Development partners of the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) firms up commitment for the Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP) formulation during the recent roundtable discussion on December 11, 2013 at World Bank Conference Hall in Taguig City.

Among the development partners who expressed and firmed-up commitment to the BDP project were United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Organization on Migration (IOM), and United Nations Women (UN Women).

In his opening message, Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, Chairman of BDA said: ““This is a very good point in time when the very contentious Power Sharing annex of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) was just signed between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia”.

In front of the development partners, Dr. Dipatuan expressed thanks saying “We have to be very thankful for patience and perseverance of our panels, the GPH and MILF for making a very good, workable and implementable agreement. This now gives us hope that in due time they will be able to sign the comprehensive peace agreement”.

“It also underscores the very importance of the Bangsamoro Development Plan”, Dr. Dipatuan further stressed.

Undersecretary Luisito Montalbo of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) conveyed the Philippine Government commitment to have lasting peace in the Bangsamoro. He assured that OPAPP is very much supportive to move the formulation of the Bangsamoro Development Plan forward, including the generation of support from various government line agencies.

During the activity, updates on the formulation of the Plan were presented to partners by the BDP Core Planning Team. Thematic and sub-thematic areas that have already supported and not yet supported were also discussed among the partners.

BDP is being formulated according to the Sustainable Human Development (SHD) framework of Dr. Ayesha Abubakar. This framework includes themes such as: Economy, Social, Political, Culture, Environment and Natural Resources, Security, and Cross Cutting Concerns (Gender and Youth).

Other attending partners who joined the discussion were representatives from Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), Malaysian Consulate, Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy and the Mindanao Land Foundation (Minland) as trust fund recipient of BDP project.

Development partners who earlier committed to support the BDP project were: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank, The Asia Foundation, Australian Embassy and the World Bank.

JICA have already submitted initial findings on the needs assessment conducted and the World Bank through the Mindanao Trust Fund for Reconstruction and Development (MTF-RDP) that is providing operational support to the BDP project.

It is expected that BDP process will fully hit the ground running in the second half of January 2014, after the conduct of workshop with BDP experts and consultants on the second week of the said month.

Phase 1, or Transitional Development Plan, will be ready by July 2014.

Dr. Dipatuan, in his closing message, appealed to the development partners to consider Bangsamoro consultants and experts since they are more familiar with the Bangsamoro context and situation, they are already there in the area and most of all as capability building opportunity for the potential Bangsamoro professionals in terms of development planning for the Bangsamoro.