Government agencies urged to allot 1% budget for IPsDAVAO CITY, June 1 (PNA) -- Arguing that the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are considered the most vulnerable in the country nowadays, the Regional Development Council in Davao Region (RDC-11) has called on the national government agencies (NGAs) to allocate one percent of their budget in 2017 for programs and projects that will be devoted to the said sector.
The National Economic Development Authority in the region (NEDA-11) said the IPs require the prime attention of government considering that the said sector still find it difficult to access government services.
NEDA-11 regional director Maria Lourdes Lim said the call is a policy initiative of the council that will be integrated in the RDC-11 fiscal year 2017 budget preparation guidelines.
“There is a strong need to aid the IP sector in efforts to make them more productive members of society through the budget allocation,†Lim said in the statement.
Among the difficulties that the IPs experience in dealing with the government is on the access to education especially on its programs and services.
Consultations done by the RDC-11 and NEDA tell that IPs have difficulty competing with thousands of applicants in view of the scholarship requirements of scholarship-granting agencies.
Such adversities have resulted in very few IP youths qualifying for scholarship grants from the government.
RDC-11 believes that with the allocation of 1 percent budget from NGAs that will be focused on program support for the IPs, the sector will have better chance of accessing basic government services that include livelihood, education and health.
The approach, Lim noted, has been employed for gender and development, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and the youth through providing allocations in the General Appropriations Act.
The measure will ensure that agency budgets will include programs and projects for the IPs and provide them protection.
The move is also in line with the council’s efforts of linking its programs and projects to overall regional development objectives that include social protection for the vulnerable sectors of the society. (PNA)
LAP/LCM/Alex D. Lopez/ldp
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