By: Maugan B. Mosaid, Ph.D.
December 2004, University of Southern Mindanao
INTRODUCTION
Since the ARMM became operational in 1990, the common perception is that it has yet to make strides in terms of showing concrete proof of its existence especially in the aspects of alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of people in the rural areas. At most, people say, it has only served as a good employment agency for thousands of people working in the bureaucracy as a consequence of several new regional offices devolved and organized.
The questions more often asked were: What was new with ARMM in terms of governance and delivery of basic services? Did ARMM, as a new geo-political subdivision of Philippine bureaucracy, improved upon them? Can we say now, after more than a decade, that the areas under ARMM are better than they were before? Of course, under any given set-up, with or without ARMM, there are always issues and problems that tend to persist. But for the doable ones, the ARMM is expected to show that they are better done with this new geo-political set-up. Otherwise, it will give credibility to the opinion that the areas under ARMM are better reverted to the administrative region where they once belong. This is also to quell the view that the ARMM did not make any difference after more than a decade of existence. In fairness, only a second close look at how governance and delivery of basic services are faring with respect to human, institutional and livelihood development could provide a more credible opinion on the performance of the ARMM.
The process of the national government’s devolution to the ARMM is far from over. In fact, almost every new administration would clamor for more government instrumentalities to be devolved to the ARMM. However, the essence of devolution is more often questioned or set aside. Sec. Boncodin of the DBM cautioned that ARMM does not have to copy everything that is there in the national government set-up. Is it more for the sake of acquiring more offices and employ more people? The former ARMM Executive Secretary, Atty. Nabil Tan, had this to say: “If devolution would facilitate and enhance the agency’s performance of its mandated functions, then we ask for it; but if it is otherwise, or would only inconvenience the concerned clientele, then there is no reason asking for it.” This is no less a classic guideline to rationalize the process of devolution to the ARMM.
Given the reality that more than 80% of the ARMM’s annual budget goes to personal services, or salary of its employees, there is good reason to look at opportunities available in the hands of foreign development institutions. This goes without saying that foreign assistance shall have to stay for good. But for how long, this is quite difficult to tell. Given five (5) of the twenty (20) poorest provinces in the Philippines, the ARMM has a lot of catching up efforts to do. With national assistance coming in trickles, the bulk of the funds outside the ARMM’s budget needed to push rural or country-side development, shall have to come from official development assistance.
This paper does not attempt to present a detailed evaluation on the performance of the ARMM. This is an academic paper constrained by time to be able to do such an in-depth study. Also, as designed, it does not reflect the developmental efforts of the different ARMM Regional Agencies in order to give pure focus and emphasis on the FAPs (foreign-assisted projects) efforts, though, one way or another, these agencies are involved in the FAPs activities. Most of the reference materials used in this discussion paper comes from the Regional Planning and Development Office, Official Development Assistance Unit of the Office of the Regional Governor, operational framework and performance reports submitted by the Foreign-Assisted Projects, and the JICA study on the ARMM. Based on these, the synthesis and analysis were made anchored on some given rural development concepts as defined by the World Bank and ACDA.
THE FAP’s IN THE ARMM: Nature and Scope of Assistance
As of December 2003, there were 46 foreign-assisted projects (FAPs) documented in the ARMM. Thirty four (34) of these are still on-going, 10 have been completed and 2 are still in the pipeline. Those that are still in the pipeline are already covered by project implementation agreements.
Generally, these foreign-assisted projects can be classified according to the type of assistance or sectoral focus that they address, viz: a) Capability Building and Governance, b) Health, c) Economic and Livelihood Enhancement d) Support Infrastructure, e) Gender and Development, f) Peace Initiatives, g) Relief and Rehabilitation, and h) Environmental Concerns.
INTRODUCTION
Since the ARMM became operational in 1990, the common perception is that it has yet to make strides in terms of showing concrete proof of its existence especially in the aspects of alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of people in the rural areas. At most, people say, it has only served as a good employment agency for thousands of people working in the bureaucracy as a consequence of several new regional offices devolved and organized.
The questions more often asked were: What was new with ARMM in terms of governance and delivery of basic services? Did ARMM, as a new geo-political subdivision of Philippine bureaucracy, improved upon them? Can we say now, after more than a decade, that the areas under ARMM are better than they were before? Of course, under any given set-up, with or without ARMM, there are always issues and problems that tend to persist. But for the doable ones, the ARMM is expected to show that they are better done with this new geo-political set-up. Otherwise, it will give credibility to the opinion that the areas under ARMM are better reverted to the administrative region where they once belong. This is also to quell the view that the ARMM did not make any difference after more than a decade of existence. In fairness, only a second close look at how governance and delivery of basic services are faring with respect to human, institutional and livelihood development could provide a more credible opinion on the performance of the ARMM.
The process of the national government’s devolution to the ARMM is far from over. In fact, almost every new administration would clamor for more government instrumentalities to be devolved to the ARMM. However, the essence of devolution is more often questioned or set aside. Sec. Boncodin of the DBM cautioned that ARMM does not have to copy everything that is there in the national government set-up. Is it more for the sake of acquiring more offices and employ more people? The former ARMM Executive Secretary, Atty. Nabil Tan, had this to say: “If devolution would facilitate and enhance the agency’s performance of its mandated functions, then we ask for it; but if it is otherwise, or would only inconvenience the concerned clientele, then there is no reason asking for it.” This is no less a classic guideline to rationalize the process of devolution to the ARMM.
