CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Regional Project Monitoring and Evaluation Council (RPMEC) has crafted a draft Manual of Operations (ManOps) for an integrated Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System (RBMES) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) during the conduct of the five-day formulation write shop last week in Cagayan de Oro City.
The draft was the output of the activity called, “Write Shop on the Formulation of Manual of Operations for BARMM’s Monitoring and Evaluation System,” held on June 5-9, 2023 at New Dawn Hotel in said city.
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is considered one of the backbones of BARMM Government’s overarching policy on Moral Governance. As such, “it is imperative that an integrated RPMES, which is designed and tailor-fit to the BARMM must be put in place,” said Nomaire P. Mustapha in an ambush interview made before the start of the opening program. Mustapha, who was also a participant in the writeshop, is the division chief of the BPDA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Division (MED).
Research Development and Special Projects Bureau (RDSPB) Director Engr. Kadil T. Sulaik likewise held, “Monitoring and evaluation is an essential tool of good governance because it measures the effectivity of a policy, tracts the progress of the program/projects, and measures feedbacks of what the government is doing i.e., whether or not it is successful.”
On behalf of Director General Engr. Mohajirin T. Ali, MNSA, Director Sulaik formally opened and welcomed the participants during the first day of the write shop. That is, through M&E, “the people should know where their taxes go,” he further said.
Also, during the writeshop’s opening program, Dante Eleuterio, Head of FAO’s Mindanao Sub-Office, being a Bangsamoro himself, confessed, “I am bias to BARMM.”
Through UNFAO, the New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade provided for the funding requirement of the activity, in partnership with the BPDA.
Further, “we need to go back to what we were struggling before,” i.e., when capacitated in the tracking and monitoring of programs and projects in the BARMM, these could be a confirmation when “we can and we should tell the government that we need to manage our own people, like we dreamed before” Eleuterio stressed as he continued.
In a “Taglish” lingo, he ended “Now that we are given that opportunity,” in return, “gawing totoo ang bawat posisyon, bawat trabahao na binigay sa atin. At yan ay isa ring Jihad.”
Meanwhile, the main goal of the writeshop is to “strengthen institutional capacity and to institutionalize Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBME) and the Regional Project Monitoring and Evaluation System (RPMES)” of the BARMM Government, lectured Mr. Ever Abasolo, a BPDA Consultant.
The activity was just one of those planned out series of activities aimed at “formulating the BARMM Manual of Operations that will serve as important reference or guide of the RPMECom members and other implementing MOAs to properly execute their mandates on project monitoring and evaluation,” Abasolo explained.
The project, in its totality, envisions having a “well-oriented and capacitated RPMECom members and some BPDA staff on RBME and RPMES,” such is with the inclusion of the use of “web-based geo-spatial technology.”
It also seeks to “enhance the knowledge and skills of the BPDA staff as technical secretariat of the RPMECom in systematizing, managing, monitoring and evaluating the progress of the implementation of programs/projects” in the Bangsamoro autonomous region.
The write shop also introduced to the participants the good practices of NEDA Region X on monitoring and evaluation, familiarized them of the Innovative Platform for Programs/Projects/Activities’ Location Assessment, Monitoring and Budgeting for Development Planning and Governance or the IPA-LAMDAG System as well as the Project Management Information System of the Province of Agusan del Sur or PGAS PROMIS, thereby exploring the possibility of replicating, or even adopting them in the BARMM.
On the necessity of collaboration, thereby establishment of a platform for sharing expertise, experience and good practices, NEDA X Monitoring and Evaluation Division Chief Engr. Rosalyn R. Yparraguirre shared on the Salient Features of RPMES and IPA-LAMDAG as well as Senior Economic Development Specialist EnP Rodolfo T. Serrano, Jr., on the Good Practices of NEDA X on RPMES and IPA-LAMDAG, and PGAS IT Manager Nepthali Morgado on PROMIS.
Recalling that E.O. 308 mandated RDCs to monitor, evaluate and formulate recommendations on the implementations of plans and programs in the regions. Then E.O. 376 s. 1989 was issued establishing the RPMES and aimed at expediting project implementation and devolving project facilitation, problem-solving, monitoring and evaluation to regional, provincial and municipal levels.
With the establishment of BARMM i.e., replacing ARMM, by virtue of R.A. 11054, and stipulating therein the creation of the Bangsamoro Economic and Development Council (BEDC) tasked with planning, monitoring and coordinating of plans, programs and projects of the BARMM Government; also, and specifically stipulated in BAA No. 6 the BPDA as the technical secretariat and executive arm of BEDC with RPMEC as one of the BEDC’s special committee on monitoring and evaluation.
RPMEC is tasked to craft a Manual of Operations for BARMM’s Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System (RBMES). Currently, the Committee membership consists of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) as Co-Chairman, Technical Management Service – Office of the Chief Minister (TMDS-OCM), Bangsamoro Treasury Office (BTO), Ministry of Finance and Budget Management (MFBM) and two from accredited NGOs as Private Sector Representatives (PSRs)with the Office of the Senior Minister as Chairman.
The participants of the writeshop served as the TWG of PRMEC tasked to craft said Manual of Operations. As planned, the draft shall be presented to the Committee for further inputting. It shall be presented afterward to the MOAs, say, for critiquing, then to LGUs through coordinative meetings and consultations with their local planners. Finally, it shall be presented to BEDC for approval and adoption. (BPDA-BARMM)