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By Germelina Lacorte
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — World Bank-led development projects are already being carried out in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao even as the government’s stalled peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Malaysia have yet to resume.
Danda Juanday, executive director of the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), the development arm of the MILF, said last week various development projects ranging from post-harvest facilities to multipurpose halls have already started and about to be completed in remote and poverty-stricken barangays in Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Davao Oriental and Matanog, Maguindanao.
Mary Judd, the World Bank’s coordinator in Mindanao, said the projects are covered under the first phase of the Mindanao Trust Fund administered by the World Bank to prepare the affected communities for the signing of a peace agreement with the MILF.
Judd said over US$3 million has already been poured in by foreign donors into the trust fund, which began in March last year.
Canada has poured in an additional 40 million pesos (Canadian $1million) to the fund early last week, on top of the 30 million pesos it committed during the start of the program. Canada’s assistance is coursed through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Canadian ambassador Peter Sutherland said his government has decided to participate in the first phase of the trust-fund project to create what he called a “climate for peace” in Mindanao even before the peace agreement is signed.
Sutherland, who was here Thursday for the ceremonial signing of the trust fund’s administrative agreement, said his country wanted to build a “strong constituency for peace” among the conflict affected communities in Mindanao and to create more motivation and incentive for the people and also to urge MILF leaders to sign the peace agreement.
According to Judd, over one million peso have been spent on BDA’s development works in affected communities over a year since the fund began.
Other donors that pledged to contribute funds include Australia, New Zealand and Sweden, according to Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser for the peace process.
Judd said the WB-led program decided to carry out the peace and development works in two phases: the first phase of which covers development works prior to the signing of the peace pact while the second phase, covers the rebuilding efforts once the peace pact is signed.
“We decided to divide the project before and after to prepare the communities for the rebuilding works when the war is over,” said Judd.
Josefina Esguerra, coordinator of the trust fund’s secretariat, said the project plans to cover as much as they can the 150 identified communities affected by conflict and to include indigenous peoples, the internally displaced persons and women’s groups.
The World Bank, which administers the program, helped jumpstart the project by pouring in US$1.5 million last year. (Germelina Lacorte/davaotoday.com)
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