About LIFE

Community-level conflict can be a major factor in depressing agricultural productivity and innovation. Nowhere is this more relevant than in Mindanao, the Philippines second largest island and widely regarded as the nation’s food bowl.

An eight-year project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) from 2013 to 2021, in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD) for the last three years, has developed a successful new model for addressing this problem. Across 26 pilot sites, the LIFE (Livelihood Improvement through Facilitated Extension) Model has demonstrated significant ability to rapidly improve farmer livelihoods in the face and threat of conflict.

A special three-part LIFE Package contains detailed information on the LIFE Model:

1. This video library web site – ‘Visions of LIFE’.

2. A book titled ‘The Facts of LIFE’.

The book brings together the collective knowledge of the LIFE Team. Over six main chapters, there is a summary of the conflict situation, the impacts of conflict, considerations for designing effective extension programs for conflict areas, how the new model was developed, how it works, and the outcomes and impacts it has achieved. Woven throughout the chapters are 22 testimonials, or ‘LIFE stories’, of people’s experience with the LIFE Model. Each LIFE story is linked via a QR code to this online video library where each testimonial can be explored in a more visual manner (see My LIFE Story list below).

3. A training manual titled ‘Training for LIFE’. The manual provides more detailed information on some of the tools and techniques used to implement LIFE within a community.