The Department of Social Welfare and Development – MIMAROPA held the first of the two workshops for local government unit (LGU) representatives to ensure that Kalahi-CIDSS projects in the region are sustainable and are able to continue to deliver intended benefits to the community.

LGU representatives from Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, and Romblon attended the workshop on the Sustainability Evaluation facilitation at A. Venue Hotel, Makati. The 3-day workshop held on July 24-26, 2019, aimed to equip the Municipal Stakeholders Inspectorate Team (MSIT) with the skills to assess the sub-project functionality.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) is a poverty alleviation program of the government which uses the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach in its pursuit to contribute to the poverty alleviation efforts of the agency.

With CDD, communities are trained to choose, design, and implement sub-projects that address their most pressing needs.

Six months after the completion of the sub-project, the MSIT are required to conduct the Sustainability Evaluation which utilizes a survey tool that uses indicators as basis for assessment. Sub-projects are assessed in terms of organizational component, financial management system, physical-technical operations, and maintenance conditions.

OIC- Regional Director Floreceli G. Gunio urged the participants to work towards a strengthened partnership between LGUs and the national government.

“Sana tayo ay sama-samang tutugon sa pangangailangan ng tao, tayo ay sama-samang kikilos nang may malasakit,” she said.

The next workshop will be conducted on July 29-31 in Puerto Princesa City to be attended by LGU representatives from Palawan.

As of July 2019, there are a total of 1,623 completed Kalahi-CIDSS sub-project in MIMAROPA.