Foreign donors pick Sulu as top priority area

DAVAO CITY — The international funding community has identified Sulu as the top priority area in terms of support for social and economic development in this part of the country.

A number of World Bank-led foreign donor countries and other international funding agencies, during a recent meeting here in Davao City, made the assessment as part of their rationalization of the country’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) program to bring about growth and development in the south.

The foreign donor intervention in Mindanao has been dubbed as Mindanao Working Group (MWG), and is aimed at drawing out multilateral support for the growth and peace initiatives in the conflict-affected island.

Aside from Sulu, the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Maguindanao and CARAGA have also been pointed out as needing immediate social and economic intervention. These places, considered to be depressed areas, were also considered to be among the country’s poorest provinces with high poverty incidence.

The rationalization of the ODA database was primarily aimed at helping donor funding agencies to map out and identify which areas need the most immediate intervention.

As of last month, a total of 156 ODA-projects were reportedly ongoing in different parts of Mindanao, according to the Mindanao Economic and Development Council (Medco) which also works with the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in the MWG. — Edith Regalado