The Canadian government will be extending P3.09 billion worth of Official Development Assistance (ODA) grants to the Philippines in the next five years.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said this was included in the Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) between the governments of the Philippines and Canada recently signed by the two countries.
“Linking development priorities and goals between the Philippine and Canadian governments will help ensure sustainability of strategies under the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, which have already produced significant results for the Philippine economy,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said.
The Canadian government will extend some P441.83 million worth of ODA grants to the Philippines in fiscal years 2015 and 2016. Canada’s fiscal year starts in April and ends in March the following year.
In fiscal year 2016 and 2017, the Philippines is set to receive ODA grants of around P552.29 million and another P625.93 million in fiscal year 2017 and 2018.
For fiscal years 2018 to 2020, the Philippine government will receive P736.39 million a year, or a total of P1.47 billion in ODA grants.
The Philippines-Canada MAF was the third MAF that Canada signed with another government and the first that it signed with an Asian country. The other two MAFs were with Senegal and Ghana.
The Philippines-Canada MAF’s objective is to establish the shared desire between the Philippine and Canadian governments to support broad-based and sustainable economic growth.
This will be done by creating available resources in support of programs, projects, and activities that will create employment, significantly reduce vulnerabilities to poverty, and improve the quality of life of all Filipinos.
“The continuing support of Canada is very important in our effort to make growth inclusive and disaster-resilient and to deepen good governance reforms,” Balisacan said.
The MAF is expected to contribute to a more disaster-resilient and gender-responsive enabling environment at national and subnational levels of government.
It also intends to increase economic opportunities for low-skilled workers, microentrepreneurs and smallholder farmers, and especially on youth, women, and marginalized groups.
Also, the mutual commitments in the MAF will level the expectations of both governments, particularly on the development cooperation processes, and thus may address specific programmatic and governance concerns.
These will further increase transparency and accountability for results of Philippines-Canada development cooperation programs.
On June 27, 2014, the Canadian government elevated the Philippines as “Country of Focus” in its bilateral programming toward eradicating global poverty.
As of December 2014, Canada has an active or ongoing ODA portfolio of $111.95 million, which are all grants, for 47 projects in the Philippines.