The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is fast-tracking its ongoing assessment of poor households in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) that are targeted for inclusion into the government’s social protection programs.
Cezario Joel Espejo, DSWD-Region 12 director, said Thursday they expect to fully cover in the coming days the remaining communities in the region that are covered by the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
Conducted every four years, NHTS-PR or “Listahanan” is an information management system that identifies poor households in the country.
DSWD-12 started the survey last January in the region’s four provinces and five cities but its completion was delayed due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
As of Wednesday, the official said they already assessed a total of 789,142 households or 96.78 percent of the target 815,343 in the area.
He said 573,708 of the assessed households are from the urban areas while 215,434 are located in remote communities.
Of the 815,343 target households, a total of 257,700 are from North Cotabato; 223,559 from South Cotabato; 154,351 from Sultan Kudarat; 97,986 from Sarangani; and 81,747 from Cotabato City.
“The database will be our basis in identifying and locating beneficiaries of our support programs for the poor,” Espejo told reporters.
Zohra Guialel, head of DSWD-12’s NHTS section, said the data collected from households undergo proper validation by their field personnel.
She said these are later encoded into their database system and subjected to proxy means test as part of the assessment process.
“This is to determine whether a certain family is eligible or not for inclusion in government social protection programs and services,” she said.
Once completed, Guialel said the details of the survey will be made available to other national government agencies, local government units, non-government organizations, and other institutions as reference for the rollout of poverty reduction and related programs. (PNA)
