Two officials of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), one of them Senior Culture and Development Advisor Afeefa Syeed from Washington, D.C., visited the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) in Quezon City, to discuss USAID assistance to Muslim Mindanao.

OMA Executive Director Datu Ali B. Sangki and other OMA officials welcomed Syeed and Fatima Salih Versoza, USAID project development specialist in Manila, at his office in Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City.

The Washington-based USAID official arrived in Manila on January 12 and will stay until January 25.

Sangki thanked the USAID officials for their visit, citing the American humanitarian organization's continuing assistance to the Philippines, particularly to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

ARMM, which is at the bottom of poverty index, is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

Also at the meeting were OMA Directors Laman Piang (cultural bureau), Tahir Lidasan Jr. (external relations bureau), and Hadja Bai Haidee Ampatuan (planning bureau).

In an email to Sangki, the USAID said the purpose of Syeed's visit to the country "is to assess why the human development indicators are declining, despite huge donor assistance and resources for the ARMM, identify the problems and propose recommendations.”

Syeed wanted to know from Sangki why ARMM and its people have not improved "despite huge donor assistance and resources."

Sangki suggested that USAID and other international donor agencies should re-orient their way of giving assistance to the Philippines, particularly to ARMM, by giving OMA an authority to check and monitor the implementation of their projects.

The OMA official said at present his office, which is under the Office of the President, has no authority to check and monitor international donor agencies' assistance to Muslim Mindanao.

Sangki also cited the assistance of Libya's World Islamic Call Society (WICS) for the printing of textbooks for Islamic schools worth several million pesos but were not coordinated with OMA.

He said the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Philippines has already promised to coordinate with OMA any assistance the Saudi government or Saudi humanitarian agencies will give.

Syeed also plans to meet with youth leaders, non-governmental organizations, madrassah leaders, Muslim women's organizations, Muslim and Christian religious leaders, members of the academe "with keen understanding of ARMM issues and challenges," local government leaders, and known Mindanao-wide leaders in education, environment and good governance.