By: Social Marketing

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) recently conducted a Program Review and Evaluation Workshop for the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) project of the national government In attendance were representatives from the DSWD-Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) National and Regional Project Management Offices, OPAPP Officials and Regional Managers, and Multi-Inter Agency Councils (MIAC) of the concerned local government units. PAMANA is the Philippine government’s program and framework for peace and development. It focuses on providing development interventions in hard-to-reach, and conflict-affected communities. Livelihood intervention SLP is tasked to implement the livelihood component of PAMANA’s development interventions. Its goal is to increase people’s participation in identifying community development projects that will lead to economic empowerment. The PAMANA-SLP program identified 470 barangays located in 19 municipalities in eight provinces and in one chartered city in Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, SoCCSKSarGen and the CARAGA Region. Mary Grace Yap, Social Welfare Assistant and MIAC member from Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat, identified solar dryers as the equipment commonly needed for their livelihood projects. “These solar dryers will mostly benefit our farmers since our town’s main produce are rice and corn. Some who already have solar dryers opted to propose construction of post-harvest facilities such as warehouses to store palay and protect it during the rainy season,” Yap explained. Leonardito Plaza, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator of Sta. Josefa, Agusan Del Sur, shared that “some [projects for the area] include feed mill and swine fattening facilities to save up on feeds and in paying rent for private owners’ solar dryers. The community can share in the use of these facilities and in a way, save money.” Additional assistance In 2013, each of the 470 barangays was granted P300,000 for their community-identified livelihood projects. This year, each barangay will again receive P300,000 for projects in support of their existing projects. Recently, Tropical Depression Agaton disrupted livelihoods, damaging infrastructure and properties in the CARAGA Region. “PAMANA will definitely help jumpstart the rebuilding of the livelihoods of people especially those in the target areas,” shared Roy Serdena, SLP Regional Project Coordinator of DSWD-Field Office CARAGA. “We also hope that PAMANA will expand to fully facilitate peace and development in the region,” he added. Hoping to contribute to sustainable peace and development, the PAMANA-SLP project alone aims to benefit 962,568 individuals from the identified areas.