Philippines gets German funding for peace efforts in Mindanao

Germany is set to provide the Philippines P512-million worth of financial and technical cooperation funds for peace building, social programs in Mindanao and the environment.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said in a statement Wednesday that the Philippines and Germany recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen development cooperation between both governments.

NEDA said that under the MOU, Germany will provide new allocations worth P278 million for bilateral technical cooperation, while around P205 million worth of financial and technical cooperation funds will be reprogrammed to four ongoing programs being implemented with assistance from the German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ, and the KfW Development Bank.

Of the P205-million reprogrammable funds, P185 million will be used for the LGU Investment Program Phase 2: Development and Peace Building in Mindanao, which provides a credit line for financing communal infrastructure in Mindanao.

Some P20 million worth of reprogrammable funds from completed technical cooperation projects will be reallocated to three ongoing programs, namely the Microinsurance Innovations Programme for Social Security, Decentralization Programme and Study and Advisory Fund.

Apart from the new allocations and reprogrammed funds, the MOU said that up to P29 million would be made available by the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety for the project entitled Building Momentum for Low Carbon Development in the Philippines and Turkey, NEDA said.

NEDA said the MOU was forged at the conclusion of the 2011 Philippines-Germany Governmental Dialogue held on Nov. 15, 2011, at NEDA.

NEDA deputy director general Rolando G. Tungpalan led the Philippine government in a dialogue with officials from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), led by Dr. Josef Füllenbach, head of BMZ’s Southeast Asia Department.