The House of Representatives led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has approved a measure institutionalizing the convergence strategy for sustainable rural development.
House Bill 9146, or the “National Convergence Initiative Act” authored by Rep. Anna Katrina Enverga of Quezon was approved on third and final reading by a 183 vote.
The bill proposes to strengthen cooperation the four National Convergence Initiative rural development departments. These are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Department of the Interior and Local Government.
The convergence is seen to support agricultural development by adopting a participatory approach in all phases of development from planning and budgeting, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation, Enverga said.
Under the bill, the convergence strategy shall adopt the watershed and integrated ecosystem management as well as integrated area development approaches as the intervention framework in the convergence areas.
“This is primarily because the ‘ridge to reef’ convergence strategy is an environmentally sustainable approach to development since human interventions in the forest and upland areas would impact on the lowland areas, and this, in turn, would affect the coastal and marine areas,” the bill states.
Selection of convergence zones shall also take into consideration Strategic Agricultural and Fisheries Development Zones provisions of Republic Act 8435 or the “Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997.”
The implementation of the NCI shall be done through Technical Working Groups in an ecosystem. The three groups—the TWG on Coastal and Marine Resources Management, the TWG on Sustainable Lowland Agriculture, and the TWG on Forestry and Upland Development—are equally important and shall be mutually reinforcing. They shall ensure that the objectives of the NCI as a means of improving institutional efficiencies in the governance of sustainable rural development are achieved.
The three TWGs shall have the following crosscutting components: Policy and Advocacy; Agro-Enterprise and Agribusiness Development; Capacity Development; and Knowledge Management.
The NCI shall have an Executive Board to serve as its policymaking body. The Board shall direct the implementation of the provisions of the measure.
The Board shall be composed of four voting members: the Secretary of DA as Chairperson; the Secretaries of the DENR, DAR, and DILG as members; and the Executive Director of the NCI Secretariat as ex-officio member.
The National Convergence-Technical Working Group (NCI-TWG) shall serve as the advisory and recommendatory body to the Board on matters related to the implementation of the NCI.
Parallel NCI-TWGs shall be established in the Regional, Provincial, and Municipal levels.
All NCI-TWGs shall work closely with other government line agencies and offices to ensure complementation and alignment of NCI interventions with that of other related agencies and offices.
Meanwhile, a permanent NCI Secretariat shall be created with the corresponding plantilla positions for its administrative and technical staff compliment. Among its functions shall be to coordinate the conduct of the NCI-Executive Board and NCI-TWG meetings and workshops, writeshops, seminars, fora, and consultations; provide administrative, logistics, and technical support to the NCI-TWG; and document, prepare, and disseminate the highlights of the proceedings of the NCI Executive Board and NCI-TWG meetings and activities.