The multidonor Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF) would give P21.3 million to the initial phase of developing conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, with a Moro guerrilla-formed development agency to lead a joint effort of government and international donors.
A briefer on the Bangsamoro Development Plans presented during the signing of a partnership agreement with different parties on Wednesday said the fund would be taken from the MTF and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).
“The MTF proposes to provide technical and financial assistance of P21.3 million [estimated at $479,000] to the Bangsamoro Development Agency [BDA] to lead an inclusive needs assessment and planning process for the BDP,” the briefer said.
The needs assessment would form the main output of the transitional development phase of the plan covering the period 2014-2015. This would serve as the baseline information for the actual reconstruction and development of areas affected by decades of armed conflict between Moro guerrillas and the government military.
The assessment would contain the information from the agreed seven major key areas: accelerated economic growth and development; human values and social development; priority infrastructure and logistic support; agriculture and fisheries; environment, natural resources and ecology; good governance and public administration; and just peace and enhanced security.
“These major key areas would require the involvement and active participation of experts and consultants in order to elicit the most viable, just and responsive tools and mechanisms that will ensure a far better program implementation and fund utilization aimed at providing maximum benefits to the Bangsamoro constituency,” the briefer said.
While the BDA would implement the plan, it would be helped by a steering committee composed of representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp), the National Economic and Development Authority, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Regional Planning and Development Office, the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, World Bank, Jica and the United Nations.
“The MNLF was also invited to join the steering committee,” the briefer said.
The entire Bangsamoro Development Plan would be coordinated by “a multidisciplinary team composed of international, national and Bangsamoro consultants formed through the collaborative efforts of the BDA, the Opapp, the World Bank and the Jica.
Windel Diangcalan of the BDA told reporters at the side of the ceremonial signing of the partnership agreement that the development plan was part of the MTF program on the reconstruction and development side.
“This plan would be the road map of development for the areas formerly affected by the armed conflict, as well as the areas proposed to be included in the new Bangsamoro entity,” he said.
As the MTF has promised to support the operation cost in the development phase covering the period 2016-2020, he said that initial phase on needs assessment would be done through consultations “to ensure that the development would have really an ownership stake from among the Bangsamoro residents.
“We will build on existing literature on the current economic development activities, with livelihood as a very important and crucial component of the plan,” he said. The funding would be coursed through the non-governmental group Mindanao Land Foundation.
The BDA was established immediately after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front agreed in 2001 to start implementing the rehabilitation phase of conflict-affected areas even as the talks were still going on.
The MTF was established in 2005 as a depository of foreign donations reserved for the reconstruction of Mindanao as soon as parties to the conflict would be able to sign a comprehensive peace agreement.
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