US allots $480,000 for RP peace-building projects

MANILA, Philippines - The United States has allocated $480,000 grant to the Philippine government for its peace building projects, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Avelino Razon Jr. said yesterday.

Razon said he was informed by the United Nations Development Program that the US extended a grant of $480,000 to the Philippine government to support the construction of 31 development projects in conflict-affected areas in Luzon and the Visayas.

He said the grant would greatly enhance the peace-building program of the government in tandem with UNDP.

“The project is a joint effort of the UNDP’s Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Program (CPPBP) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP). Completion of these projects will be in 2011,” Razon said.

Razon said the projects are anchored on components such as policy and program development, capacity building and community empowerment. 

He said these includes studies on peace building efforts, a peace journalism workshop for media practitioners, healing and reconciliation seminars for social workers dealing with former rebels, training on sustainable agriculture for farmers in Samar, and construction of high school buildings in Iloilo.

The CPPBP is one of four of the government’s collaborative programs with the UNDP and is being implemented by OPAPP.  

“It operates on a policy framework based on strategic partnerships with key government agencies, local government units (LGUs), civil society organizations, the academe and community-based peace builders,” Razon said.

Razon said the CPPBP hopes to mainstream peace building, conflict prevention, and human security in development processes; capacitate key actors to enable them to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts and to build peace and human security; and ensure that affected communities have improved access to basic services, increased income and increasingly participate in governance. 

He said 19 project partners have been cooperating in the CPPBP composed of eight civil society organizations, three academic institutions, and eight OPAPP units working with various LGUs which includes the Assisi Foundation, Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance, Center for Public Resource Management, GZO Peace Institute, ILAWAN, Inc., Paghiliusa sa Paghidaet Negros (PsPN), Sulong CARHRIHL, Philippine Coalition to Protect Children Involved in Armed Conflict (Protect CIAC), Third World Studies Center, UP Visayas Foundation, Inc., and the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies.