Table 1 Categorisation and description of group memberships and personal connections for operationalisation of bonding and bridging social capital
| Â | Type of membership or connection | Categorisation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Group memberships | Church | Bonding | The site of frequent community gatherings for church services, celebrations, festivals and holidays. Deeply intertwined with the cultural identity of Filipinos, as the Philippines is a religious country with the majority of their population self-identifying as Christian or Catholic [37]. |
Religious meeting | Bonding | Additional informal religious gatherings, often organised within communities. A commonplace practice across the Philippines as a country with strong religious identifications. | |
Barangay association | Bridging | Allows for participation in the smallest local government unit in the Philippines. | |
Finance or credit group | Bridging | Requires members to surpass a minimum threshold of financial assets in order to gain entry. | |
Savings group | Bridging | Requires members to surpass a minimum threshold of financial assets in order to gain entry. Thresholds are lower than that of finance or credit groups, but are less accessible as fewer have been established. | |
Cooperative | Bridging | Local business organisations that are owned and controlled by a group people. Involvement requires sizeable assets and a business plan. | |
Political association | Bridging | Involvement entails campaigning and taking part in local and national elections. | |
Personal connections | Pastor | Bonding | Protestant faith leaders (pastors) in the Philippines self-identify communities to work in. They typically reside directly in the community where the church is located, share similar demographic characteristics with the community members, and also occupy similar socioeconomic positions. |
Priest | Bridging | Catholic faith leaders (priests) in the Philippines are generally assigned to a larger geography (parish) that consists of multiple communities, which would include more individuals in their ‘service’ area than that of a pastor. As such, they may not come from the same background as those in the communities they serve. | |
Barangay captain | Bonding | Local elected official representing the smallest government unit in the Philippines. They are usually from the barangay they represent and are well-known in their community. | |
Barangay health worker | Bonding | Health-focused ‘volunteers’ that are recruited from local communities to be trained in front-line health service delivery. | |
Health professional | Bridging | Doctors, nurse and mid-wives are scarce in rural areas. Trained health providers are mostly employed in urban centers and hospitals. | |
Large business owner | Bridging | The target population of Transform (those living in extreme poverty) would have infrequent access to large business owners, who tend to occupy higher socioeconomic positions. | |
Member of a co-op | Bridging | As proprietors of jointly-owned local enterprises, they are similar to large business owners, only the latter would be less commonly encountered. |