BAGUIO CITY – The National Economic Development Authority–Investment Coordinating Council (NEDA-ICC) approved the $13 million or P600 million for the scale up and extension of the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management (CHARM) project for another two years that will end on December 2018.
Dr. Cameron Odsey, CHARM project manager, said 65 percent of the approved project amount will fund infrastructure projects ranging from farm-to-market roads, irrigation, and water-impounding projects in identified beneficiary barangays, 25 percent will be utilized for the agroforestry and watershed management, and 10 percent will be used as the seed money for organizations implementing livelihood projects.
He said the 7-year CHARM project will end this December after the implementation of catch-up plans utilizing funds were earmarked for programmed interventions in the communities who were identified to benefit from the foreign-assisted intervention.
Odsey admitted there were delays in the implementation of the identified projects in some of the beneficiary communities because of problems on existing policies but the problems were eventually addressed through the implementation of the catch-up plans aimed to be achieved by the end this year.
He explained that participatory approach was one of the integral elements and strategies of the project, thus, it will also be part of the strategies to be used for the expansion of the CHARM.
“Participatory approach is the meaningful and inclusive participation of all stakeholders from planning to implementation to monitoring and evaluation of development interventions. Participation extends to the identification and prioritization of needs and projects; decision-making; allocation of resources and implementation of projects by community members, council of elders, women, traditional institutions; local government units, national line agencies and the funding agencies,” Odsey stressed.
The CHARM official pointed out the approval of the extension of the project for another two years is considered as a reward to the government by the World Bank (WB) for successfully implementing the programmed projects for the 7-year period wherein 37 municipalities regionwide benefitted from various interventions.
He explained the involvement of the communities and other stakeholders in all stages of project implementation starting from the participatory project investment planning to evaluation resulted in the empowerment of the 170 project-covered communities and the capacitation of the various stakeholders, primarily the indigenous peoples.
According to him, the process of participatory project identification and planning and formulation resulted in the empowerment of the communities and their awareness that they can influence the direction of the type of development that they need, and the sustainability plans prepared by the communities also expressed the commitments of the communities to sustain and further develop the investments and partnerships started with the CHARM project. By HENT