Given the reality that more than 80% of the ARMM’s annual budget goes to personal services, or salary of its employees, there is good reason to look at opportunities available in the hands of foreign development institutions. This goes without saying that foreign assistance shall have to stay for good. But for how long, this is quite difficult to tell. Given five (5) of the twenty (20) poorest provinces in the Philippines, the ARMM has a lot of catching up efforts to do. With national assistance coming in trickles, the bulk of the funds outside the ARMM’s budget needed to push rural or country-side development, shall have to come from official development assistance.
This paper does not attempt to present a detailed evaluation on the performance of the ARMM. This is an academic paper constrained by time to be able to do such an in-depth study. Also, as designed, it does not reflect the developmental efforts of the different ARMM Regional Agencies in order to give pure focus and emphasis on the FAPs (foreign-assisted projects) efforts, though, one way or another, these agencies are involved in the FAPs activities. Most of the reference materials used in this discussion paper comes from the Regional Planning and Development Office, Official Development Assistance Unit of the Office of the Regional Governor, operational framework and performance reports submitted by the Foreign-Assisted Projects, and the JICA study on the ARMM. Based on these, the synthesis and analysis were made anchored on some given rural development concepts as defined by the World Bank and ACDA.
THE FAP’s IN THE ARMM: Nature and Scope of Assistance
As of December 2003, there were 46 foreign-assisted projects (FAPs) documented in the ARMM. Thirty four (34) of these are still on-going, 10 have been completed and 2 are still in the pipeline. Those that are still in the pipeline are already covered by project implementation agreements.
Generally, these foreign-assisted projects can be classified according to the type of assistance or sectoral focus that they address, viz: a) Capability Building and Governance, b) Health, c) Economic and Livelihood Enhancement d) Support Infrastructure, e) Gender and Development, f) Peace Initiatives, g) Relief and Rehabilitation, and h) Environmental Concerns.
Hereunder is the classification of these FAPs:
Capability Building and Governance
Title Funding Institution/Implementer
1. Local Gov’t. Support Program CIDA / Project Office on-going
2. Mindanao Basic Urban Services Project ADB / DILG on-going
3. Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services AusAID / DSWD-ARMM completed
4. ECCD Mainstreaming and Institutionalization WB / DSWD-ARMM completed
B) Health
Title Funding Institution/Implementer
5. Enhancement and Rapid Improvement of Community Health USAID / DOH on-going
6. Matching Grant program USAID / DOH on-going
7. Well Family Midwife / Technical Assistance to NGOs USAID / DOH on-going
8. Integrated Family Planning and Maternal Health Program USAID / DOH on-going
9. Fifth Country Program of Assistance UNFPA / DOH on-going
10. GTZ (Provision of Vaccines) Gov’t. of Germany/DOH on-going
11. Malaria Control Program (Sulu and Tawi-Tawi) JICA / DOH on-going
12. Participatory Compre. Health Admin. Promotion (PCHAP) JICA / DOH Yearly training to Japan
13. Follow-up Support Grant (PCHAP-related) JICA / DOH on-going
14. In-Country Training Program (PCHAP-related) JICA / DOH on-going
15. Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project ADB/EU/WB/AusAID/DOH on-going
16. Fifth Country Program for Children UNICEF / DOH on-going
17. Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Prevention KFW / DOH on-going
18. Hospital Development in Tawi-Tawi Austrian Gov’t./DOH on-going
19. Hospital Rehabilitation and Improvement in Maguindanao Japanese Embassy/DOH on-going
20. Polio Eradication WHO / DOH on-going
C) Economic and Livelihood Enhancement
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
21. Training for Rural Economic Empowerment ILO / RCBW completed
22. Training for Rural Economic Empowerment ILO-USDOL / TESDA on-going
23. Agri-Fishery Based Livelihood and Economic Enterprise LGSP-CIDA / DTI-ARMM on-going
D) Support Infrastructure
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
24. Agrarian Reform Support Program ADB/EU / DAR-ARMM on-going
25. ARMM Social Fund Project IBRD/OPEC / Project Office on-going
26. Mindanao Roads Improvement Project, Phase 1 Saudi Fund for Devt/DPWH pipeline
27. Mindanao 2nd Roads Improvement Project KFAED / DPWH on-going
28. Mindanao 6th Road Project (Bridge Component) ADB / DPWH on-going
29. President’s Bridge Project (SALAM Bridge, Phase 1&2) UK/Austrian Gov’t./ DILG on-going
30. Core Shelter Assistance UNDP / DSWD-ARMM pipeline
31. Upgrading of Hospitals in Sulu and Basilan Phil-Canada Devt. Fund on-going
32. Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project ADB / DOH on-going
E) Gender and Development
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
33. Muslim Mindanao Women Development Program The Asia Foundation/RCBW on-going
34. Gender and Development Mainstreaming in the ARMM ILO / RCBW completed
F) Peace Initiatives
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
35. Bangsamoro Women Peace Conference UNMDP3 / RCBW completed
36. Children’s Congress for Peace and Development UNICEF / DSWD-ARMM completed
37. PDC’s Strengthening and Partnership Building UNMDP3 on-going
38. PDC’s Multi-Donor Program Phase III UNFPA / DOH on-going
G) Relief and Rehabilitation
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
39. Relief Operations and Rehabilitation of IDPs MSF/ACH / DOH completed
40. Community Organizing Among IDPs CFSI / DOH completed
41. Water and Sanitation Project in PDCs OXFAM/MOVIMONDO/DOH on-going
H) Environmental Concern
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
42. Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Conservation WB / MRDP on-going
43. Kabulnan Watershed Rehabilitation Subproject JBIC / DENR on-going
44. Kabingaan Mangrove Rehabilitation Subproject JBIC / DENR on-going
45. Small Water Impounding System Subproject JBIC / DENR completed
46. Construction of Concrete Dryer in Kabingaan JBIC / DENR completed
ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE
The Health sector gets the bulk of official development assistance in the ARMM. By category or sectoral focus, 16 projects, or 35% of the FAPs, were concentrated on health services. The second highest concentration of the FAPs is on Support Infrastructure, followed by Environmental Concerns, Capability Building and Governance and Peace Initiatives. It is lamentable to note that Economic and Livelihood Enhancement and Gender Equity Development seem to be getting the lowest priority. If this is to be taken at face value, then the Official Development Assistance in the ARMM is missing the point in terms of addressing rural development. Economic and Livelihood Enhancement and Gender Empowerment, which are two of the most significant factors for rural development, are getting the least share of the pie.
