Philippine Development Plan of Aquino Administration
By Gloria Jane Baylon
Noting that the US-initiated Partnership for Growth (PFG) supports and complements key elements of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) of the Aquino administration, Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose L. Cuisia recently joined a PFG high-profile forum organized by the Center for Global Development (CGD).
CGD is a leading Washington think tank on international development.
With Cuisia at the March 29 forum were three ambassadors from the PFG pilot partner countries of El Salvador, Ghana and Tanzania. They were Francisco Altschul of El Salvador; Daniel Ohene Agyekum of Ghana, and Mwanaidi S. Maajar of Tanzania.
“Learning the lessons of development cooperation between the Philippines and the U.S. for the last 50 years, the PFG was consciously designed to complement and support key elements under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016 of the Aquino administration, and attuned to the President’s Social Contract with the Filipino People,” Cuisia conveyed to the forum participants.
On November 16, last year, the PFG Statement of Principles was signed in Manila by Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario and State Secretary Hillary Clinton, affirming a five-year Joint Country Action Plan (JCAP) that addresses constraints to economic growth, including fiscal space and governance..
The PFG is new framework for deepening and strengthening U.S. engagement with host country governments to promote and support broad-based and inclusive economic growth as the primary development objective.
Also at the forum, Special Assistant to the U.S. President at the National Security Council (NSC) Gayle Smith, said that PFG “is built on an equal, mature relationship with partners who are committed to development.”
Other speakers included Franck Wiebe, chief economist of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), who emphasized that the PFG is a “game changing model” that involves multi-agency teams from both the USG and the PFG partner country.
On his part, USAID Assistant Administrator Eric Postel confirmed the PFG program was designed “around analytical challenges” to address the partner country’s key constraints to growth.”
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