RP, World Bank speed up Mindanao agri program

The Philippine government and the World Bank have agreed to adopt various measures aimed at fast-tracking the implementation of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) in a bid to fulfill the Arroyo government’s vision of promoting sustainable economic growth and agricultural modernization in southern Philippines.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor made this remark following a recent Davao meeting he and some national and local officials had with a World Bank supervising team, who have been in town from Jan. 20 to 31 to review the work progress of the multi-million dollar undertaking.

In a report to President Arroyo, the DA chief said while the World Bank acknowledged some implementation bottlenecks partly due to the rather slow release of funds and the participatory decision-making approach of the program, the review team was reasonable enough to consider proposals meant to improve program operations and management.

Montemayor’s statement is reinforced by assurances from the World Bank, which is funding the unique, innovative development project in the south.

"Please relay to the (DA) Secretary our continued support for the implementation of the MRDP," said Carolina Figueroa-Geron, World Bank senior operations officer for rural development and natural resource management for East Asia and the Pacific, in a letter to DA officials.

"I think it is fair to say that neither the Bank nor the government has been satisfied, so far, with the pace of implementation, but it is not correct to say that we were threatening to cancel the project," another letter, sent by Robert Vance Pulley, World Bank country director for the Philippines, said.

"We fully support MRDP and we intend to help (the Philippine) government overcome the difficulties that they face as they implement this project," Pulley added in his letter, a copy of which was sent to Manila-based media outfits.

Montemayor said a catch-up plan that would speed-up the implementation to a satisfactory level by June 30, 2002 had been prepared together with the LGUs as lead implementers.

Among the measures adopted were for the budget department to cut short its tedious fund disbursement procedure by releasing irrigation project funds to the municipal development fund office (MDFO) in participating towns, with the same fund directly coursed to National Irrigation Authority regional offices, instead of passing through the NIA central office.

Another step was for local government units to speed-up the liquidation of their farm-to-market road projects to facilitate reimbursements. Still another was for the provincial governments of Agusan del Sur, Compostela Valley, Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, the five pilot provinces covered by the program, to create task forces to assist their respective municipalities in the pre-engineering activities.

The task forces will monitor closely all MRDP activities in their respective provinces to ensure timely completion of the projects.

The MRDP is an ambitious 12-year poverty reduction program of DA funded in part by a $289.5-million interest-bearing loan from the World Bank. It aims to address Mindanao’s need for food security through increased agricultural productivity, increased mobility for goods, services and people and increased local capabilities in using and managing its own resources.