Cagayan de Oro City – To update government offices on the current poverty situation in the region, the Field Office 10 of the Department of Social Welfare and Development recently presented its Social Protection Development Report and Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (SPDR / RVA) last May 23, 2013 here.

Twenty-seven participants attended the activity composed of social workers coming from across the region, representatives from National Statistics Coordination Board, Departments of Health, Natural Environment and Natural Resources, Education, and Agriculture, and Philippine National Police.

The SPDR is a tool used by the social welfare department in identifying the risks and vulnerabilities faced by individuals, families, and communities in the country in order to guide the agency in determining which among these risks and vulnerabilities are prioritized given the government’s limited resources.

The Department also uses this tool for effective planning and budget processing as well as for policy formulation and program development.

According to Morena Fernandez, Chief of the Policy and Plans Division of the Field Office, the SPDR guides the agency and all the social welfare and development offices across the region in undertaking risk-response relating to the assessment of the poverty situation in the various provinces.

Written by Linda Canguit, Planning Officer, DSWD-X and Charmaine P. Tadlas, Regional Information Officer

Copies of the Regional Profile generated from the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) were distributed to local social welfare officers and planning officers from various towns in Northern Mindanao recently.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the agency that developed the NHTS-PR, the Regional Profile will serve as a reference for the local officers to determine appropriate social protection programs in their localities.

The NHTS-PR was developed to formulate a uniform set of criteria for identifying poor households in the country through scientific means. It also facilitates in the sharing of high quality database to public and private social protection stakeholders, and reduce leakage or inclusion of the non-poor and under-coverage or exclusion of the poor in the social protection services.

DSWD Partners such as Philhealth, Department of Agriculture, National Economic Development Authority, Department of Health, and all the congressional districts in the region also received the Regional Profile which, the DSWD hopes, will help them in identifying appropriate beneficiaries of their social protection programs.

Written by Mitzie S. Santiago, NHTS-PR AA, and Charmaine P. Tadlas, Regional Information Officer