Iloilo City –The  Regional Project Coordinating Office (RPCO) 6 I-REAP component conducted a three-day business planning writeshop for the four small livelihood projects  (SLP) under the PRDP-Global Environmental Facility (GEF) for the province of Guimaras.

The writeshop aimed to come up with an individual business plan among the four Proponent Groups (PGs) in the four (4) Municipalities for the seaweeds production and marketing enterprises.

According to May Ann B. Grajo, RPCO-6 I-REAP Component Head, the conduct of the writeshop is necessary to explain the relevance of business planning, capacitate the proponent groups in technical writing and develop a business plan for the priority enterprise for funding.

“We have to intensify and fast track our business plans for this GEF project amounting to Php.18.5M which will be divided equally among the eight proponent groups.” Grajo said

Grajo stressed that the three PGs will concentrate on the production of seaweeds production while one PG will focus on marketing and trading of the products in order to increase net profit.

Ms. Jesusa Marzoña, PSO Visayas Cluster M & E specialist emphasized the importance of quality results and proper monitoring and evaluation of the sub-project while Mr. Norlito Ibañez, PSO Visayas Cluster I-REAP component head presented and discussed the SLP guidelines, business plan outline and provide technical inputs of the said activity.

Meanwhile, Mr. Francis Anthony Cruz, PSO Visayas Cluster safeguard specialist said that all sub-projects business plan should conform with the social and environmental safeguard (SES) guidelines and Mr. Joseph Mario Llamas RPCO-6 procurement unit head added that all procurement related to the implementation of seaweed production will follow the procurement procedure set by the PRDP.

Llamas explained that no short-cut or alteration of the procurement system process be made by the proponent to ensure smooth implementation of the sub-project.

Mr. Ronnie Morante, provincial agriculturist of Guimaras was optimistic that after the three-day writeshop the four business proposals will be made ready for technical review and endorsement for the approval of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB). (JEEOgatis/InfoACE RPCO-6)