; 
• publishing a directory of NGOs involved in agrarian reform; 
• setting up e-conferences on critical and timely issues and electronic training on skills needed for development work especially maximizing the Internet 
• participating in e-malls (on-line shopping sites on the Internet) to sell its publication;

ANGOC also hopes to increase its members' involvement by: 

• getting them to participate in the 200-Village Project and other programs; 
• recruiting at least one women's organization and one new member from Cambodia; 
• drawing up a shortlist of potential members in Thailand and Vietnam.

ANGOC's policy advocacy strategy will call for:

• at least one regional conference as a follow-up to the World Food Summit; 
• publication of : (1) 10 additional papers for ANGOC's 20th Anniversary; (2) 2 issues of Lok Niti and Gotong Royong; (3) a video documentary; (4) a World Food Day poster; (5) a manual on participatory approaches and processes.

Finally, ANGOC plans to fulfill it strategic networking agenda by:

• maintaining its regional leadership in GFFNS, IFCB, the Popular Coalition and the Knowledge Network on Agrarian Reform; and 
• establishing South-South linkages and people-to-people alliances.

(For comments, please write to [email protected].)