New program to reduce poverty introduced

CEBU, Philippines - Because it is effective in addressing the needs of communities needs, the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive  and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), which got an international recognition, has been scaled up into a national program for poverty reduction coined as the National Community-Driven Development Program (NCDDP).

According to Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-7 information officer Simeon Remata III, the NCDDP will be targeting more than 900 poor municipalities in the country.

The national program is set to be launched late this year. This was approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board and signed as a National Program by President Benigno Aquino III himself.

He said that in Central Visayas, NCDDP will cover 104 municipalities with poverty incidence rates greater than the national average of 26.5% based on the data from the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) in 2009.

In order to be part of the program, these municipalities have to undergo an enrolment process which will happen late this year, he said.

DSWD-7 Director Mercedita Jabagat is pleased with the positive promotion of the poverty reduction program as the region ranks third in terms of having the most number of municipalities covered by the national program.

Jabagat said that they are happy that Kalahi-CIDSS has been recognized by an international award giving body since this will garner additional leverage and general patronage for the program.

Jabagat added that with the advent of the NCDDP, which will scale up the Community-Driven Development (CDD) strategy utilized by Kalahi-CIDSS, there will be even greater impact to communities in the country.

Kalahi-CIDSS is one of the core poverty reduction programs of the DSWD. It was chosen as one of the awardees of the United States Treasury’s second annual Development Impact Honors Awards, beating over 40 other candidates located in different parts of the world.

The award was given last July 25 at the Main Treasury Building in North Washington, USA. The Development Impact Honors Awards recognizes the different projects supported by multilateral development banks from all over the world, according to Remata.

He added that the awards are meant to distinguish development-oriented programs, such as those that fight poverty, hunger and disease. The entries were judged based on criteria such as quality of results, focus on priority sectors, innovations used and risk mitigations strategies utilized.

According to US Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew, Kalahi-CIDSS was chosen as one of the awardees out of the other entries because it is “an especially high-impact and noteworthy development intervention.”

Remata said that this is illustrated in the Kalahi-CIDSS’ community empowerment processes which have put up 5,876 small-scale community projects, catering to about 1,345,767 households in the 42 poorest provinces nationwide.

The project has also improved community participation rates in project activities which in turn make service delivery of various local government units “more participatory, inclusive and transparent.”

Aside from that, it has also improved household income per capita consumption of beneficiary communities by 5% based on studies done by World Bank in its Impact Evaluation Report in 2012, Remata stressed. — (FREEMAN)