A team from the World Bank will visit infrastructure and enterprise subprojects in Aklan and Capiz on Nov. 27 to 29, 2017.

The site visits are part of the 5th World Bank Implementation Support Mission, which will evaluate thea midterm performance of the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project.

“Since this is the Project’s third implementation year, this fifth ‘Mission’ is critical because the World Bank team’s findings will reflect how far we have accomplished in terms of subproject implementation vis-à-vis the development objectives,” said Manuel O. Olanday, Deputy Project Director of the Regional Project Cooradination Office 6.

Headed by World Bank Task Team Leader Frauke Jungbluth, the will conduct site visits to different infrastructure and enterprise subprojects in Aklan and Capiz provinces.

On Nov. 27, the team will visit the following infrastructure subprojects in Capiz: the Hipona–Canapian–Quinabonglan farm-to-market road in Hipona, Pontevedra, Capiz and the Banga–Libacao farm-to-market road in Banga, Aklan. Another team will visit the enterprise subprojects in Capiz: the LARC Shellfish Production and Market in Sapian, Capiz; and the Buntod Shellfish Production and Marketing subproject site in Pontevedra. Both are engaged in oyster and mussel production and marketing.

The team will visit the Pampango–Rosal farm-to-market road in Libacao; and enterprise subprojects namely: Libertad Lambaklad Livelihood Project in Antique and the Oyster and Mussel Production and Marketing in Aklan in Nov. 28.

The site visits will include a thorough check on the different aspects of the subprojects’ implementation—including social and environmental concerns, and sustainability, among others. The team will also hold dialogues with the beneficiaries.

Olanday said the “Mission” is a regular monitoring and evaluation activity conducted by the World Bank to determine if the subprojects implemented under the different Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCO) and Project Support Offices (PSO) across the country have delivered on the Project’s objectives.

“After the Mission, we will see the impact of the infrastructure and enterprise subprojects…if they have contributed to the betterment of lives of our beneficiaries—the farmers and fishers,” Olanday said.

Aside from the visits to the subproject sites, another highlight of the midterm evaluation is the report on cluster level updates of Remelyn R. Recoter, regional executive director of RPCO 6 and project director of the PSO Visayas. The report will include progress and implementation updates of various subprojects being implemented in Region 6 (Western Visayas), Region 7 (Central Visayas, and Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) for the past three years. (John Paul Firmalino Cadiz, Writer, RPCO 6 InfoACE)