Amante signs commitment with WFP, UNH

Tuesday 23rd of October 2012

BUTUAN CITY, Oct. 23 (PIA) -- In his most recent trip to Manila, Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand M. Amante, Jr. signed a commitment of partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Habitat (UNH) during the Sustainable Philippine Cities Project Launching at the Crowne Plaza in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Oct. 16, 2012.

Butuan City was chosen by the Joint WFP-UNH Initiative on Philippine Cities and Climate Change Adaptation to be one of the partner cities for both its Disaster Preparedness and Response Program and the Program for Achieving Sustainable Development (ASUD).

The project aims to build resilient cities in the face of climate change and natural disasters by increasing city government capacities in participatory risk and vulnerability assessment as basis for planning and operationalizing community-based adaptation actions to benefit vulnerable poor families living in high-risk areas.

Under the program, the WFP and UNH will provide Butuan City a P3 Million-fund with the directive of utilizing the support to produce an Action Plan for Disaster Preparedness as well as Urban Planning for the enhancement of the current Comprehensive Land Use Program.

In a phone interview with Engr. Antenedo Milloren, City Planning and Development Office Chief, he said the LGU is planning to use P1 Million of the total fund of P3 Million for Mapping, a requirement to enhance our Comprehensive Land Use Program, and which includes dense updating of the city’s Urban Observatory. He added that the P1 Million allotment would not be enough to cater to the specified task, but the UNH is willing to give additional funding assistance.

Engr. Milloren also said that we are given the condition of submitting the aforementioned requirements not later than December of this year for us to be included in the UNH Pabahay Program for 2013. Inclusion of which would mean additional funding for our existing housing programs.

Meanwhile, the remaining P2 Million will be used for the production of an Action Plan for Disaster Preparedness, with more emphasis on critical villages/areas in the city. The German Government has recently trained the local government unit on the ground rules of establishing a sound action plan, which is now seen as a useful tool in the creation of the said requirement.

Mayor Amante signed the commitment of partnership together with the mayors of the other partner-cities which included Iloilo, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro. Four programs were introduced during the launching. Butuan was the only city which qualified partnerships in two of the four programs. (NCLM/Maria Diana Luisa Z. Generalao/BC-PIO/PIA-Caraga)