The Neda’s Knowledge Management Department said the profile of the poor households in the region was contained in the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), a study that guided also the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in identifying the poor for their conditional cash transfer program.
The Neda said the NHTS-PR “is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. This breakthrough project makes available to public and private social protection stakeholders a socioeconomic database of poor households to guide them in identifying qualified beneficiaries for their programs.”
“As of July 2011, the DSWD has identified some 272,933 poor households in Davao Region under the system,” the Neda’s KMD said in a statement.
The announcement was followed by the recent signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Regional Development Council and the DSWD at the Grand Regal Hotel here.
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera and RDC 11 Chairpman and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte led the ceremonial MOA signing, together with Compostela Valley Gov. Arturo Uy, Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas, Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon and Davao del Norte Vice Gov. Victorio Suaybaguio Jr.
Duterte said the system “shall be very helpful as the region needs to intensify its efforts with only five years remaining before the 2015 target date on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
“Statistics play a vital role in implementing effective and efficient social protection services,” said Cabrera in her keynote speech. “With quality social protection targeting system, the government can now focus its programs on those who are really poor, thereby improving outcomes, changing lives.”
Last year Malacañang issued Executive Order 867 directing all government agencies to use the NHTS-PR as mechanism “in identifying the poorest population for poverty reduction programs,” the Neda said.
The DSWD shared the data with Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the Department of Health, for their programs, “such as the awarding of PhilHealth cards to indigents and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.”
