PRDP would be implemented over a six-year period, from 2013 to 2019. It covers the entire country comprising 80 provinces across 16 Regions. The Office of the Undersecretary for Operations would have overall management responsibility. A National Program Advisory Board
(NPAB) would be established, and complemented by Regional Program Advisory Boards (RPABs) in each of the 16 regions. Implementation of program components is interlinked and mutually reinforcing. I-PLAN activities would be implemented by the DA regional planning units, while IBUILD infrastructure investments would be managed by the responsible Provincial LGUs (PLGUs) with technical back-stopping from the responsible Program Support Offices (PSOs) and Regional Program Coordinating Offices (RPCOs). I-REAP activities supporting enterprise development by small scale producers, as well as broader technical and marketing support services would be managed by the PLGUs with backstopping by the RPCOs and with support from technical agencies of the DA and other technical service providers from other government agencies, the academic institutions and the private sector. The RPCOs under the leadership of the Regional Technical Director for Operations in each Regional Field Unit (RFU) would be responsible for coordinating inputs from DA Technical Agencies and other public and private sector providers, in supporting the implementation of the various I-BUILD and I-REAP subprojects of the PLGUs. Overall support for program implementation will be done under I-SUPPORT through the four PSOs for Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon and coordinated at the national level through the National Program Coordinating Office (NPCO).The PSOs will provide oversight and technical support to the RPCOs, including
final review of subproject proposals and safeguard requirements.

The EC-DRR with funding support from the European Union through its Disaster Preparedness- European Commission’s Humanitarian Office (DIPECHO) will be implemented for 18 months (September 2012 to December 2013) in Albay, Sorsogon and Catanduanes provinces of Bicol and in Surigao province in CARAGA regions.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary:

To enhance livelihoods resilience of small-scale farmers and fisherfolks in disaster-prone areas through institutionalization of DRR in agriculture

Specific:

Knowledge, planning tools & capacities for proactive DRR service delivery in agriculture improved and institutionalized, including enhanced outreach to farmers in hazard-prone areas

Project Areas:

PARTNERS	MAJOR ROLES
Department of Agriculture RFU 5	Overall project coordination Monitoring and management, facilitation of development of regional PoA & climate Information bulletins
Bicol University	GPO's for upland, lowland and Fishery, M & E Guidelines (assist in (POA)
CBSUA	Local DRM plans, PDNA Software improvement & dissemination (assist in (POA)
PAGASA	Climate Information bulletins
Local Government Units	Assist in the coordination/monitoring at the farm level, dissemination of information to GPOs and bulletins, data collection for PDNA, trainings (enhanced DRR planning & development of local PoA, interpretation and use of climate information bulletins, use of online PDNA tool)

Agrikultura: Kaagapay ng Bayang Pinoy Program (AKBAY Program)
(Agriculture: A Partner in Philippine Progress) Program

The AKBay program is a newly approved program under the Japanese Grant Assistance for the Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers Program. This program intends to assist the poorest of the poor sector of the agriculture and fishery industry in the rural areas of the identified thirty one (31) poorest provinces in Luzon and Visayas that belong to the Priority One which includes Camarines Norte, Masbate, and Mountain province, for Priority Two, the identified provinces are Abra, Antique, Biliran, Camarines Sur, Kalinga, Marinduque, Negros Oriental, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Romblon and Samar while Priority Three provinces are Aklan, Albay, Apayao, Bohol, Capiz, Catanduanes, Eastern Samar, Ifugao, Iloilo, Leyte, La Union, Negros Occidental, Northern Samar, Southern Leyte, Quezon and Sorsogon as classified by the National Statistical Coordination Board.

The program aims to assist the local government units address the increasing incidence of poverty in their respective areas like 1) providing livelihood opportunities for the targeted poorest provinces; 2) enhancing employment generation in their localities; 3) providing additional sources of income; 4) strengthening the capabilities of the marginal sector; and 5) facilitating marginal groups’ participation in the agri and fishery decision making bodies.

The program started in year 2010 and this will be implemented within a period of three (3) years. This shall be coordinated by the Special Projects Division (SPD) in collaboration with its partners, the Agricultural and Fishery Councils, the DA Regional Field Units (DA-RFUs), and the Local Government Units (LGUs).

