Germany grants P800 million for development of conflict areas in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines - The government of Germany is extending to the Philippines P800 million in fresh funds under the Technical Cooperation Program (TCP) between the two countries, mainly for development and conflict resolution projects, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said yesterday.

The funds would be used to support the proposed Conflict Sensitive Resource and Management or COSERAM project that includes initiatives that would help develop conflict areas in Mindanao.

For this project, Germany is extending P430.78 million comprising of P400 million in new commitment and P30.77 million from reprogrammed funds.

The project, which will focus on the Caraga region in Mindanao, will provide participatory conflict analysis and would support grassroots conflict transformation initiatives with specific focus on resource-based conflicts.

Germany will also provide P107.69 million for the final phase of the Private Sector Promotion Program or SMEDSEP, an ongoing development project and P123.08 million for the final phase of the Decentralization Program.

Another ongoing project in conflict areas is the Environment and Rural Development Program wherein Germany would be providing P169.23 million.

The SMEDSEP’s final phase will focus on improving the business and investment climate models and ensuring their financial and institutional stability, as well as quality assurance; further strengthening to tie up the models of micro, small and medium enterprises policies and subsector policies; and supporting the national strategic orientations through public-private dialogue and regional-national strategic interactions.

The SMEDSEP’s final phase will start in September 2009 and end in August 2012.

The final phase of Decentralization Program will ensure sustainability of the local-level reform measures developed during the previous phase of the program. It will also scale up proven models and make them available to other local government units (LGUs) outside the program area as well as ensure the reforms integration into national systems.

The program will run until September 2012.

For these initiatives, NEDA officials and representatives of the Government of Germany recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

NEDA Deputy Director-General Rolando Tungpalan and Josef Füllenbach, head of Germany’s Southeast Asia Unit, Ministry for Economic Cooperation signed the MOU on behalf of the two countries.

The MOU is the result of bilateral discussions, wherein the two countries formalized agreements on new and ongoing programs under the TCP. (Iris C. Gonzales/ The Philippine Star /March 17, 2009)