The ODA expenditure by category or sectoral focus was not included because only very few FAPs were submitting complete financial reports. In the absence of complete expenditure reports it would be difficult to make comparisons, and for that matter, may be unfair.
To-date, the biggest single Foreign-Assisted Project in the ARMM in terms of scope and activities, is the Local Government Support Program funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. So far, it is also the most comprehensive project in terms of capability-building and enhancement of governance. It is being implemented region-wide and covers all the 99 municipalities of the ARMM. It has three (3) primary components as follows: 1) Support to Institutional Strengthening and Governance 2) Capacity Development for LGUs, and 3) Enhancing the Enabling Environment for Peace. It also integrates into its projects and activities the following cross-cutting themes: a) poverty reduction b) gender equality, and c) environmental sustainability.
The LGSP, however, is not a direct intervention for poverty reduction or rural development. It is anchored on the concept of “teaching the LGUs how to fish, not to give them fish”. It teaches the LGUs the “how” of doing things so that they improve on governance and service delivery. However, the LGUs differ in learning speeds and support resources. These two factors are important especially if it is expected that they have to implement what they have to learn.
The Agrarian Reform Communities Project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, is the next biggest foreign-assisted project in terms of funding. It aims to strengthen the Agrarian Reform Communities by training and providing them production support services such as farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities, communal irrigation, level II potable water system, and production inputs. Most of the projects implemented are farm-to-market roads followed by potable water systems and communal irrigation. As of December 2003, the DAR-ADB-ARCP reported having completed 31 projects in various areas in the ARMM amounting to Two Hundred Eighty Million Pesos (P280,000,000.00).
However, the LGUs find their respective equity to be quite a financial burden considering that most municipalities in the ARMM are still 6th and 5th class. Those who are able to provide the required equity complain of the painstakingly slow fund releases from the ADB or DAR. Two Area Project Managers in the ARMM resigned apparently due to complicated problems in the project. The National Project Manager also resigned late last year (2004).
In terms of funding commitment, the ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) is the biggest project now on-going in the ARMM. It has a total funding commitment of $33.6M from the World Bank for 5 years. The said loan closes on June 30, 2008.
The ASFP was so designed to sustain and provide momentum to the efforts initiated by the Multi-Donor Institutions at the time of the SPCPD. In fact, it has assumed some projects that were identified under SPCPD. It finances regional, as well as, high impact community projects. The major project components are the Community Development Assistance (CDA). The CDA addresses community-initiated projects mostly in the nature of road rehabilitation, school building rehabilitation, warehouse with solar dryer, timber ports and water systems. The Quick Response Program (QRP) is an added subcomponent of the CDA to address the needs of IDPs in conflict-affected areas. Another project component is the Strategic Regional Infrastructure (SRI) designed to address regional impact projects such as construction of training centers, rehabilitation of District Hospitals and Ports. And the third primary component is the Institutional Strengthening and Governance (ISG) designed to strengthen the ARMM and LGUs in terms of enhancing their capacities in planning, financial management and project implementation. The ISG also supports strategic policy studies on the ARMM.
Most of the ASFP projects, however, are still on the pipeline. The projects are hampered by the elaborate project organizational structure and the complicated approval process. To this effect, the project’s governing board created a special body to go around and look at the possibility of streamlining some functions especially the project approval process.
The other foreign-assisted projects are not as big as the first three mentioned above considering that they are focused only on few municipalities or specialized assistance on specific sectors like health, environment, relief and rehabilitation, peace forums, trainings and seminars. If ever, they only produce sector specific impact and the kind of interventions are mostly palliative. Their impact on the holistic concern of rural development is hardly felt and the outcome of their respective interventions has not yet produced the critical mass enough to influence people’s lives and attitudes.
FITTING THE FAPs WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF ARMM:
(Or the Other Way Around?)
Since the start of ARMM’s operation more than a decade ago, the ARMM faces the same stumbling blocks and drawbacks in its pursuit of peace and development (LGSP Paper, March 2004). Over this period, the ARMM’s operation did not accrue to what was envisioned when it was conceived (ibid.)
