KALAHI-CIDSS bags development award

MANILA, Philippines - The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS), one of the poverty alleviation programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) pursued in partnership with the World Bank in 2003, was chosen as one of the awardees of the US Treasury in its second annual Development Impact Honors Awards, beating over 40 other candidates.

Kalahi-CIDSS was chosen as one as the awardees due to its being “especially high-impact and noteworthy,” according to US Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew in his letter to World Bank president Jim Kim.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman expressed delight over the honor given to the DSWD program.

“We are honored to have Kalahi-CIDSS chosen as one of the awardees by the US Treasury,” she said.

“We are optimistic that with NCDDP, we will be able to help even more families and communities rise from poverty,” she added, referring to the National Community-Driven Development Program.

Kalahi-CIDSS is one of the three core social protection programs of DSWD in combating poverty.

It was started in 2003 during the first tour of duty of Soliman at the DSWD.

It uses the community-driven development (CDD) strategy to empower ordinary citizens to actively and directly participate in local governance by identifying their own community needs, planning, implementing and monitoring projects together to address local poverty issues.

Some of the results of Kalahi-CIDSS include improved access of communities to basic services, increased community involvement, and positive impact in household well-being.

The World Bank has been a partner of Kalahi-CIDSS since its inception in 2003.

The award will be given on July 25 at the Main Treasury Building in North Washington.

Aside from the awardees, attending the event are members of the US Congress and other US government agencies, as well as representatives from the developmental sector.

The Development Impact Awards recognizes the different projects supported by multilateral development banks all over the world.

The awards are meant to distinguish development-oriented programs, such as those that fight poverty, hunger and disease.

The entries were judged on criteria such as quality of results, focus on priority sectors, innovations used and risk mitigations strategies utilized.

John Roome, World Bank Sustainable Development Director for East Asia Pacific, is pleased with the award, saying, “One of my first field visits was in Kalahi-CIDSS sites. From those early visits, I could see the impact of the project on people’s lives.”

He added that with the advent of the NCDDP, which will scale up the CDD strategy utilized by Kalahi-CIDSS, there will be even greater impact on communities in the country.

From the 364 municipalities covered by Kalahi-CIDSS, NCDDP will be targeting 900 of the poorest municipalities in the Philippines. It was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board last Jan. 18, and is set to be launched in late 2013.

Last year’s awardees of the Development Impact Honors Awards were the African Development Bank for the Mali-Senegal Road project, the Asian Development Bank for the Afghanistan Telecom Development Company project, the Inter-American Development Bank for its Basic Nutrition Program and the World Bank for their Amazon Region Protected Areas Program.