Livelihood activities in former major camps of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will rev up anew as the Bangsamoro government announced it was stepping up efforts to expand opportunities.
The Bangsamoro government directed its Cooperatives and Social Enterprise Authority to capacitate the community associations and cooperatives in the 17 barangays lying within the six major military camps in central Mindanao.
The CSEA has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA Inc.) and Community and Family Services International (CFSI) here on August 10 for the implementation of the second phase of the Bangsamoro Camps Transformation Project (BCTP/2).
Under the agreement, CSEA will provide capacity-building activities on cooperative governance, financial literacy and enterprise management and the BDA will contribute its expertise in community mobilization and grassroots participation.
The CFSI will provide technical and social development support for project implementation.
‘Through this partnership, we reaffirm our shared commitment to empowering communities, strengthening local ownership, creating sustainable livelihoods, and building a more peaceful, resilient, and inclusive Bangsamoro,’ the CSEA said.
CFSI Director for Mindanao Program Noraida Abdullah Karim said the partnership would help strengthen community cooperatives and enterprises in the project areas.
‘This agreement will empower community cooperatives and enterprises across 17 target barangays in six camp communities under the BCTP/2,’ Karim said.
The six major camps identified under the normalization track of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) are Camps Abubakar, Omar, Badre, Rajamuda, Bushra Somiorang, and Bilal.
These camps are communities where former combatants and their families live alongside other residents, and their transformation into peaceful, productive and resilient communities is a key component of the normalization process, the Bangsamoro Information Office said.
The transformation effort is intended to complement other components of the peace process, including the decommissioning of MILF combatants and weapons, by helping communities build sustainable sources of income and improve access to development opportunities, it added.
BDA Executive Director Rhadzni Taalim thanked the CSEA for supporting the project.
‘Every act we do for this project serving the people in the camps can be considered as part of our worship. We thank CSEA for their continuing support for the project,’ Taalim said.
The project will also provide opportunities for women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and farmers to participate in development activities, while supporting community resilience through climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction initiatives, Taalim said.
The activities are supported by the Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund (BNTF).