Date Published: March 8, 2023

 With two big ticket projects in the works for PRDP, the Mindanao Cluster converged in Davao City for their first face-to-face coordination meeting in years.

Representatives from Mindanao’s six Regional Project Support Offices (RPCOs) met with the Project Support Office (PSO) Mindanao to level off and discuss strategies and plans for the implementation of their existing subprojects under the Second Additional Financing and European Union Co-financing grant (AF2-EU) as well as set the course for the implementation of the new projects in the PRDP Scale-Up and the Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP).

In his message, PSO Mindanao Project Director Abel James I. Monteagudo talked about new challenges for PRDP Mindanao with the new fund support for PRDP Scale-up and MIADP. He also talked about the potential for export opportunities for high value crops with the recent visit of the Agriculture Attaches in Davao Region.

“The recent visit of the Agri Attachés in the Davao region brought potential opportunities for our high value crops such as durian, mango, and mangosteen as they are seen to have great potential for the export market. The challenge is to make sure that high value crops such as these will be on board with our PCIPs so we can contribute and maximize this opportunity for our local farmers and fisherfolks, ” said Director Monteagudo.

During the morning session, Deputy Project Director Noel T. Provido presented his report on the updates in the Cluster with the accomplishments under the recently concluded Original Loan and First Additional Financing as well as the status of the current portfolio of enterprise and infrastructure subrprojects and the financial disbursement status under the PRDP’s current AF2-EU funding.

This was further supported by a comprehensive time and motion analysis on the implementation of the AF2-EU by Monitoring and Evaluation Unit head Joseph Rico.

PRDP National Deputy Project Director Shandy M. Hubilla graced the face-to-face event to present an orientation on the PRDP Scale-Up as well as answer questions from the participants on the implementation of subprojects under the new project.

In the afternoon, the participants joined breakout sessions for their respective components and units to discuss issues and concerns and come up with plans and strategies to address these.

The outputs and agreements coming from this meeting will set the direction for the Cluster as they implement their subprojects in 2023 and beyond. (via Joy Montecalvo| Photos by Leonard Asuque, PSO Mindanao)