In the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty, and the Philippine Development Plan goal of inclusive growth and poverty reduction, the Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB) Program was created under the Executive Order No. 43, s. 2011by various government entities including the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster (HDPRC), Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster (GGAC), Economic Development Cluster, DILG, DBM, DSWD, and NAPC. The program is in line with the President's "Social Contract with the Filipino People" calling for transparency, accountability and participatory governance.

The objective of the program is to ensure inclusion of funding requirements for the poverty reduction of focus cities and municipalities. It also aims to (i) make planning and budgeting processes at the local and national government units more participatory through the genuine involvement of grassroots organizations and communities; and (ii) strengthen the convergence of the delivery of national services in the community.

For 2013, BuB adopts a participatory or bottom-up approach to planning and budgeting in mobilizing local governments to support and actively participate in the national efforts towards the attainment of the goals for development.

609 cities and municipalities with high poverty incidence serve as pilot beneficiaries of the program. The selection was based from the criteria: (i) high magnitude and incidence of poverty (based from 2009 data on Small Area Estimates of the NSCB); (ii) cities/municipalities with high economic potentials; and (iii) cities/municipalities that are highly vulnerable to geo-hazards such as floods and landslides.

Project Implementation

Participating NGAs (DAR, DA, DepEd, DOE, DOE-NEA, DENR, DOH, DILG, DOLE, DSWD, DOT, DTI, and TESDA), in coordination with target LGUs shall (i) gather vital information regarding budget for BuB projects; (ii) facilitate compliance with the requirements; (iii) and provide technical assistance for project implementation. Under BuB, an LGU is encouraged and allowed to implement their proposed BuB projects provided it (i) has technical capability to implement the project; (ii) is a recipient of SGH for 2011 or 2012 Assessment; (iii) completed assessment of its Public Financial Management (PFM) System; (iv) has no unliquidated cash advances from participating agencies; and (iv) submitted necessary documents. Participating agencies shall ensure that proper monitoring and evaluation on BuB proposed projects is strictly observed; specifically, financial disclosure is subject to existing rules and regulations.

Balik Probinsya Program (BPP)

The Balik Probinsya Program (BPP) is under the National Convergence Initiative and is being implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in cooperation with the following agencies: Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Public Works and Highways, and the National Housing Authority.

It has a two pronged approach, one is social recovery and the other is the supplementation of the National Greening Program (NGP). First it will transform more than a thousand hectares into agricultural-silvicultural farming while empowering the recipient community with adequate financial and infrastructural supportvis-à-vis the establishment and maintenance of the project area by the 500 household beneficiaries adopting the concept of NGP.

The project targets to enroll 500 Albayano slum-dweller families in the same aiming to develop and manage an area covering 1,115 hectares (has) of denuded forestland in Brgy. Tapel and Nagas in Oas.

The program is a means of relocating some Albayanos from slum areas in Metro Manila and also some forest occupants within the identified site. The project site will be divided into five clusters with 200 has per cluster and each cluster will be managed by 100 families according to a report from Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Imelda Baltazar of Albay.

PAMANA (PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn) is the national government's program and framework for peace and development. It is implemented in areas affected by conflict and communities covered by existing peace agreements.
A complementary track to peace negotiations, the Program's main strategy is to bring back government to PAMANA areas, ensuring that the communities benefit from improved delivery of basic social services and are served by responsive, transparent and accountable government units.
For the period of 2011-2016, PAMANA will be implemented in 48 provinces where each area will receive development programs according to the specific needs of the people residing in that region.

B. PILLARS
The PAMANA framework is anchored on three complementary strategic pillars that define core interventions to achieve lasting peace.
Pillar I: Laying the foundation for peace through policy reform and legislative action.
Development interventions shall also be pushed in housing, ancestral domain, banking, and in other areas (e.g. IDP shelter assistance, mining/timber licensing agreements in IP areas)

Pillar II: Facilitating delivery of basic services at the community level through community driven development and community livelihood interventions.
This aspect shapes families and communities by concentrating on health, education and livelihood programs (e.g. community driven development [CDD) programs, such as Kalahi CIDSS, DAR-ARC).

Pillar III: Addressing sub-regional challenges, including constraints to regional economic development and economic integration of developing areas with the more progressive areas, and inter-regional connectivity improvements.
This includes investing on agri-industrial enterprises, coastal development initiatives, and infrastructure (e.g. road networks, electrification, post harvest facilities, farm-to-market roads).

