Int’l aid agencies back Robredo’s antipoverty program

Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

International aid agencies have thrown their full support behind the antipoverty program of Vice President Leni Robredo, joining a summit scheduled for next week where they will partner with the country’s poorest local government units.

This came as President Duterte continued his tirades against the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Robredo said that her office had not felt any move from the international aid agencies to “withhold the support that they have promised us.”

“What we feel from them is excitement to partner with us. We have heard them say that the (Office of the Vice President) has been helpful because they have many programs but not a lot sources of information, and we are providing them the data they need,” Robredo said.

The Vice President noted that all the foreign ambassadors, who had paid her a courtesy call, had “signified their commitment to help” whenever she presented the OVP’s antipoverty programs.

Robredo’s Partnerships Against Poverty Summit on Oct. 10 is a product of her twice-weekly visits to the poorest of the poor local government units (LGUs) in her first 100 days as Vice President.

She promised in her inaugural speech that she “will focus on those on the fringes of society.”

The summit will bridge the initial 60 LGUs, identified as “OVP priority areas” with local nongovernment organizations, private companies and individuals who can fund projects, such as livelihood and feeding programs and hard infrastructure.

International aid organizations like the UN Children’s Fund, World Food Program, the UN Development Program, the EU, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank will help in “research, knowledge sharing, technical assistance, small grants for capacity building and the like,” said Georgina Hernandez, head of the OVP’s Anti-Poverty and Advocacies Programs.