DAVAO CITY—Following the first National IT Assessment and Action Planning Workshop held in Baguio City, the Department of Agriculture (DA) – Special Area of Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program holds a follow-up Assessment and Action Planning Workshop for the DA-SAAD Information Technology (IT) Cluster at the Casa Leticia Business Inn, Ecoland, Davao City starting today, 18-21 September 2018.

SAAD Regional and Provincial IT Officers (from DA-SAAD RFOs CAR, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13) mainly comprised the attendees, together with some SAAD Focal/Planning Officers. The National Program Management Office (NPMO) is led for the said activity by the IT Cluster Head, Mr. Marvin P. Segovia.  Also present from the NPMO were Planning and Monitoring Group Head Mr. Ulysses J. Lustria, Jr, Planning and Budget Head Mr. Darwin A. Pamatmat, and the Planning and Monitoring Teams.

Mr. Lustria, for his part, relayed the importance of the information being asked from the Regions, not just for the oversight agencies, but also for the monitoring and evaluation of the SAAD Program itself.

Mr. Segovia reminded the IT Officers on the IT Guidelines to be observed when conducting field profiling and geotagging. He emphasized on the completeness and correctness of the data being consolidated in the national office.

Efforts to efficiently cover information of the interventions being provided by the SAAD Program are being considered—including the introduction of the template for recording of interventions which was thoroughly explained by NPMO Planning Officer Mr. Justin Dela Rueda to the attendees. In turn, the body was welcomed to actively comment on the said form which is still in its draft stage.

A separate presentation for the finalization of the 2019 Budget Execution Documents (BEDs) per Region was done and led by Mr. Pamatmat.

The SAAD Program is a locally-funded project under DA that aims to provide agricultural livelihood assistance to marginalized farmers and fishermen in the country. It is also a relatively new project that started in 2017 to last until 2022. ###

Writer:  Ela Arciaga, SAAD NPMO PR & Communications Officer