The same pathetic view characterized the region today. Poverty incidence has been pervasive and even worsened with 68.8 percent of its population living below the poverty threshold. All five provinces of the ARMM belong to the so-called “Club of 20” or the twenty poorest provinces in the country based on the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is the latest measure of development advocated by the UNDP, apart from the Gross National Product (GNP) and the per capita income. The HDI considers the level of people’s access to basic services rather than their share of the national wealth which, in most cases, is hypothetical.
The JICA undertook a “Comprehensive Basic Study of the ARMM”, the draft final report of which was presented in November 2003. The study assessed the existing conditions, problems and needs of the sectors on health and medical care, education, water supply, infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries and governance.
The findings, in terms of issues and concerns per sector, are as follows:
Governance Sector
1. The changing priorities of leaders disrupt the sustainability of plan implementation;
2. The Regional Executive Agenda (REA) is not widely disseminated;
3. There is a need for legislative agenda to support the REA;
4. The REA is barely implemented according to plan;
Infrastructure Sector
1. Slow development of road networks that connect missing vital links;
2. Substandard equipment support;
3. Accelerated deterioration due to inadequate drainage;
4. Insufficient funds required to maintain existing infrastructures;
5. Unclear delineation of responsibilities between and among the national, regional and LGU-based agencies with respect to jurisdictional responsibility over certain infrastructures.
Education Sector
1. Low participation rate as well as survival rate;
2. Insufficient provisions in most schools;
3. Partially implemented the 2002 curriculum due to weak leadership in the education sector;
4. Peace and order situation and socio-cultural feuds.
Agriculture and Fishery Sector
1. Low productivity;
2. Rapid deterioration of remaining productive areas;
3. Lack of financing institutions willing to support this sector.
Health Sector
1. The ARMM has the highest maternal and infant mortality rate;
2. The rural folks in the ARMM has very poor health practices;
3. Inadequacy of health facilities
4. There is a need for comprehensive management information system to adequately monitor health problems.
Given the two-pronged modern approach to rural development, i.e. increasing productivity and empowering the rural people, the focus or concentration of the FAPs in the ARMM, and the issues and concerns in the ARMM identified under the JICA study, we shall now be in a position to make a rough analysis on how the FAPs are responding to these issues and concerns. Let me, however, proceed by saying that if the FAPs do not hit the bull’s eye mark in terms of the issues and concerns identified, we are not in a position to say that they are doing the irrelevant things. Whatever they do certainly produces indelible marks along the development path that they have chosen. The other point is, most if not all FAPs, have their own sectoral bias, or at least, they operate according to their given mandate and operational framework.
What would be unique is when they are at liberty to design the intervention package for ARMM, given the outstanding issues and concerns, and yet choose to hit them from behind. In this case, it is not fitting the FAPs with the development requirements of ARMM, but the other way around, and the ARMM just have to accept them because by all means it is an important offer and anything else have to adjust, or is there a choice? Indeed, with more than 80 percent of ARMM’s annual budget going to personal services, the presence of the FAPs is a necessity.
SYNTHESIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the region’s agri-fishery-based economy, and for that matter the country as a whole, the only way to increase productivity is to modernize farming and fishing. Then, the government must provide an efficient conduit system between production and consumption centers to improve farm-gate prices of agriculture and fishery products. The shorter the time element involved between production and consumption centers, the better for farm-gate prices.
Such projects as water impounding, communal irrigation, protection of the coral reefs, trees and mountains, rivers, lakes and municipal waters should get the highest priority because they are pre-conditions to achieving higher productivity in the rural areas. Productivity shall reach such level as to exceed local consumption so that the excess produce can be exported. This is where the government plays a vital role. The added net wealth, in real terms, to any country is its export earnings. Goods and money that circulate within may only be good for the local-based economies but not for the country as a whole.
Side by side with the above recommended priority projects, is improving the rate of technology transfer especially in the agriculture sector. The snail-paced rate of technology transfer is hampering productivity. One would easily recognize the awful disparity between technology users, as in corporate plantation farming, and traditional farming as in the remote countryside. And more awful is the fact that we are not short of technologies available in agricultural and academic research centers waiting to be applied and dispersed.
The human development side is somehow addressed by the more prominent involvement of the FAPs in the health sector, but still more are yet to be done because the problem in the health sector is so big that small projects may only be good at scratching the surface. Unfortunately, human development in the area of literacy is wanting in many respects. The much-publicized irregularities in the handling of education funds, is creating low morale in the education sector. The JICA study pointed out to weak leadership in the education sector and poor facilities, the probable consequences of which are the low participation and survival rate at the primary level of education. Of course, the main culprit is still abject poverty, that is why, a direct confrontation of this problem is very much called for.
The ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) is in the best position to address enhancement of productivity in the rural areas. With its Community Development Assistance and Strategic Regional Infrastructure components, it can easily consider the support infrastructure necessary to boost agricultural and fishery productivity along the line of sustainable development. The ASFP, in fact, should work very closely with DA and DAR to effectively respond to the needs of the agriculture sector and the agrarian reform beneficiaries in terms of building and improving farm structures.
