September 10, 2012 News: The Project for Capacity Building for Community Development in Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao (CD – CAAM) to be undertaken by the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the IC Net Limited / Central Consultant Inc. is now on verge of implementation.

This as the BDA, OPAPP and IC Net endorsed the approval of the Basic Policy for the Pilot Projects, candidate recipient municipalities and the next six months of implementation operations during their Technical Working Group Meeting in Davao City last week to the Project Steering Committee.

The GPH and MILF Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Susan Robertson, Head Coordinator of the Humanitarian, Rehabilitation and Development Component of the International Monitoring Team for the GPH – MILF Peace Process participated in the meeting.

CD – CAAM Project is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which contracted IC Net headed by Michimasa Numata as its NGO partner for the project.

One municipality from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and one municipality outside of the ARMM will be selected by Project Steering Committee based on the criteria that includes income classification, poverty incidence, conflict affectedness and seal of good housekeeping.

BDA with the assistance from OPAPP and IC Net will directly work with the local government units of selected municipalities in implementing various projects in the field of agriculture, fishery, infrastructure / road, income generation for community cooperatives and organizations among others.

“The ultimate aim of CD – CAAM Project is to develop the capacity of BDA, its human resources and as an institution, in undertakings geared at municipal level development,” Yusuke Mori of JICA explained.

“In our previous engagements with BDA, the development trajectories were only at barangay level. But this time, it will be involving convergence of projects for municipal level development in partnership with the Municipal Local Government Units (MLGUs),” Mori said.

According to the endorsed Project Basic Policy, CD – CAAM aims at strengthening the capacities of BDA through implementation of pilot projects with regard to planning, coordination and management with relevant government and non government organizations for community development, with careful consideration of prospective roles of BDA expected upon forthcoming peace-agreement.

BDA is the development arm of MILF during the pre-peace agreement period of the GPH – MILF Peace Process.