ARMM Strategic Action Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ARMM Strategic Action Plan (ASAP) 2010–2011, was crafted under the leadership of Honorable Acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong for his administration to sustain the gains and move forward towards better service delivery and good governance.

The two-year ASAP was formulated by the Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO) in coordination with the Office of the Acting Regional Governor with the participation of the ARMM Heads of Offices/Department and Technical Staff. The ASAP is an action plan of the ARMM Regional Executive Legislative Agenda (ARELA) for 2008-2011 covering five (5) major sector namely: a) Peace, Public Order and Security, b) Economic Development, c) Social Development, d) Infrastructure Development, and e) Development Administration and Governance. The two-year Strategic Action Plan is anchored on the vision, mission, development goals and objectives, and strategies of ARELA, MTRDIP 2008-2011 and the Regional Physical Framework Plan of the ARMM.

As part of the ARG’s thrusts and priorities and policy directions, he appointed his new cabinet members and other ARMM officials as well as laid down the following development agenda: a) Completion of Current Infrastructure Projects; b) Delivery of Health Services; c) Improvement of Education; d) Poverty Reduction; e) Institutional Strengthening on Local Governance; and f) Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.

Considering the fresh mandates given to the new ARMM officials, the new leadership have felt the need for a more coordinated and collaborative actions towards effecting better service delivery. Said urgency could be achieved through a focus strategic action, the ARMM STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN for 2010-2011.

The ASAP is an outcome of the Strategic Action Planning Workshop and Management Conference conducted on Cagayan de Oro City coordinated by the Regional Planning and Development Officeand the concerted efforts of all ARMM officials and technical staff. There were three (3) major inputs considered in the formulation of ASAP. These are: 1) The ARMM Situationer which basically provided the new ARMM leadership a glimpse of where the ARMM now in terms of socio-economic as well as governance status, 2) Updates on on-going initiatives in terms of programs and projects as well as policies that need to be continued, and 3) ARMM Development Plans and existing development agenda that embodied the totality of ARMM priorities in 2009 and beyond.

Apart from the knowledge on ARMM plans, policies and programs, ARMM executives were also given additional knowledge on financial and human resource management.

The Strategic Action Plan has emanated from critical issues as well as opportunities and adapted strategies in each of the five (5) Major Sectors of the ARMM Regional Executive and Legislative Agenda (2009 - 2011). Each of this sector contained focused development programs and projects that addresses the most critical development issues that need to be implemented during the term of the incumbent ARMM officials.

The identification of strategic actions for the last two years were based on the most critical issues as well as opportunities under each of the five (5) major sectors viz; For Peace, Public Order and Security; Maintenance of peace and order, Poor community participation in the pursuance of development and mitigation of the effect of calamities are the top among the issues under this sector. In terms of priority investment to address the aforementioned critical issues are: For funded programs and projects is P 187.09 Million distributed at P93.12 Million and P 93.97 Million for 2010 and 2011, respectively. Similarly for unfunded programs and projects have a lessen amount at P 109.10 Million for 2010 and P 37.20 Million for 2011. There were no identified new programs and projects for the next two (2) years.

Under the Economic Sector, the most prominent critical development issues that need to be addressed are: Low investment, Environmental degradation and inequitable resource utilization, Poor cooperation, Low production and productivity on Agri-fishery, Inadequate irrigation facilities, Inadequate human and infrastructure Science and Technology resources among others. Economic development has the highest ASAP investment among the sectors at P 33.76 Billion or about 98% of the total funded investment for the next two years ending in 2011. For unfunded programs and projects, these are P 143.81 and P 134.41 Million pesos are earmarked for 2010 and 2011, respectively. For new investment targeted for the next two years, about P 193 Million or only 7.6% of the total investment of all the sectors.

Under the Social Development Sector, High indices in infant mortality rate, Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Dropout rates, Poverty and Unemployment. Low rates in simple literacy, Cohort survival, Achievement level in Science and Technology exam passers. Critical development includes, Inadequacies in database of social development, Awareness on the rights of women and children, IDPs and IPs, Poor policy implementation like the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) law and culture-related programs.

On the investment side, priority investment to address social inequities, a total of P 766.42 Million are with funding for the next two years. Meanwhile, the sector has the biggest in investment of P 4.55 Billion or 52.53 percent, the highest among the five (5) sectors in terms of the unfunded programs and projects. There was no identified new investment for the two-year ASAP under the sector.

Basically, Infrastructure Development is envisioned to provide support to socio-economic development of the various critical development issues affecting the sector. Among others, the critical issues identified are; Poor maintenance of airports and seaport facilities, Law rate of irrigation development, Inadequate social infrastructures, Poor road network and undevolved major infrastructure agencies, programs and projects.

In terms of priority investments, infrastructure development is the next highest funded sector for the next two years of the ASAP at P 4.25 Million. For unfunded programs and projects, about P 1.62 and P 2.06 Billion for 2010 and 2011, respectively, were expected to be implemented when fund is available. New priority investment costing a billion pesos were identified to be implemented by CY 2011.

On the other hand, Development Administration and Governance Sector, has the following critical development issues to be addressed in the next two years viz; Negative ARMM image, Insufficient local revenue generation, Poor local and regional plans (SPILGA, ERP for IDPs) implementation, Poor statistical databases and Performance management system, Inadequate knowledge in Islamic governance and Inadequate skills in land use planning.

Funded priority investment under the development administration sector has the smallest at P 29.38 Million for the next two years. While the unfunded programs and projects is only P 10.40 Million distributed at P 4.20 Million and P 6.20 Million for 2010 and 2011, respectively.

For new projects identified as priority, about P 159 Million for 2010 and P 165 Million for 2011 or a total of P 323.56 Million are earmarked for implementation when fund is available.

On the overall, the total available fundings for all the sectors under the two-year ASAP is about P 34.28 Billion distributed at P 19.15 and P 14.63 Billion for 2010 and 2011, respectively.

The cost of unfunded programs and projects lifted from the ARMM Regional Executive Legislative Agenda (ARELA, 2008-2011), is about P 8.70 Billion while the identified new priority programs and projects costing about P 740 Million for 2010 and P 1.80 Billion for 2011, or a grand total of P 35.40 Billion for the three investment categories.

The ASAP implementation is of primordial consideration by the Hon. Acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin A. Adiong administration. For programs and projects without funding, the assistance of donor partners shall be tapped.

Part of locally-generated revenue shall be used to finance vital development concern such as provision of livelihood thru SMEs, OTOP and skills development.

Strategic infrastructure shall be pursued vigorously with the rationale programming/allocation of the national government’s Annual Infra Fund Subsidy to ARMM. Strong coordination and linkages with national agencies and donor partners shall be strengthened to maximize infra fund support.

For effective and efficient programs and projects implementation for the next two (2) years, Monitoring and Evaluation of project implementation shall be strengthened through the organization of an inter-agency Monitoring Team that shall actively coordinate with existing Project Monitoring body at the provincial and municipal levels.