ARMM holds first Bangsamoro Datathon

Cotabato City (January 22, 2018) – The Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO-ARMM) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) spearheaded a three-day Bangsamoro Datathon held in this city from January 8 to 10.

The Bangsamoro Datathon (data + marathon) is a series of support processes in service of the transition from the ARMM to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The exercise covered open data, open street mapping, and benchmark data.

The project was aimed at:

consolidating and evaluating available administrative, statistical, and framework geospatial data of the ARMM and existing development plans and studies;

comprehensive data inventory and consolidation required to build a baseline for the shift from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority this year;

focus on development data, not human resource data (assets, liabilities, and personnel);

train analysts and other officers of the ARMM regional government and the incoming Bangsamoro Transition Authority on basic geospatial analysis; and

encourage the practice of open data in the context of open governance in the Bangsamoro.

The initial dataset was for Marawi City and Lanao del Sur for the first quarter of 2018. Later, the ARMM Regional Government worked with its different line agencies to also try updating the Regional Physical Framework Plan and the five Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plans in preparation for the transition to the incoming new Bangsamoro government.

During the three-day activity, an overview and inventory of all the data, place-based analysis, and geographical data generation and cleaning were conducted. “This project marks the Bangsamoro as the first region in the Philippines to have an open geospatial and statistical portal for development planning and programming,” Baintan Adil-Ampatuan, RPDO-ARMM executive director, said.

The datathon was successfully conducted with the support of all ARMM line agencies, provincial governments of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, National Economic and Development Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, and the technical working staff of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

It was financed by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and The Asia Foundation. (By JONG CADION with Bureau of Public Information PR and photos)