Cagayan de Oro — The Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD-X) trained 19 Area Coordinating Teams from the provinces of Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental on Environmental and Social Safeguards here last August 6-7, 2015.

The training aimed at building and enhancing the competence of the Area Coordinators and staff specifically the engineers and Community Development Officers in providing technical assistance to the community and Municipal Coordinating Teams, Local Government Units, and other stakeholders along safeguards policies, standards, and tools.

The Kalahi CIDSS- National Community Driven Development Program (KC-NCDDP) safeguards the Conflict Affected Areas, Indigenous People (IP’s), Disaster Risk Reduction & Management and Environmental Preservation.

Highlights of the activity were the discussion on KC- NCDDP goals and strategies aligned with the Philippine Plan Strategic Framework in Social Development, Skills in integrating thematic problem analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation, How to accomplish the social safeguard tools on Environment and Social Safeguards Checklist (ESSC), Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), Project Development, Initial Environmental Examination, Land Acquisition and Resettlement with Rehabilitation Plan.

To date, the program has catered the Disaster Response Operation Management (DROM- Areas) with a total of 92 community sub-projects covering 82 Barangays amounting to P101 Million. While the conflict affected areas under Kalahi CIDSS PAMANA the program has generated a total cost of P51 Million with 33,004 household beneficiaries.

The resource person was Engineer Joyce Palacol, Environmental Safeguards Specialist of National Project Management Office of the DSWD.

Written by: Luis T. Arquiza, DSWD