10th WBISM Kicks Off
The 10th World Bank Implementation Support Mission to PRDP kicked off its calendar of activities with a virtual meeting that was attended simultaneously by key representatives from the World Bank, the Department of Agriculture, the NPCO as well as the PSO’s and RPCO’s of the different clusters in the project. In what would be the first ever online execution of an implementation support mission, the opening ceremonies was graced by messages from DA-PRDP National Project Director Ariel Cayanan, World Bank Acting Country Director Achim Fock, World Bank Task Team Leader Eli Weiss, and highlighted by a presentation by DA-PRDP OIC National Deputy Project Director Shandy Hubilla and an opening address by Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
DA Secretary William D. Dar in his message says PRDP aligns with the agency’s ALPAS (Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat) Kontra COVID-19 Program.
“For us to rise stronger from the crisis, we must encourage development of an agriculture driven-economy. Investments in agriculture can help revive food production and create jobs and enable rural communities to recover,” he said.
“PRDP has refocused its activities to promote integrated area-based food supply chain and logistics,” Secretary Dar stressed.
Noting the key achievements made by the project in the past six months, extra emphasis was placed on the utilization of technology and other means to address the challenges posed by the worldwide pandemic cause by COVID-19 which markedly hampered the normal operations of subproject implementation throughout the clusters. Virtual walk throughs made possible through geo-tagged photos and videos, online meetings through internet based platforms, among others, were some of the ways PRDP staff managed to continue working on meeting their targets even in the midst of a global crisis.
The translation of the semi-annual review of PRDP’s subprojects into a virtual version of this year’s implementation support mission is proof that not even a global pandemic is enough to hinder the work of enabling communities and expanding opportunities.
The 10th World Bank Implementation Support Mission to PRDP will run from June 15 to July 3, 2020. (Joseph John Palarca with reports from InfoACE XI)
