COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) division chiefs and senior staff underwent a two-day Strategic Planning Workshop facilitated by Maria Victoria “Mags” Maglana via zoom video teleconference on Monday, October 12-13, 2020 held at the BPDA conference room.
The workshop aims to equip the newly hired BPDA personnel on strategic planning and management tools and concepts for them to effectively discharge their roles and responsibilities, provide a deeper appreciation of the new and ongoing development thrusts and priorities of the current national and Bangsamoro government, to understand and align their division and individual functions and their roles, and to formulate the 1st BPDA Strategic Plan.
Bangsamoro Director General Engr. Mohajirin T. Ali said BPDA is a newly created office under the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 06, section 14, as the socio-economic development planning and policy coordinating authority of the Bangsamoro Government replacing the former Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO) of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“Hiring key personnel is just a part of the gradual setting up of this office. Since we hired these new permanent employees, this is our first activity that we have which allows us to interact and socialize with the new ones,” Ali said.
With the substantial increase of 300% for technical divisions compared to RPDO-ARMM, Ali emphasized the need for careful planning to ensure efficient performance in fulfilling its mandate to provide technical assistance.
“I am looking forward to a very fruitful discussion in sharing your ideas in this two-day workshop. Eventually, our vision will become our goal so that we could set a direction or roadmap of our office. Let’s make sure that we can run this office well,” Ali stressed.
Meanwhile, seven (7) division chiefs presented the accomplishment report of their respective divisions from January to 1st week of October 2020 which include Finance and Administrative Support Services (FASS), Macro-Economic Planning Division (MEPD), Social Planning Division (SPD), Economic Planning Division (EPD), Economic Intelligence Division (EID), Infrastructure Planning Division (IPD), Information Knowledge and Management Division (IKMD) and Local Planning and Coordinating Division (LPCD).
Melanie M. Indar, resource person and former RPDO employee, stated the importance of providing additional support in capacitating staff and employees to effectively perform their tasks.
“When I was with RPDO, I coached. I provide mentoring to my staff because I should do the steering as division chief,” Indar said.
Further, Mags Maglana facilitated the workshop on the formulation of the BPDA vision and mission statements. She reminded the participants to keep it short and passionate.
“The vision is an idealized desired state of the office, community it serves and the society in general. On the other hand, mission is the reason for being or basic purpose for establishing the office and defines its unique contribution towards the achievement of the vision,” Maglana explained.
The synergy and active participation of the participants produced an output of the BPDA vision and mission which are subject for the approval of the Bangsamoro Dir. Gen. Mohajirin T. Ali.
Al Kashmir Ko, newly-appointed Local Planning and Coordinating Division Head was elated for the opportunity given to newly hired personnel.
“We should be thankful to the Almighty God because of all applicants, we were the ones chosen and entrusted in our respective positions. It is indeed challenging. So we have to strive to prove our worth,” Ko expressed.
Meanwhile, the BPDA Strategic Planning workshop is a series of activities and will have its second part in the following week. (Lovella Lao-Lastimosa, IKMD, BPDA-BARMM)