OBJECTIVES:
1. IMPROVE GOVERNANCE - through partnerships with national and local institutions, building capacities for governance, and enhancement of transparency and accountability mechanisms.
2. REDUCE POVERTY - and vulnerability in conflict -affected areas through sustainable rural development, community infrastructure and focused delivery of social services.
3. EMPOWER COMMUNITIES - and strengthen their capacity to address issues of conflict and peace through activities that promote social cohesion.

PAMANA coverage in the Bicol-Quezon-Mindoro includes the provinces of Sorsogon, Masbate, Camarines Norte, Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro and Quezon.

The Bicol Peninsula can be found in the south-eastern tip of Luzon. The Region's history of participation in progressive and militant struggles, geographical terrain, poverty and share of social injustices has made it a fertile ground for armed conflict to continue and flourish. The lack of economic and employment opportunities aggravated by cases of corruption, non-transparency, lack of sense of accountability and fraudulent elections marred by massive vote buying heightens the level of frustration and sense of helplessness of some community members that they opt to align with non-state armed groups instead.

Contiguous to the Bicol Region is the Province of Quezon which shares similar landscape of social injustice and inequity issues and history of conflict. Despite the significant decline of conflict in the area and improved human development index, a number of municipalities in Bondoc Peninsula, Quezon remains to be surrounded by conflict given its proximity to similarly conflict-affected areas of Bicol Region and remaining land-related issues.

This PAMANA Bicol-Quezon corridor further extends westward to include the Mindoro Island, covering Mindoro Oriental and Mindoro Occidental. The impending displacement of Indigenous People (IP) communities arising from mining and other resource extraction activities, ancestral domain issues and human rights violations (HRVs) are among the major issues that expose communities to vulnerabilities and threats to human and ecological security due to the prolonged armed conflict in the area. (www.pamana.net)

This is a joint project of the DA RFU 5 and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-Technical Cooperation Programmes TCP/PHI/3203 with funding assistance from FAO amounting to US $ 469,000. It started last May, 2009 covering the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon. >>>MORE

Infrastructure for Rural Productivity Enhancement Sector (InfRES) Project is a foreign-assisted project. It enhances rural productivity and profitability by improving rural infrastructure and building the stakeholders' capability in project development, implementation, and operation and maintenance. As of December 2009, thirty-five (35) sub-projects were implemented by 14 local government units (LGUs) in the region with a total project cost of P814.735 million >>>MORE

Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF)

The Department of Agriculture will soon resume providing credit assistance to organized groups of farmers, fisherfolk, and agri-fishery entrepreneurs through the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF).
This was announced by Secretary Proceso J. Alcala during the nationwide broadcast of the "Pilipinas Natin" television program aired on July 13, 2011, at the National Broadcasting Network (NBN 4).
He said the DA recently completed the draft of the new ACEF implementing guidelines. One of the main highlights is that final loan approvals will no longer be the exclusive authority of the DA Secretary, but will now include the concurrence of the chairpersons of the committee on agriculture and food at the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives.
At the Senate, the committee is chaired by Senator Francis Pangilinan; at the House, it is headed by Congressman Mark Llandro Mendoza.
The ACEF-created in 1996 under Republic Act No. 8178-is a pool of funds consisting mainly of the duties or taxes collected from the imports various of agricultural and fishery products, except rice, covered under the minimum access volume (MAV) mechanism.
The fund is aimed at financially supporting farmers, fisherfolk, and agri-fishery entrepreneurs to enhance their productivity and competitiveness at local and export markets.
Upon his assumption in July 2010, Sec. Alcala suspended the processing and approval of ACEF loans, pending review of its policies and guidelines after allegations of misuse surfaced.

"An Act Replacing Quantitative Restrictions on Agricultural Products, Except Rice, with Tariffs, Creating the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, and for other Purposes." A special Fund created by RA 8178 out of the proceeds of the in-quota MAV importations. Intended to support projects to make the agricultural sector globally competitive, viable, efficient, and sustainable. >>>MORE

Amended Revised Implementation Guidelines On The Utilization Of The Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (click here 92.9 KB pdf file or Word Doc)