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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
MSP gets support from int'l donors
A UNIQUE project designed to strengthen efforts toward effecting a Mindanao transformation through research and studies is gaining strong support from development organizations.
Convenors of the Mindanao Studies Project (MSP) recently signed a partnership agreement with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines - United Nations Multi - Donor Programme (GOP-UN MDP) Phase III, a development assistance program supporting the peace process.
Under the partnership agreement, the Mindanao Studies Convenors' Group (MSCG) will tap funding support extended by the GOP-UN MDP III for the implementation of the project.
MSP seeks to gather scholarly materials about Mindanao and other essential information to obtain a comprehensive perspective of Mindanao. The project was conceived by MSCG, an alliance of academic institutions and non-government organizations formed to pursue collaborative undertakings to promote Mindanao development through research, conferences and advocacy works.
"We view this project as a significant contribution to our peace and development initiatives in the communities through empowerment of local peoples as agents of transformation, and principal players in peace-building," said Ramon Flores, program coordinator of GOP-UN MDP III.
Of particular interest to GOP-UN MDP III is the completion of an annotated bibliography on peace autonomy, gender, and other related issues, as well as a directory of resource centers, and a compilation of "Who's Who in Mindanao Studies."
Flores added that the GOP-UN MDP III, through its Culture of Peace and Advocacy component, aims to strengthen confidence-building initiatives by promoting the culture of peace through public fora and information drives on peace building such as those being pursued by the MSP.
Aside from UN-MDP III, other organizations such as the Asia Foundation and the Toyota Foundation have already supported the conduct of the MSP. Funding support from these groups currently propels the conduct of the MSP.
The donor agencies' support for the MSP emerged amidst heightened interest from the donor community to support the peace and development process in Mindanao. MSP, being the first of its kind, both in terms of its wide scope and special interest in promoting peace and development, successfully drew the interest of these funders.
As a trailblazing initiative, the MSP is expected to open up the floodgates for more in-depth and research-based discussion platforms where Mindanaoans can intensively participate.
MSP, which was originally referred to as the Mindanao Studies Program was formed through a series of consultations and dialogues initiated by the University of the Philippines-Mindanao in 1999.
At least ten government and private organizations coming from the academe, research-based institutions, and NGO network bonded together to form the convenors' group.
The participating academic institutions include the UP-Min, Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), and Notre Dame University (NDU) -Cotabato, University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP), Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), Mindanao State University-General Santos City (MSU-GSC), Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), and Dansalan College Foundation (DCFI).
Those coming from the NGO sector are the Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM) and Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MinCODE), while MEDCo represent the government.
(January 28, 2003 issue)
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