The Lakas ng Kababaihang Magsasaka sa Kanayunan (LAKAMBINI) was born out of the need and advocacy of peasant women to organize themselves to have one collective voice towards their empowerment. In March 1993, women leaders of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), a national confederation of peasant, fisherfolk and rural women organizations, held the First National Consultation for its women members. This led to the establishment of an all-women peasant organization, the Lakas ng Kababaihang Magsasaka sa Kanayunan (LAKAMBINI). LAKAMBINI, at the start, did not have separate programs, as it was under or handled by the Gender Department of PAKISAMA. However, during the last few years a leadership conflict excisted within PAKISAMA. When the confederation was at the height of its conflict in the national leadership, LAKAMBINI was also affected. Still, women leaders continued to persevere to take a hold of the project. LAKABINI, during the conflict of the confederation, accessed a project grant from Agriterra. With the crisis of Pakisama and with members of the Board of LAKAMBINI taking different stance on the matter, some women leaders of Lakambini decided to create an implementing organization and institutionalized a management structure which would serve as “central coordinating office” for the project, this they registered under the name, “Lakambini Micro-enterprise Development Center” (LMEDC). The project was cut short (mid 2007) as Agriterra realized they were not dealing with Lakambini which was the original partner for the project, but with LMEDC. A Congress or General Assembly is being proposed to settle the issues on the legal bearer of the project, and whether LAKAMBINI or LMEDC is the true representative of the members. It is believed that the members, the rural women, being the main stakeholders, are the ones who should decide on the future of the federation.

The main objective of the project is to promote micro-enterprise development for individual women and women’s groups. There are seventeen (17) base organizations in seventeen provinces that will be involved in the project. The primary beneficiaries are rural women, they number around six thousand (6,000) households or one thousand two hundred (1,200) individuals. Studies have shown that women have limited access to agricultural support services such as farm inputs, credit, training, technology, infrastructure, support for marketing and transport of agricultural produce, and others. The disadvantaged status of women, marginalization, subordination and inability to fully take part in the development process, remains a major challenge in the agrarian reform effort. The Lakambini essentially proposes to use three interrelated strategies of micro-enterprise technical assistance, financial services and policy advocacy that specifically targeted to individual women or women’s groups. For this proposal, the main components are the (1) Marketing and Training Assistance and (2) Policy Advocacy integrated with a (3) Mentorship Programme.