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The Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) is a regional NGO association of 20 national and regional NGO networks from 9 Asian countries actively engaged in
food security, agrarian reform, sustainable
agriculture and rural development activities. Its member-networks have an effective
reach of some 3,000 NGOs throughout the region. ANGOC was founded in Bangkok in February 1979, following a two-year series of village- and national-level consultations in 10 Asian countries leading to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD, Rome, 1979). This initiative led to the preparation of a consolidated Asian NGO Report to WCARRD, entitled
"Development of the People, for the people, by the people". ANGOC currently has four major program areas, namely: ◊ Food Security; ◊ Sustainable Agriculture and Resource Management; ◊ Agrarian Reform and Resource Rights; and ◊ Participatory Local Governance
In mid-1982, ANGOC, together with the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), implemented a joint program on rural community participation aimed to promote GO-NGO dialogue on agrarian reform and rural development at the national level. The program called for village-level surveys and consultations. It covered 7 countries in South and Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, India,
Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In 1985, ANGOC launched a new program to concretize the promotion of GO-NGO-Donor relationships. ANGOC held its first Study Tour focused on rural credit and marketing. Also, along with 4 Philippine NGOs, it participated in the formation of the Philippine Development Assistance
Program (PDAP). In 1988, ANGOC and Friends of the Earth-USA entered into a partnership to address issues related to multilateral development banks (MDBs) on a global level. ANGOC also forged links with the
Environmental Policy Institute to bring about bank reforms. From 1991 to 1996, ANGOC organized the asian Development Forum (ADF) that tackled the following themes on an annual basis: a) community-based resource management, b) sustainable agriculture, c) sustainable livelihoods, d) transforming institutions, and e) people-
centered sustainable development In preparation for the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS), ANGOC jointly organized with FAO- Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO-RAP) the "Asia-Pacific Consultation of NGOs on the World Food Summit" held on 29-30 April 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to this consultation, ANGOC sponsored a regional advocacy training in Bangkok on "Food Security Through Sustainable Agriculture" and organized a one-day dialogue with FAO-RAP involving 40 sustainable agriculture practitioners and 27 FAO-RAP technical officers. This NGO workshop also produced the "Asian NGO Declaration for the World Food Summit" which became the basis for the NGO Declaration at the "Global Food Assembly" in which ANGOC was selected as one of the three focal points for follow-
up in the Asia-Pacific region for the WFS. In October 1999, ANGOC together with the Popular Coalition conducted a review of the WCARRD Agreements after 20 years. The conference enabled a dynamic sharing of experiences in accessing resources and resolution of land conflicts among civil society from Asia to Latin
America. Over 25 years, the ANGOC network has organized over 100 regional and national conferences, workshops and training courses and provided a continuing forum for exchange of experiences, ideas, knowledge and information. It has produced some 82 issues of various serials, at least 100 publications and over 200 unpublished studies. These have been circulated to about 3,000 individuals, institutions and organizations worldwide.
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