THE Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP), a short and medium-term vision strategy for the recovery of the Bangsamoro, was launched on Wednesday at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao City.

The BDP is an initiative of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), with the support of the Philippine Government and the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), will be the lead agency in the formulation of the plan while the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will be the implementing agency.

In a briefer, the BDP is anchored in and guided by the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes and the need to sustain the momentum of the peace process by providing strategic directions for the delivery and upgrade of basic services in the Bangsamoro communities during and beyond the transition period.

In a statement, Dr. Saffrullah M. Dapituan, chairman of the BDA board of directors, said through extensive consultations the BDP will set the strategic direction for the new Bangsamoro government by identifying potential areas for investment, private sector promotion and cooperation with other regions in the country.

Peace Panel member Usec. Yasmin Busran-Lao said the milestone marks the resolute commitment of both the MILF and the government to transform lives from conflict to peace, poverty to prosperity, and transecnding outside the borders of the Bangsamoro to the rest of the world.

“The formulation of the BDP is another historic milestone in the peace process between the two parties that is directly related to the socio economic requirements of the peace process,” said Luisito Montalbo, executive director of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, in his opening statement.

The BDP is a six year development plan with two phases covering 2014 to 2019. Phase 1 will be the transitional government plan wherein it will lay the direction for existing and planned quick impact interventions of the government and development partners from 2014 to mid 2016.

The second phase will be the medium term development plan that will cover mid 2016 to 2019. It will focus on the strategic interventions and investments that promote inclusive growth to ensure security, stability, and job creation.

The BDP has seven clusters: economy, social development, environment and natural resources, infrastructure, governance, culture and identity, and the crosscutting themes of gender and development, peace-building, and youth.

The formulation will be managed by three groups: the project steering committee will provide advice and policy guidance to the project team; the advisory council will provide advice and will review the submissions of the projects; and the core planning team will serve as the project secretariat and supervise the work of the cluster heads and thematic are consultants.

The first draft of the BDP is expected to be ready for submission for review and comment by the end of March 2014 while the team has targeted May 2014 as the deadline for completion of the BDP.

However, Montalbo said the formulation of the BDP will be a challenge since there are “a lot of moving pieces.”

He said one of these pieces is that the BDP needs to make sure that no one is left behind.

“There is a need to capture the sentiments of the beneficiary communities in the plan, making sure that the process and final output is as transparent, and more importantly as inclusive as possible,” Montalbo said.

Montalbo also said there is a need to aligning plans and programs of the BDA and MILF to the government to make sure that they have the same priorities; tapping into the expertise of international development partners at the same recognizing the “local wisdom;” building local Bangsamoro competences at the same time balancing it with the urgency of completing the plan on time; while making sure that the socio economic provisions of the Normalization Annex of the FAB and reflect the parameters established in the Annexes on Wealth and Power Sharing.

Aside from the ones mentioned above, Montalbo also said there are two parallel and equally important tasks that would impact on how the plan is designed and implemented.

“One is determining the structures of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority in order to ensure that the architecture to implement the plan is in place. The second is planning the smooth transition of functions from ARMM to minimize, if not totally avoid the disruption of the delivery of services during the transition,” he said.

Montalbo also said the unfinished work of completing the Bangsamoro Basic Law, growing importance of communicating what is being done to the stakeholders, and to be watchful of dissonant voices, are also things that have to be considered in the formulation of the BDP.

“Kaya ba? I say dapat kakayanin. If we do our work, and give all that we have, kakayanin. If we continue to build trust with each other, leaning on each other’s strengths, while recognizing our weaknesses, kakayanin,” he said

(Original Post: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2014/03/05/bangsamoro-dev-t-plan-launched-331583)