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DSWD's KALAHI-CIDSS to add 129 new areas in 2012
by Jerome Carlo R. Paunan

MANILA - At least 129 new areas will be added in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)'s community-driven development (CDD) strategy to reduce poverty in 2012.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) will cover 348 municipalities including old areas in 48 provinces.

These include the newly identified provinces of Apayao, Palawan, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, and Negros Oriental based on the 2006 National Statistical Coordination Board’s “Ranking of Poorest Provinces Based on Poverty Incidence among Families.”

“We want to vigorously involve our people in alleviating poverty in their respective communities through the tested CDD approach of Kalahi-CIDSS which champions participatory governance leading to improved lives,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said.

The expansion is funded by an additional loan of $59.12 million from the World Bank, $120-million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and complementary grants from the Australian Agency for International Development and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

The project’s CDD approach, which has been tested and proven effective in easing poverty in the poorest provinces, seeks to empower ordinary citizens to directly participate in local governance by identifying their own community needs, planning, implementing and monitoring projects together to address local poverty issues.

CDD’s participatory planning process ensures that community members, especially the poor, are involved in the situational analyses leading to the preparation of a barangay action plan which serves as input to the municipal government’s local poverty reduction action plan.
The major projects prioritized by communities include water systems, roads, school buildings, barangay health stations, and day-care centers, among others.

External economic analysis reveals that community participation lowers cost and improves construction quality of projects.

Kalahi-CIDSS-funded community infrastructure expenditure is significantly lower than those involving non-CDD projects, with differences ranging from eight percent for school building to 30 percent for water supply.

The process also allows communities to identify their needs, plan, develop, implement, manage, and sustain their development initiatives.

Kalahi-CIDSS’ counterpart funding requirement sourced from the 20 percent development fund of the municipal government also ensures that a significant proportion of such fund is earmarked for the basic needs of poor communities.(DSWD/RJB/JCP-PIA NCR)

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