We Effect is a Swedish-based development organization established in 1958 and operating as a country programme in the Philippines since 2010. It is implementing a rights based approach to development and cooperative promotion in advancing sustainable rural development, adequate housing and habitat and gender equality. Our partnership with member based organisations as well as strategic and technical partner organisations is gathered in the country programme called Equality First in Working TOGETHER – Working Towards Gender Equality, Transformative Housing and Empowerment of the Ruralfolk. We Effect has been working with 11 partners and 113 member-based organizations in the Philippines. We are working together to make a difference on the lives of at least 50,000 families in poor rural and urban communities all over the country. We are focused on empowering 30,000 women working in farming and fishing and in the informal economy. Gender Equality is the overarching goal and underlying principle of the programme with the main objective to establish a strong movement of member-based organizations to claim for the basic rights of their members for women empowerment, sustainable rural development, and adequate housing. Sustainable rural development is one of the two thematic working areas of We Effect. Agriculture is of vital importance to ensure the production of food, to generate incomes and to increase economic growth in rural areas. Consequently, smallholder farmers need greater knowledge along with better access to land, technical advice, affordable financial services, insurance, and markets, in order to increase productivity. We Effect works with smallholder farmers and their organisations. Our support is integral and includes organisational, business and production development. Today, approximately one billion people lack access to realizing their basic housing rights – security of tenure, affordable, location, access to basic infrastructure, services and materials, habitability, and cultural adequacy, making it difficult to exercise other human rights such as health care, education, work and citizenship. We Effect supports the growth of cooperative housing associations that are self-managed but works with the public and private entities. We support organisations that defend and demand people’s right to adequate housing. Gender equality contributes to long-term structural change at individual, organisational and societal level, and results in sustained poverty reduction. We Effect targets women in partner organisations to secure them the same rights and entitlements as men, especially to own and control land and access to financial resources and adequate housing
