Recognizing the vital role played by the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and private sector representatives (PSR) which sit in various local and special bodies in the local and regional development councils, members of the Regional Development Council (RDC) XII has recently given its full support to the establishment of CSO Academy for SOCSKSARGEN.

During the 4th Quarter Regular Meeting of the Macro-Economy Development Administration and Finance Committee (MEDAFC) XII on December 2, 2021 the Committee recognized the need to capacitate CSOs so they can fully engage in the development processes.

RDC XII Resolution no. 151, series of 2021 was approved on December 7, 2021 during RDC’s 75th Regular Meeting which was done through videoconference. In the resolution, the RDC cited the need to “increase the number of membership of the private sector representatives in the fully reconstituted regional development council to 33 percent” by virtue of RDC XII Resolution 118, series of 2021.

The Council observed that ‘only a few CSOs are members of the local special bodies that actively engage and participate in the development processes’ requiring the need to ‘enhance the capacities of others CSOs in various aspects of leadership, succession planning, local governance, and a lot more.

The Mahintana Foundation, Inc. (MFI) and DILG XII have organized Project EnGaGe (Enhancing CSO Capacities for Good and Accountable Local Governance) or the CSO Academy to cater to the capacity development needs of the CSOs in Mindanao with other stakeholders.

On October 22, 2021, the members of the MSAC XII Sub-committee on Transparency and Accountability in Local Governance and the Technical Working Group (TWG) discussed the operationalization the CSO Academy, leading to the passing of a resolution on November 9 which approved the establishment of the CSO Academy.