Part of the Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP) Process is the conduct of community visioning that is intended to define the type of society that the Bangsamoro want to pursue in the future as an expression of their right to self- determination. In preparation of this, an Orientation-Workshop on Community Visioning was conducted on February 2-3, 2014 at Lorenzo Hall, Estosan Garden Hotel, Cotabato City.

The purpose of which is to equip the facilitation skills of Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) in spearheading the conduct of series of community visioning in Bangsamoro core territories and other areas outside Bangsamoro. It was conducted in collaboration with the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS).

The two-day activity was spearheaded by the BDP Core Planning Team and participated by BDA volunteers from different BDA Regional Management Offices (RMOs) in Central Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Ranaw, Davao, Zamboanga City & Basilan (ZamBas), Zamboanga Peninsula (ZamboPen) and Sulu and Tawi-Tawi (SulTaw).

Ustadz Mohammad S. Yacob, BDA Executive Director, led the formal opening of the program through an inaugural statement on the importance of BDP.

“If there would be a most important activity of BDA, this Community Visioning would be the one. This activity is very important to us as a beginning stage of drafting the Bangsamoro Development Plan” Ustadz Yacob said.

Engr. Windel Diangcalan, BDP Core Planning Team Leader presented the Concept Note of BDP and Community Visioning. According to him, the BDP “aims to provide a short and medium-term mission or strategy for the recovery and development of Bangsamoro.”

During the activity, series of workshop were conducted from which the volunteers engaged in group discussions. A workshop on Vision-Mission Setting enabled the volunteers to envision the kind of Bangsamoro they aspire as well as action-plans and stakeholders who can help in attaining those visions. They also identified the issues and priority needs confronting the Bangsamoro community at present and the possible interventions for those concerns through a workshop on Identifying Issues-Problems-Needs.

Consolidation and assessments of workshop results were then presented on the plenary by the CBCS Team headed by Chairperson Guiamel Alim, who led the workshops conducted. “The community is the epicentre of conflict and development” he said while emphasizing the significant participation of Bangsamoro communities in drafting the Plan.

On the second day of the program, mechanics for Community Visioning was presented highlighting again the concept note of BDP, why it was framed and corresponding steps of its design. Supplementary inputs were also given to the volunteers by Division Heads of BDA for orientation and awareness about the agency.

Hamodi L. Tiboron, BDA Finance Head, lectured on financial policies and guidelines with the use of finance source documents as focus. Julie O. Maliga, BDA Administrative Head discussed the administrative guidelines of BDA.

BDP is supported by the World Bank through the Mindanao Trust Fund for Reconstruction and Development (MTF-RDP). The Community Visioning is expected to be conducted in the Bangsamoro territories this February.