BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The Deutsche Gessellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the city government here formalized and strengthened their partnership by signing the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on Technical Assistance and Advisory Package on Co-Management Area, in an effort to spur the economic development in the Caraga Region’s capital city.

After a year of close coordination, the agreement was sealed on Tuesday by Mayor Ferdinand Amante Jr., representing the city government, and Dr. Stephanie Schell-Faucon, principal advisor of GIZ-Conflict Sensitive Resource and Asset Management (COSERAM), at the City Mayor’s Office here.

Under the MoA, the GIZ-COSERAM will provide technical and financial support to the city’s effort to incorporate disaster-risk-reduction and climate-change-adaptation in its Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and Forest Land Use Plan (FLUP).

Amante said the agreement aims to ensure that governance of natural resources and assets is implemented in a peaceful and sustainable manner benefiting the community.

GIZ-COSERAM works throughout the Caraga Region with an integrated approach to poverty reduction and peace building.

The agreement also includes capacity development for multi-stakeholder dialogue processes and participatory Barangay Development Planning in the eight pilot villages of Amparo, Nongnong, San Mateo, Bitan-agan, Manila de Bugabus, Tungao, Dulag, and MG Santos, all of this city.

According to Dr. Schell-Faucon, to advance the socio-economic development of the Nasipit Lumber Company area, that covers around 11,000 hectares of land, this will be the starting point in implementing the project.

“GIZ wanted to support Caraga Region for the fact that it is one of the poorest regions in the Philippines yet it is very rich in terms of natural resources and it has the potential for development,” said Faucon.

Amante also emphasized that this partnership with the GIZ-COSERAM is basically aimed to secure the land, people, and development of the Caraga Region.

The GIZ is a federally owned enterprise that supports the German government in the field of international development cooperation, and has been implementing projects to promote economic, ecological and social development in the Philippines for more than 30 years.

“The coming in of our friends from the German government is a big help in our continuing economic development not only in our city, but also to neighboring provinces, especially in Agusan del Norte,” said Amante.