THE World Bank (WB) has approved an additional loan and grant financing for the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) to invest in climate change-resilient infrastructure.
The Washington-based lender said the Board of Executive Directors approved an additional $280-million loan and 18.3-million-Euro grant for the PRDP.
The additional financing will support 267 climate-resilient rural infrastructure and 287 enterprise development subprojects to boost rural incomes, and strengthen planning and implementation capacities among local government units and producer organizations.
“This project boosts the country’s efforts to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity by targeting investments in agriculture, which is a major source of livelihood and income in the rural areas,” WB Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand Ndiame Diop said in a statement.
“We hope that this additional financing will further foster partnerships in productive investments between farmers’ groups and commercial buyers, contributing to improved market access and higher income opportunities for rural residents,” he added.
WB said the additional financing will invest in rural roads designed to withstand adverse weather events to ensure uninterrupted connectivity and access to markets.
The funds will also be used for communal irrigation subprojects to address water scarcity and avoid the risk of large-scale crop failure.
Other programmed investments include warehouse facilities and solar dryers to prevent post-harvest crop losses, and greenhouses to protect selected crops from extreme heat and support improved water management, among others.
The additional financing also expands the inclusiveness of PRDP by supporting more local government units in Mindanao that experience poverty and conflict.
A grant from the European Union aims to cofinance and provide incentives for the Mindanao local government units with a higher incidence of poverty, lower capacity, more conflict-affected areas, and larger numbers of indigenous people to participate in PRDP.
Local government units in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are particularly encouraged to participate.
“This integrated planning approach is an important step in merging local priorities and national development programs, thus making the DA and local governments effective partners in the development of the farming and fishing sector,” said Eli Weiss, WB senior agricultural economist.
Under the PRDP, the DA provides technical and financial support to the planning process of provincial, city and municipal governments, as well as in the implementation and delivery of services, rural infrastructure, and enterprise development based on provincial and city commodity investment plans, value chain analysis, and suitable production areas.
To date, 454 rural infrastructure subprojects benefiting 608,887 households have been approved, and 261 are completed. Around 1,229 km of farm-to-market roads have been completed, and 859 km are under construction.
More than 637 enterprise projects have been approved, benefiting 136,267 members, 46 percent of them women. Of these subprojects, 70 percent are completed, while another 30 percent (185) are under implementation.
In a recent evaluation, users of the rural roads reported that their real household incomes increased by an average of 36 percent, while beneficiaries of enterprise development subprojects increased by an average of 113 percent, while having a 51-percent increase in their annual marketed output.