History of the Advocacy :The Implementation Of Tapsa Program In Lissadila And Guico Villages

Since 2018 and 2019 community leaders, in Lisadilla and Guico villages, together with Mata Dalan Institute (MDI), have introduced the TAPSA program in which supported by CCFD and funded by the French Development Agency (FDA) for communities. The program introduced to communities in such a way to strengthen food sovereignty and bring the most resilient community against the climate change. The main objective in which MDI boned in this program is to show the local alternative development model in a way more realistic, participative, and environmental context that shows the potential information of the existent land with its planning and its preventive action. Through this program, MDI together with the community leaders conducted activities such as research on land use management participatory mapping approaches to identify spatial information and potential information of the villages.

The research results show the potential areas for the Agriculture sector and areas for dwelling that were in danger to flooding and erosion which will cause loss of land as has occurred in Guico and Lissadila villages: 

• In 1991, the Loes river has (0.948m) width but currently the width of the Loes river has (2.690Km), The every year situation of the river brings 831 households of Lissadila and Guisu villages lost their lands, dwelling places and fields almost (62.214m), including the transmigration areas block E, D and C also have been lost in Guico village. 
• In 2008, 2009, 2016,2018 and 2019, the Vatubleter rivers has affected the 532 families of Lissadila village, and 299 families from the Guico village and two houses were completely damaged (abandoned as an unsafe haven). A total of 831 houses in Guico and Lisadila villages are always affected by the Vatubleter river, 831 families are always panic when raining.
• In 2019 and 2020 the Ai-Alulua river affected 30 families from Guiço village and destroyed 40 heads of land together with plants and hedges, including animal pens. There were 30 families in Guico village who are affected by the river.

Based on this research, community leaders have created an action plan for community to mitigate the impacts or cause of flooding and erosion for communities. This community action plan identifies the importance of advocating for village problems to wake up the leaders attention in order to address the problems on the basis. 

Since December 2020 community leaders mobilized their communities to hold a press conference in Guico village to affirm the demands of the community to the Government in providing concrete solutions to the problems of flooding and erosion that have impacted communities such as loss of houses and loss of agricultural production and in the beginning of 2021, community leaders met with relevant state entities such as; 

• Political Advisor of the Prime Minister, Dr. Frei Guterres; 
• Ministry of Public Works Policy Adviser, Mr. Jorge Teme, 
• National Parliament Commission E for infrastructure affairs; 

The audiences concluded that "the Government is committed to conduct a technical study on the

problem of erosion of the Loes river, in order to identify its priorities. On the next hand, The National Parliament through the President of Commission D will prioritize this problem in its agenda so that the problems of erosion in the Loes river can be fixed up due to the “plan of the General State Budget for the fiscal year of 2022" To concretize the information from community leaders on September, 22nd 2021 and on October,14th 2021 the National Parliament through the Commission D and E inspected the field and followed by, the President of Commission D suggested to community leaders to prepare a request letter for normalisation to IGE so that temporarily, it could prevent the community from natural disasters. 

Results of the audience minutes and the accompaniment to the National Parliament’s monitoring. 

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  On December, 16th 2020, an audience between the community leaders of Guico and Lissadila villages and the Policy Advisor of the Prime Minister said that the Government will consider the emergency issue and will be forwarded to the Ministry of Public Works to send the technical staff for survey and suggest the Ministry of Public Works to also include it in the 2021 or 2022 General State Budget Plan. Currently, we are working on the request letter to IGE for the normalization of rivers. 
  

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  On September, 30th 2020 the MDI team held an audience with the Policy Adviser of the Ministry of Public Works, Mr. Jorge Teme, took into account that it such an urgent concern, and his part will inform to the Minister of Public Works in order to design a plan based on the data provided by MDI. 
  
  
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  On September, 16th 2021 the National Parliament Commission E on infrastructure issues Mr. Abel Pires said that: the commission will discuss in plenary and discuss with the Government so that it can be placed in the State Budget in 2022, the Commission E has also prepared a short-term attempt date and recommended MDI to continue facilitate data or information to the community leaders in such a way to foster the local development. 
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  On October, 14th 2021, the President of commission D and his entourage arrived in these two villages to supervise the area of Loes river and other rivers in Guico and Lisadila villages which has brought a tremendous negative impact to the community. In this monitoring, the President of Commission D, Mr. António Bianco, informed the village chiefs of Guico and Lissadila that the problem is categorized as an emergency concern, however unfortunately the Government can not be included in the Budget of the fiscal year of 2022 yet but the plan will be included in the Budget for the next fiscal year of 2023.