In the area of governance, and how it is positively influencing the lives of people, only the municipality of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao is outstanding. This once troubled town took a sharp corner and suddenly improved on productivity. Now, economic activity is very visible in the area. But we have seen in Datu Paglas how the “leadership factor” played as an important catalyst in the improvement of governance and change in the mind-set of people. Probably, if the young Datu Ibrahim “Toto” Paglas did not turn visionary, and set the example to his people, the municipality of Datu Paglas may not be what it is today. The LGSP has been very effective as a “coach” but the attitude of the players is another thing. That is why, despite best efforts, the LGSP cannot do as much in the other areas of the ARMM. Now, under a modified name (LGSPA), it is targeting all the municipalities of the ARMM. With more reasons, it has to produce concrete outcomes and its increased budget is in order, but managing the entire scope of its activities is another thing.
In fairness, the FAPs are doing fairly well in their chosen field of interventions for the ARMM but there are inherent development issues and challenges in this new geo-political subdivision that persist. The choice of the FAPs on how to address them cannot be questioned. Their activities and project undertakings are backed by carefully planned courses of actions, though more of the top-down approach rather than bottom-up, and to a certain extent, endorsed by selective consultations.
Very often, we hear people questioning the process of project packaging and the modalities of interventions. Ideally, project interventions should be demand-driven. In most cases, projects are demand-push because they were believed to be the right kind of intervention given certain situations and development issues. While demand-driven may not be necessarily need-driven, the point is that people should have the opportunity to express what they want and the project planners argue with them, and then agree with each other. This process may not be simple, but it is the only way by which people would feel some sense of ownership and some sense of importance. We knew from experience that this is critical in the success of every project.
If the FAPs shall have to inch closer to the business of rural development, they shall have to take the two-pronged approach of increasing productivity and empowering people in the rural areas. This is called the hardware and software components of rural development. The hardware component of rural development shall be addressed through massive construction of farm-to-market roads, communal irrigation, post-harvest facilities and farm mechanization while the software component shall be addressed through extensive health care programs, proactive efforts to increase participation and survival rates in the elementary and secondary level of education, functional literacy program for adults and vocational training for the out-of-school youth.
Despite the presence of 46 foreign-assisted projects in the ARMM, people down there are still waiting for their trickle-down effect. While project actors would argue that “we are definitely going towards that direction”, the “common tao” is growing wary. Ultimately, the FAPs shall have to help ARMM prove itself that it is still the better alternative to peace and development in the region. And because the ARMM needs the FAPs, they deserve all the support that they can get from the ARMM regional government.
We have seen quite a number of multi-donor’s forum with the intention of coming together and complement each other’s efforts. Instead of complementation overlapping and duplication still exist. For example, LGSP, for more than 10 years now, has been into capacity enhancement on governance and improving service delivery systems. When ASFP came about, one of its primary components is the Institutional Strengthening and Governance. Still, JICA is phasing in with its project “ARMM Governance Support Project”. There is no problem with addressing one and the same issue. Others may argue that they have their way of doing it and they concentrate on certain level of governance. But perching too many needles on the same hole may not be proper all the time.
The Regional Development Investment Plan (RDIP) is a good shopping list for the foreign development institutions which are willing to support development efforts in the ARMM, as well as the Regional Executive Agenda (REA) guided by recent comprehensive studies on the ARMM. These are field-validated studies that should be put to good use more than merely looking at them as active statistics. In fact, the RDIP and the REA should be reviewed in the light of these comprehensive studies on the ARMM to realign priorities and reorient directions.
On the side of the foreign donor institutions, it is always good to view things at the macro perspective level, identify some gaps and explore ways of synchronization, complementation of efforts and convergence at some point. On the side of the ARMM regional government, it has to be ready with its equity in terms of providing strong leadership, improving service delivery mechanism, and moving towards closer bonding with the LGUs.
Capability Building and Governance
Title Funding Institution/Implementer
1. Local Gov’t. Support Program CIDA / Project Office on-going
2. Mindanao Basic Urban Services Project ADB / DILG on-going
3. Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services AusAID / DSWD-ARMM completed
4. ECCD Mainstreaming and Institutionalization WB / DSWD-ARMM completed
B) Health
Title Funding Institution/Implementer
5. Enhancement and Rapid Improvement of Community Health USAID / DOH on-going
6. Matching Grant program USAID / DOH on-going
7. Well Family Midwife / Technical Assistance to NGOs USAID / DOH on-going
8. Integrated Family Planning and Maternal Health Program USAID / DOH on-going
9. Fifth Country Program of Assistance UNFPA / DOH on-going
10. GTZ (Provision of Vaccines) Gov’t. of Germany/DOH on-going
11. Malaria Control Program (Sulu and Tawi-Tawi) JICA / DOH on-going
12. Participatory Compre. Health Admin. Promotion (PCHAP) JICA / DOH Yearly training to Japan
13. Follow-up Support Grant (PCHAP-related) JICA / DOH on-going
14. In-Country Training Program (PCHAP-related) JICA / DOH on-going
15. Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project ADB/EU/WB/AusAID/DOH on-going
