World Bank Approves Second Phase Of Mindanao Project

Contacts

In Manila:
Leonora Aquino-Gonzales (632) 917-3003, lgonzales@worldbank.org

Anissa Tria (632) 917-3013, atria2@worldbank.org

In Washington:
Mohamad Al-Arief (202) 458-5964, malarief@worldbank.org

MANILA , March 29, 2007 – The second phase of the Mindanao Rural Development Project (MRDP2) has been approved by the World Bank’s Board of Directors. The US$83.752 million loan is part of a four-phase Adaptable Program Loan (APL) whose long term objective is to improve incomes and food security in Mindanao.

Phase 2 will improve livelihood opportunities of targeted communities in 225 municipalities in all of the 27 provinces of Mindanao.  It will also institutionalize a decentralized system for agriculture and fisheries service delivery that will promote participation, transparency and accountability. MRDP2 will also pilot test a performance-based grant scheme which will provide additional grants to local government units (LGUs) to be used for local/devolved development infrastructure projects.

“The larger scale of MRDP2 (in more than half of the 422 municipalities in Mindanao ) ensures that all eligible municipalities are included in the program. We hope that through MRDP2, our beneficiary communities will experience not just increased incomes but significant improvements in LGU service delivery as well,” said Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.

“MRDP2 encompasses strong approaches related to community-driven development (CDD) which will help promote the active and continued participation of indigenous peoples and other disadvantaged groups in the development process,” said Joachim von Amsberg, World Bank Country Director for the Philippines.

MRDP1, completed in December 2004, was successfully initiated in five provinces and 32 municipalities. It brought about the active engagement of local government units (LGUs) and rural communities in Mindanao towards a common agricultural development agenda and demonstrated a credible and doable approach for developing decentralized models of agriculture sector services for the entire country, not just Mindanao.  

On its third phase (MRDP3), the project is envisioned to continue support for all LGUs covered under Phase 2, focusing on deepening the program by ensuring that all eligible municipalities are fully engaged. The fourth phase (MRDP4) would focus on reinforcing the key thrusts underpinning the overall program and in securing both program and institutional sustainability of the development initiatives undertaken in support of increasing agricultural production and alleviating rural poverty.

“Promoting poverty reduction and rural growth specifically in the island of Mindanao, remains particularly high in the government’s priorities given that in spite of its distinct climatic and geographic advantages which favor agriculture and fisheries sector growth, almost a third of the country’s poor live in Mindanao. We hope that with this project, Mindanaoans will experience greater economic and integration opportunities, particularly to indigenous communities and other disadvantaged groups,” said Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Arthur Yap.  The DA is the overall executing agency of MRDP with the LGUs as the implementors of subprojects identified and prioritized by targeted communities.

Other World Bank-assisted projects in Mindanao which MRDP2 complements include the ARMM Social Fund Project, the Mindanao Reconstruction and Development Trust Fund, the Community Based Resource Management Project, the Second Agrarian Reform Communities Development Project and the Kalahi-CIDSS Project.