EU, Germany to pour in ₧1B for Mindanao co-ops project

From the Business Mirror (Nov 8, 2021): EU, Germany to pour in ₧1B for Mindanao co-ops project (By MALOU TALOSIG-BARTOLOME)

SAID DATU is only 21 years old and yet he has been used to hearing gunshots as part of everyday living in Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao. He had to stop his studies and grow up like his community doing farming. Now, he worries if his son will suffer the same fate. “My dream is to move my family away, to a place without war,” Datu told volunteers of the International Committee of The Red Cross.

Datu is just one of the thousands of farmers and fisher folks in conflict areas in Mindanao who were displaced during clashes between warring clans or government troops and rebels. Most of the rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters are also farmers.

The European Union and Germany have recognized that to stop the endless cycle of violence in Mindanao, there is a need to address these socioeconomic issues affecting vulnerable sectors in Mindanao like farmers and fisherfolks.

Last Thursday, EU and Germany announced they would partner with the Philippine government in a four-year project called “Strengthening the Implementation of Regional and Local Peace and Development Agendas in Mindanao” (SPADe).

EU and Germany will fund the project which will cost around €18 million (P1 billion)

The project aims to “strengthen the capacities of state and non-state actors” in implementing the peace and development agendas in Mindanao.

Aside from farmers and fisher folk, the project will also target indigenous peoples, internally displaced people, women and youth in selected areas of six regions of Mindanao.

The Department of Interior and Local Government and Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will implement the project in coordination with Germany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the EU Delegation to the Philippines.

One of the projects that they are eyeing would be to promote “climate-smart agricultural and fishery value chains” as well as investment promotions. They would also help improve the services of agricultural cooperatives to their members.

“This new project is consistent with our EU vision, which calls for an integrated approach to conflicts, supports state and societal resilience, addresses extreme poverty, inequality and chronic fragility,” EU Ambassador Luc Véron said in his keynote during the virtual kick-off.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/11/08/eu-germany-to-pour-in-%E2%82%A71b-for-mindanao-co-ops-project/