To ensure that more poor households will be able to benefit from social welfare and development programs and services, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, in response to one of its strategic goals, will increase the number of poor households identified in the database of Listahanan, an information management system that the government uses to identify who and where the poor households are nationwide, so that they will able to enjoy more benefits from social protection programs provided by various government entities, non-government organizations, and civil society groups.

Based on its latest data released last December 2014, Listahanan, known before as National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), shows that 286,318 Pantawid beneficiary households and 22,111 non-Pantawid beneficiary households have availed and benefited two or more programs from the Department and other partner stakeholders.
A name matching was recently conducted to ensure an accurate data of who among the identified poor households have availed of the various programs and services implemented in Northern Mindanao .

The system makes available to National Government Agencies (NGAs) and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor families as basis in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services.

In Northern Midanao, as per the 1st round household assessment conducted in 2009, out of the 691,689 households assessed in the 5 provinces comprising 13 congressional districts , 9 cities and 84 municipalities , 338,749 were identified as poor.

With the Listahanan database, it aims to deliver basic programs and services to those who need them the most.
In Northern Mindanao, 78 local government units and four provincial local government units including civil society organizations have engaged with the Department of Social Welfare and Development through a Memorandum of Agreement pledging for their commitment to utilize the Listahanan database in the implementation of their various programs and services.
With the upcoming second round assessment, it is hoped that more poor households needing the most of the programs and services will be served.

Written by Mitzie S. Santiago, DSWD