SEA has identified the economic dimension as its entry point to SIAD. From this entry point, SEA will then be able to effectively address the other dimensions of SIAD.
The economic dimension is the entry point for ISD/SIAD installation because most of the poverty in the Philippines is in farming communities. The introduction of high yielding organic agriculture and supporting infrastructure would thus reduce poverty in the town. And this is very possible because Zarraga is located in Western Visayas, the hotbed of organic agriculture in the country.
The core sub-program of Larga Sustainable Zarraga is Bayaw-Anihan Sustainable Economies or BASE.
Bayaw-Anihan is a Visayan, Central Philippine term for what can only be weakly translated in English as “solidarity”. Bayaw-Anihan contains not only the sense of collective action, but it lifts this collective action to the inspiring spiritual powers that help guide and form communities. In addition, it situates this solidarity action in the context of life processes that sustain humans, communities, and Nature itself.
The objective of the BASE Sub-Program is to demonstrate the viability, effectiveness, and poverty-busting potential of solidarity economics in the area of agriculture, the predominant livelihood of most residents of Zarraga.