Participatory research with indigenous communities in the Philippines.

Oxfam encourages its partners to integrate gender issues into their work. Accordingly, the organization drew a team of six researchers from local partners to conduct a gender-needs assessment in Arakan Valley, North Cotabo, on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. There are five million indigenous people in the Philippines belonging to more than forty different tribal groups. They are oppressed and exploited by foreign and local elites, with many having lost their ancestral lands to agribusiness plantations, ranches, mining and logging concessions of multinational corporations, and government projects. Focus group discussions, participant observation, key informant feedback, and case studies conducted over a twelve-month period found the existence of physical violence between husbands and wives; men typically having two-three wives, with women pressuring men to take more wives so that there will be more labor for farming and housework; incest is taboo, but it is not unusual for sisters to be married to one man; and women's labor responsibilities relative to men's have increased. Study results are being shared with participants in the local language.