DSWD extends KALAHI-CIDSS project in Capiz town
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has extended its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan–Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) program in a Capiz municipality to further boost the ongoing anti-poverty efforts.
The good news was recently relayed to Jamindan Mayor Ethel R. Jinon by DSWD Assistant Regional Director Joel Galicia.
Galicia informed Jinon that the DSWD has extended its support to the municipality under the Model B Phase of the KALAHI-CIDSS program.
The DSWD official said that instead of the P9 million the town was getting under the Model A phase of the program, it would now be provided P15 million yearly as a Model B project area for various community development projects.
Implemented in 2003 in Jamindan, the KALAHI-CIDSS is a community-driven development project designed to empower communities through their enhanced participation in community projects that reduce poverty, one of President Arroyo's major development thrusts and the country's commitment in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Jamindan Community Development Information Officer Norma Chavez said the DSWD program was supposed to wind up in their municipality in 2007 after three years of implementing basic social services and infrastructure projects.
Chavez said the DSWD has decided to extend its KALAHI-CIDSS program after Mayor Jinon adopted it as part of her development agenda and strengthened the municipal coordinating team.
The lady mayor distributed the six KALAHI-CIDSS facilitators in the municipality's 30 barangays and has involved the Sangguniang Bayan members, including the vice mayor in multi-sectoral consultations and general assembly meetings.
The consultations are meant to ascertain the problems and needs of barangays. The municipal government has already identified priority projects that would be funded out of the 20 percent development fund from its share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) fund this year.
As its counterpart, the municipal government will pay the salaries of KALAHI-CIDSS staff.
A DSWD online primer said that within six years, KALAHI-CIDSS aims to cover 25 percent of the poorest municipalities in the poorest 42 out of 79 provinces in the country, or an equivalent of more than 4,000 villages in 182 municipalities.
It strengthens community participation in local governance and develops local capacity to design, implement, and manage development activities. Community grants are used to support the building of low-cost, productive infrastructure such as roads, water systems, clinics, and schools.
Aside from this kind of direct assistance to local government units to implement poverty reduction projects, President Arroyo has also identified the role of cooperatives in the implementation of projects to address the problem. (PNA)