16. Fifth Country Program for Children UNICEF / DOH on-going
17. Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Prevention KFW / DOH on-going
18. Hospital Development in Tawi-Tawi Austrian Gov’t./DOH on-going
19. Hospital Rehabilitation and Improvement in Maguindanao Japanese Embassy/DOH on-going
20. Polio Eradication WHO / DOH on-going
C) Economic and Livelihood Enhancement
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
21. Training for Rural Economic Empowerment ILO / RCBW completed
22. Training for Rural Economic Empowerment ILO-USDOL / TESDA on-going
23. Agri-Fishery Based Livelihood and Economic Enterprise LGSP-CIDA / DTI-ARMM on-going
D) Support Infrastructure
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
24. Agrarian Reform Support Program ADB/EU / DAR-ARMM on-going
25. ARMM Social Fund Project IBRD/OPEC / Project Office on-going
26. Mindanao Roads Improvement Project, Phase 1 Saudi Fund for Devt/DPWH pipeline
27. Mindanao 2nd Roads Improvement Project KFAED / DPWH on-going
28. Mindanao 6th Road Project (Bridge Component) ADB / DPWH on-going
29. President’s Bridge Project (SALAM Bridge, Phase 1&2) UK/Austrian Gov’t./ DILG on-going
30. Core Shelter Assistance UNDP / DSWD-ARMM pipeline
31. Upgrading of Hospitals in Sulu and Basilan Phil-Canada Devt. Fund on-going
32. Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project ADB / DOH on-going
E) Gender and Development
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
33. Muslim Mindanao Women Development Program The Asia Foundation/RCBW on-going
34. Gender and Development Mainstreaming in the ARMM ILO / RCBW completed
F) Peace Initiatives
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
35. Bangsamoro Women Peace Conference UNMDP3 / RCBW completed
36. Children’s Congress for Peace and Development UNICEF / DSWD-ARMM completed
37. PDC’s Strengthening and Partnership Building UNMDP3 on-going
38. PDC’s Multi-Donor Program Phase III UNFPA / DOH on-going
G) Relief and Rehabilitation
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
39. Relief Operations and Rehabilitation of IDPs MSF/ACH / DOH completed
40. Community Organizing Among IDPs CFSI / DOH completed
41. Water and Sanitation Project in PDCs OXFAM/MOVIMONDO/DOH on-going
H) Environmental Concern
Title Funding Institution/Implementer Status
42. Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Conservation WB / MRDP on-going
43. Kabulnan Watershed Rehabilitation Subproject JBIC / DENR on-going
44. Kabingaan Mangrove Rehabilitation Subproject JBIC / DENR on-going
45. Small Water Impounding System Subproject JBIC / DENR completed
46. Construction of Concrete Dryer in Kabingaan JBIC / DENR completed
ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE
The Health sector gets the bulk of official development assistance in the ARMM. By category or sectoral focus, 16 projects, or 35% of the FAPs, were concentrated on health services. The second highest concentration of the FAPs is on Support Infrastructure, followed by Environmental Concerns, Capability Building and Governance and Peace Initiatives. It is lamentable to note that Economic and Livelihood Enhancement and Gender Equity Development seem to be getting the lowest priority. If this is to be taken at face value, then the Official Development Assistance in the ARMM is missing the point in terms of addressing rural development. Economic and Livelihood Enhancement and Gender Empowerment, which are two of the most significant factors for rural development, are getting the least share of the pie.
The ODA expenditure by category or sectoral focus was not included because only very few FAPs were submitting complete financial reports. In the absence of complete expenditure reports it would be difficult to make comparisons, and for that matter, may be unfair.
To-date, the biggest single Foreign-Assisted Project in the ARMM in terms of scope and activities, is the Local Government Support Program funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. So far, it is also the most comprehensive project in terms of capability-building and enhancement of governance. It is being implemented region-wide and covers all the 99 municipalities of the ARMM. It has three (3) primary components as follows: 1) Support to Institutional Strengthening and Governance 2) Capacity Development for LGUs, and 3) Enhancing the Enabling Environment for Peace. It also integrates into its projects and activities the following cross-cutting themes: a) poverty reduction b) gender equality, and c) environmental sustainability.
The LGSP, however, is not a direct intervention for poverty reduction or rural development. It is anchored on the concept of “teaching the LGUs how to fish, not to give them fish”. It teaches the LGUs the “how” of doing things so that they improve on governance and service delivery. However, the LGUs differ in learning speeds and support resources. These two factors are important especially if it is expected that they have to implement what they have to learn.
The Agrarian Reform Communities Project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, is the next biggest foreign-assisted project in terms of funding. It aims to strengthen the Agrarian Reform Communities by training and providing them production support services such as farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities, communal irrigation, level II potable water system, and production inputs. Most of the projects implemented are farm-to-market roads followed by potable water systems and communal irrigation. As of December 2003, the DAR-ADB-ARCP reported having completed 31 projects in various areas in the ARMM amounting to Two Hundred Eighty Million Pesos (P280,000,000.00).
However, the LGUs find their respective equity to be quite a financial burden considering that most municipalities in the ARMM are still 6th and 5th class. Those who are able to provide the required equity complain of the painstakingly slow fund releases from the ADB or DAR. Two Area Project Managers in the ARMM resigned apparently due to complicated problems in the project. The National Project Manager also resigned late last year (2004).
In terms of funding commitment, the ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) is the biggest project now on-going in the ARMM. It has a total funding commitment of $33.6M from the World Bank for 5 years. The said loan closes on June 30, 2008.
