JICA donates database for gov’t program PAMANA

A March 2, 2011 press release prepared by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process


The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has extended its support to the government’s Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Peaceful and Resilient Communities) or PAMANA program by donating a database which profiles the socio-economic conditions of specific areas in Mindanao.

The said database was recently turned over to Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles by JICA chief representative Norio Matsuda in a simple ceremony attended by representatives from the donor community at the Astoria Plaza in Pasig City.


Dir. Carmel Pami-Ulanday of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Institutional Partnerships Unit said that the database donated by JICA provides the government a ready reference for validating the socio-economic conditions and needs of some communities in Mindanao.

“We are grateful for the database JICA has contributed because this will help us fast track the identification of barangay beneficiaries for the PAMANA program,” she stated.

A flagship program of the government, PAMANA is a framework for peace and development which seeks to promote community resilience by reducing poverty and vulnerability; improving governance; and strengthening capacities of communities for peace-building through activities that promote social cohesion.

Ulanday related that the database is one of the deliverables of JICA’s “Study for Socio-Economic Reconstruction and Development of Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao” (SERD-CAAM), which aims to formulate a socio-economic plan for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and development of specific areas in Mindanao.

The study, which started in February 2007 and was completed in November 2009, encompasses 3,847 barangays in 151 cities and municipalities in 14 provinces of Regions 9, 10, 11, 12 and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“The SERD-CAAM Geographical Information System (GIS) and Database Integration Program is a software that contains data on barangay profiles and in-depth barangay needs analysis. Using this will help us identify different places based on indicators, such as physical and natural environment, socio-economic condition, infrastructure, among others,” Ulanday said.

She added that the SERD-CAAM database will display the data indicators into a map format which can be analyzed and visualized from the regional level down to the barangay.

“Next step is drawing the big plan on how to develop these areas, but of course, the end goal is to bring development to the whole of Mindanao,” she said.

According to Ulanday, the OPAPP GIS team is currently merging the SERD-CAAM database into OPAPP’s consolidated records.