Department of Agriculture (DA) Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban together with World Bank (WB) Country Director to the Philippines Ndiamé Diop discussed the preparations for the DA – Philippine Rural Development Project Scale-Up (DA-PRDP Scale-Up), at the DA-Office of the Secretary, on March 27, 2023.

DA-PRDP National Project Director Asec. Arnel V. De Mesa, together with National Deputy Project Director Shandy M. Hubilla, presented the progress of the team on the preparation for the project appraisal.

World Bank (WB) Country Director to the Philippines Diop expounded on the importance of the timeline set by the World Bank for the DA-PRDP Scale-Up.

“We’ve set this specific timeline so we can launch the PRDP Scale-Up by July and I can see that the PRDP team is doing very well in hitting the targets.”

WB Task Team Leader to the DA-PRDP Mio Takada thanked Usec. Panganiban for his continuous guidance since the inception of the proposed PRDP Scale-Up.

“On behalf of the World Bank team, I thank you, Senior Undersecretary Panganiban, for your guidance since our very first meeting way back in September 2022. We’re preparing all the necessary paper works as we are very excited to start the implementation of the PRDP Scale-Up as soon as possible.”

Also in attendance during the meeting is WB Lead Urban Specialist Madhu Raghunath who raised the importance of the harmonization of the three WB-assisted DA projects currently on the way.

“We’re making sure that all project operation manuals of PRDP Scale-Up, Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP), and Philippine Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe) are harmonized to ensure that there will be no duplication of interventions and that the implementation of these three projects complement each other.”

The schedule of the upcoming 15th World Bank Implementation Support Mission (WB ISM) to the DA-PRDP was also discussed during the meeting. ### (text by Ana Victoria Margallo, DA-PRDP/photos by Alan Jay Jacalan, DA-AFID)