CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA) — The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-10 will lead the mid-term updating of the Northern Mindanao Regional Development Plan (NMRDP) next year to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness in addressing emerging challenges and achieving Ambisyon Natin 2040.
NEDA-10 Regional Director Mylah Faye Aurora B. Cariño emphasized that the update will focus on recalibrating strategies and targets to accelerate progress toward achieving the vision of a prosperous, inclusive, and resilient Northern Mindanao by 2028.
The current NMRDP, which was crafted and approved in 2022, began its implementation in 2023. The mid-term review scheduled for next year is crucial for ensuring the plan continues to address the region’s evolving needs and challenges.
“This is to assess whether we need to sustain or improve our strategies based on our current conditions and address issues and emerging gaps and challenges that impede us from moving forward at an accelerated pace,” said Cariño.
She said the key focus areas for the update include creating more and higher-quality jobs, increasing individual income-earning capabilities, and ramping up investments in human capital development and workforce upskilling. The region will also continue to prioritize accelerating poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth.
NEDA-10 will likewise convene a Regional Poverty Forum to address the persistent issue of poverty in the region.
Cariño noted that the region had made significant strides in reducing poverty rates before the pandemic, with poverty rates declining by as much as 15 percentage points between 2018 and 2019. However, the onset of COVID-19 led to a temporary reversal in poverty reduction efforts.
“We were hoping that we’d be able to maintain that momentum, but sadly, COVID came. We experienced a slight increase in our poverty rates, poverty among families, and poverty among individuals. Moving forward after the pandemic, when the economy eased, we were hoping that we would be able to substantially reduce our poverty considering that we had high economic growth rates. In fact, we were one of the first regions to rebound from the pandemic. But sadly, as the data would show, we only managed to reduce it so slightly,” she stated.
She explained that the slower recovery can be attributed to a higher poverty threshold in the region compared to other parts of Mindanao, meaning that the income needed to meet basic needs is higher in northern Mindanao.
Cariño said the forum will tackle factors contributing to poverty and explore strategies to generate more meaningful jobs with better pay and create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to enhance household incomes and build resilience against external shocks.
“Our lofty aspiration is that by 2040, our poverty rate should be less than 1%,” she added.
Cariño further highlighted the importance of maximizing and capitalizing on the region’s endowments and comparative advantages. By harnessing the unique strengths and resources of each local government unit (LGU), she emphasized that the region can drive economic growth, enhance development, and improve competitiveness at the local level. (APB/PIA-10)
