World Bank cites Philippine Rural Development Project as model program

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rural development program has been cited by the World Bank as one of the most outstanding programs  that is worth replicating by other nations.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the World-Bank assisted Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) would be a subject of an international conference of developing countries in Germany next week.

“PRDP has been cited as one of the outstanding rural development programs ever implemented by WB anywhere in the world. PRDP is actually the first WB rural program that started from the ground,” said Piñol, who will represent the Philippines in the conference next week.

The six-year PRDP, which began in 2013, started as a farm-to-market road initiative and was eventually added with several livelihood components to ensure stakeholders participation.

“WB would like to share this to other developing countries as well because they feel that this is a program worth replicating to other countries. One of its salient features is how effective it is in curtailing corruption in the implementation of projects,” Piñol said.

“It should be noted that there were lots of corruption issues before but the LGUs now are living up to the expectations,” he added.

The PRDP, which was jumpstarted by former agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala, is known to have revolutionized ways of doing business in and with the DA, introducing innovations in enhancing transparency, accountability and participation mechanisms.

It was designed to establish the government platform for a modern, climate-smart, and market-oriented agri-fishery sector, focusing on expanding market access and improving competitiveness while introducing reforms in the internal operations of the DA.

The program aimed to increase annual real household incomes of farmer beneficiaries, annual marketed output and the number of farmers with improved access to DA services.