The ASFP was so designed to sustain and provide momentum to the efforts initiated by the Multi-Donor Institutions at the time of the SPCPD. In fact, it has assumed some projects that were identified under SPCPD. It finances regional, as well as, high impact community projects. The major project components are the Community Development Assistance (CDA). The CDA addresses community-initiated projects mostly in the nature of road rehabilitation, school building rehabilitation, warehouse with solar dryer, timber ports and water systems. The Quick Response Program (QRP) is an added subcomponent of the CDA to address the needs of IDPs in conflict-affected areas. Another project component is the Strategic Regional Infrastructure (SRI) designed to address regional impact projects such as construction of training centers, rehabilitation of District Hospitals and Ports. And the third primary component is the Institutional Strengthening and Governance (ISG) designed to strengthen the ARMM and LGUs in terms of enhancing their capacities in planning, financial management and project implementation. The ISG also supports strategic policy studies on the ARMM.
Most of the ASFP projects, however, are still on the pipeline. The projects are hampered by the elaborate project organizational structure and the complicated approval process. To this effect, the project’s governing board created a special body to go around and look at the possibility of streamlining some functions especially the project approval process.
The other foreign-assisted projects are not as big as the first three mentioned above considering that they are focused only on few municipalities or specialized assistance on specific sectors like health, environment, relief and rehabilitation, peace forums, trainings and seminars. If ever, they only produce sector specific impact and the kind of interventions are mostly palliative. Their impact on the holistic concern of rural development is hardly felt and the outcome of their respective interventions has not yet produced the critical mass enough to influence people’s lives and attitudes.
FITTING THE FAPs WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF ARMM:
(Or the Other Way Around?)
Since the start of ARMM’s operation more than a decade ago, the ARMM faces the same stumbling blocks and drawbacks in its pursuit of peace and development (LGSP Paper, March 2004). Over this period, the ARMM’s operation did not accrue to what was envisioned when it was conceived (ibid.)
The same pathetic view characterized the region today. Poverty incidence has been pervasive and even worsened with 68.8 percent of its population living below the poverty threshold. All five provinces of the ARMM belong to the so-called “Club of 20” or the twenty poorest provinces in the country based on the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is the latest measure of development advocated by the UNDP, apart from the Gross National Product (GNP) and the per capita income. The HDI considers the level of people’s access to basic services rather than their share of the national wealth which, in most cases, is hypothetical.
The JICA undertook a “Comprehensive Basic Study of the ARMM”, the draft final report of which was presented in November 2003. The study assessed the existing conditions, problems and needs of the sectors on health and medical care, education, water supply, infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries and governance.
The findings, in terms of issues and concerns per sector, are as follows:
Governance Sector
1. The changing priorities of leaders disrupt the sustainability of plan implementation;
2. The Regional Executive Agenda (REA) is not widely disseminated;
3. There is a need for legislative agenda to support the REA;
4. The REA is barely implemented according to plan;
Infrastructure Sector
1. Slow development of road networks that connect missing vital links;
2. Substandard equipment support;
3. Accelerated deterioration due to inadequate drainage;
4. Insufficient funds required to maintain existing infrastructures;
5. Unclear delineation of responsibilities between and among the national, regional and LGU-based agencies with respect to jurisdictional responsibility over certain infrastructures.
Education Sector
1. Low participation rate as well as survival rate;
2. Insufficient provisions in most schools;
3. Partially implemented the 2002 curriculum due to weak leadership in the education sector;
4. Peace and order situation and socio-cultural feuds.
Agriculture and Fishery Sector
1. Low productivity;
2. Rapid deterioration of remaining productive areas;
3. Lack of financing institutions willing to support this sector.
Health Sector
1. The ARMM has the highest maternal and infant mortality rate;
2. The rural folks in the ARMM has very poor health practices;
3. Inadequacy of health facilities
4. There is a need for comprehensive management information system to adequately monitor health problems.
Given the two-pronged modern approach to rural development, i.e. increasing productivity and empowering the rural people, the focus or concentration of the FAPs in the ARMM, and the issues and concerns in the ARMM identified under the JICA study, we shall now be in a position to make a rough analysis on how the FAPs are responding to these issues and concerns. Let me, however, proceed by saying that if the FAPs do not hit the bull’s eye mark in terms of the issues and concerns identified, we are not in a position to say that they are doing the irrelevant things. Whatever they do certainly produces indelible marks along the development path that they have chosen. The other point is, most if not all FAPs, have their own sectoral bias, or at least, they operate according to their given mandate and operational framework.
What would be unique is when they are at liberty to design the intervention package for ARMM, given the outstanding issues and concerns, and yet choose to hit them from behind. In this case, it is not fitting the FAPs with the development requirements of ARMM, but the other way around, and the ARMM just have to accept them because by all means it is an important offer and anything else have to adjust, or is there a choice? Indeed, with more than 80 percent of ARMM’s annual budget going to personal services, the presence of the FAPs is a necessity.
SYNTHESIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the region’s agri-fishery-based economy, and for that matter the country as a whole, the only way to increase productivity is to modernize farming and fishing. Then, the government must provide an efficient conduit system between production and consumption centers to improve farm-gate prices of agriculture and fishery products. The shorter the time element involved between production and consumption centers, the better for farm-gate prices.
Such projects as water impounding, communal irrigation, protection of the coral reefs, trees and mountains, rivers, lakes and municipal waters should get the highest priority because they are pre-conditions to achieving higher productivity in the rural areas. Productivity shall reach such level as to exceed local consumption so that the excess produce can be exported. This is where the government plays a vital role. The added net wealth, in real terms, to any country is its export earnings. Goods and money that circulate within may only be good for the local-based economies but not for the country as a whole.
