WB lauds PH’s P27B rural dev’t projects

The World Bank has given a “satisfactory” rating to the implementation of the P27.5-billion Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) that it is funding.

This follows a recent visit by a team from the World Bank for a monthlong, first-round assessment of the PRDP that wrapped up last week.

In a statement, World Bank portfolio and operations manager for the Philippines Agata Pawlowska lauded the implementers for their quick action as well as their healthy project portfolio.

Carolina Figueroa-Geron, the bank’s task team leader for PRDP, said the package was the World Bank’s single biggest investment in the Philippines.

“After just nine months, you have continued the strong start-up and momentum of project implementation,” Pawlowska said, noting that the PRDP rolled out only in December 2014.

As of August, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) PRDP office already allotted more than P12 billion for the implementation of various subprojects, which included farm-to-market roads, bridges, potable water system and production, processing and marketing support activities.

The cost of individual subprojects will be shared through a counterpart scheme between the agriculture department’s PRDP office and the concerned local government unit (LGU).

The LGU is responsible for a 10-percent equity for the infrastructure subprojects it proposes, and 20 percent for enterprise subprojects.

For its First Implementation Support Mission, the World Bank team visited ongoing subprojects related to infrastructure as well as proposed subprojects related to enterprise development.

The team also consulted with beneficiaries, proponent groups and other stakeholders.

Geron said the PRDP continued to be the vehicle of the DA to change the way it was doing business with the various stakeholders in the agriculture sector, such as LGUs, farmers’ and fishers’ groups [and the] private sector.

“The agriculture department has proven that the implementation strategies and measures we had put early on are still in good place,” said Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala.

Alcala said that despite the project’s satisfactory performance, there were still aspects in the project that the department and its local partners needed to work and improve on.—Ronnel W. Domingo