𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐨 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬 𝐔𝐍’𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐌

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Government led by Chief Minister Ahod B. Ebrahim and United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) convened on Thursday, April 21 to discuss the United Nations’ (UN) support to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Gustavo Gonzales, Resident Coordinator of the UNRC, endorsed the ‘Conflict Transformation Project’ to Chief Minister Ebrahim. The said project is supported by International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP), and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO).

“This transformation project is getting attraction from the international community. We already have resources from Australia. I meet others like France, Sweden, United Kingdom, Qatar, they are all interested,” he said.

Gonzales further suggested to engage on this project as it is expected to help the conflict affected areas in the BARMM.

Meanwhile, Gonzales endorsed Stean Tshiband as UN’s Area Coordinator for BARMM.

“My role is to attend some of your issues and to lead to the UN to look forward as a whole, but UN agencies will continue to work with their respective counterparts,” Tshiband explained.

Further, Gonzales also shared that Secretary Leonor M. Briones of the Department of Education is calling for an ‘Education Summit’.

Accordingly, an Education Summit will be conducted in New York City on September to be spearheaded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“I am ready to have a meeting with your Minister of the Education so we can create a network,” he stressed.

Also, the UN expressed their full support in the updating of the Bangsamoro Development Plan.

“I think this is the first time that the UN agencies is being united as one. Your team is in touch to our different ministries and offices, so I think the working plan is in place,” Chief Minister Ebrahim said.

Also present during the meeting were Engr. Mohajirin T. Ali, Bangsamoro Director General of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA-BARMM); Engr. Alvin-Yasher K. Abdulgafar, Chief of Staff of the Office of the Chief Minister (OCM-BARMM); Oscar Marenco, Head of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS); Troy Dooley, Officer in Charge of the IOM; Saleh Tembo, Security Advisor of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS); Melindi Malang, Humanitarian Affairs Officer of the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA); and Julie Villadolid, coordination assistant of the UNRC. (BPDA-BARMM)