Side by side with the above recommended priority projects, is improving the rate of technology transfer especially in the agriculture sector. The snail-paced rate of technology transfer is hampering productivity. One would easily recognize the awful disparity between technology users, as in corporate plantation farming, and traditional farming as in the remote countryside. And more awful is the fact that we are not short of technologies available in agricultural and academic research centers waiting to be applied and dispersed.
The human development side is somehow addressed by the more prominent involvement of the FAPs in the health sector, but still more are yet to be done because the problem in the health sector is so big that small projects may only be good at scratching the surface. Unfortunately, human development in the area of literacy is wanting in many respects. The much-publicized irregularities in the handling of education funds, is creating low morale in the education sector. The JICA study pointed out to weak leadership in the education sector and poor facilities, the probable consequences of which are the low participation and survival rate at the primary level of education. Of course, the main culprit is still abject poverty, that is why, a direct confrontation of this problem is very much called for.
The ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) is in the best position to address enhancement of productivity in the rural areas. With its Community Development Assistance and Strategic Regional Infrastructure components, it can easily consider the support infrastructure necessary to boost agricultural and fishery productivity along the line of sustainable development. The ASFP, in fact, should work very closely with DA and DAR to effectively respond to the needs of the agriculture sector and the agrarian reform beneficiaries in terms of building and improving farm structures.
In the area of governance, and how it is positively influencing the lives of people, only the municipality of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao is outstanding. This once troubled town took a sharp corner and suddenly improved on productivity. Now, economic activity is very visible in the area. But we have seen in Datu Paglas how the “leadership factor” played as an important catalyst in the improvement of governance and change in the mind-set of people. Probably, if the young Datu Ibrahim “Toto” Paglas did not turn visionary, and set the example to his people, the municipality of Datu Paglas may not be what it is today. The LGSP has been very effective as a “coach” but the attitude of the players is another thing. That is why, despite best efforts, the LGSP cannot do as much in the other areas of the ARMM. Now, under a modified name (LGSPA), it is targeting all the municipalities of the ARMM. With more reasons, it has to produce concrete outcomes and its increased budget is in order, but managing the entire scope of its activities is another thing.
In fairness, the FAPs are doing fairly well in their chosen field of interventions for the ARMM but there are inherent development issues and challenges in this new geo-political subdivision that persist. The choice of the FAPs on how to address them cannot be questioned. Their activities and project undertakings are backed by carefully planned courses of actions, though more of the top-down approach rather than bottom-up, and to a certain extent, endorsed by selective consultations.
Very often, we hear people questioning the process of project packaging and the modalities of interventions. Ideally, project interventions should be demand-driven. In most cases, projects are demand-push because they were believed to be the right kind of intervention given certain situations and development issues. While demand-driven may not be necessarily need-driven, the point is that people should have the opportunity to express what they want and the project planners argue with them, and then agree with each other. This process may not be simple, but it is the only way by which people would feel some sense of ownership and some sense of importance. We knew from experience that this is critical in the success of every project.
If the FAPs shall have to inch closer to the business of rural development, they shall have to take the two-pronged approach of increasing productivity and empowering people in the rural areas. This is called the hardware and software components of rural development. The hardware component of rural development shall be addressed through massive construction of farm-to-market roads, communal irrigation, post-harvest facilities and farm mechanization while the software component shall be addressed through extensive health care programs, proactive efforts to increase participation and survival rates in the elementary and secondary level of education, functional literacy program for adults and vocational training for the out-of-school youth.
Despite the presence of 46 foreign-assisted projects in the ARMM, people down there are still waiting for their trickle-down effect. While project actors would argue that “we are definitely going towards that direction”, the “common tao” is growing wary. Ultimately, the FAPs shall have to help ARMM prove itself that it is still the better alternative to peace and development in the region. And because the ARMM needs the FAPs, they deserve all the support that they can get from the ARMM regional government.
We have seen quite a number of multi-donor’s forum with the intention of coming together and complement each other’s efforts. Instead of complementation overlapping and duplication still exist. For example, LGSP, for more than 10 years now, has been into capacity enhancement on governance and improving service delivery systems. When ASFP came about, one of its primary components is the Institutional Strengthening and Governance. Still, JICA is phasing in with its project “ARMM Governance Support Project”. There is no problem with addressing one and the same issue. Others may argue that they have their way of doing it and they concentrate on certain level of governance. But perching too many needles on the same hole may not be proper all the time.
The Regional Development Investment Plan (RDIP) is a good shopping list for the foreign development institutions which are willing to support development efforts in the ARMM, as well as the Regional Executive Agenda (REA) guided by recent comprehensive studies on the ARMM. These are field-validated studies that should be put to good use more than merely looking at them as active statistics. In fact, the RDIP and the REA should be reviewed in the light of these comprehensive studies on the ARMM to realign priorities and reorient directions.
On the side of the foreign donor institutions, it is always good to view things at the macro perspective level, identify some gaps and explore ways of synchronization, complementation of efforts and convergence at some point. On the side of the ARMM regional government, it has to be ready with its equity in terms of providing strong leadership, improving service delivery mechanism, and moving towards closer bonding with the LGUs.
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