NEDA welcomes transfer of DAP

MANILA, Philippines — The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the transfer of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) to the country’s socioeconomic planning agency from the Office of the President (OP) is expected to strengthen the links between human resource development for the government and the implementation of the country’s development blueprint.

In a statement, NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan welcomed the DAP’s transfer from the OP to the NEDA under Executive Order (EO) 45 issued by Malacañang last week.

“Our development plan for socioeconomic transformation emphasizes the need to enhance productivity frameworks across government sectors and transform them into cohesive capacity development programs and incentive structures,” he said.

As such, he said DAP’s productivity capability development programs would greatly contribute to the strategy.

Under Chapter 14 of the Philippine Development Plan for 2023 to 2028, the government is aiming to rationalize and strengthen government functions, systems, and mechanisms.

To achieve this, the PDP has identified two key strategies such as pursuing rightsizing in the government, and improving the productivity of agencies.

DAP was created under Presidential Decree 205 (s. 1973) to promote and support the country’s development efforts through government human resource programs.

Prior to the issuance of EO 45, DAP was attached to the OP in view of the Administrative Code of 1987.

The NEDA, meanwhile, is the primary agency responsible for formulating continuing, coordinated, and fully-integrated social economic policies, plans and programs.

The EO for the transfer of DAP to NEDA was issued in line with the government’s rightsizing policy.

“Pursuant to the rightsizing policy of the national government, it is imperative to streamline and rationalize functional relationships of agencies with complementary mandates in order to promote coordination, efficiency, and organizational coherence in bureaucracy,” the EO read.

In addition, the EO cited the need for a strong organizational link between the NEDA and DAP to support the development and implementation of the latter’s human resource development programs, research, data collection, and information services, as well as to ensure consistency of its research, education and training with the national government’s socioeconomic agenda.