Profiles of Davao region’s poor households may now be accessed by local government units, line agencies and private sector members of the Regional Development Council (RDC) 11 after the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Council and the Department of Social Welfare and Development on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) last week at the Grand Regal Hotel.
Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera of DSWD and RDC 11 Chair and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte led the ceremonial MOA signing together with Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy, Davao del Sur Governor Douglas Cagas, Davao Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon and Davao del Norte Vice Governor Victorio Suaybaguio, Jr., while heads of regional line agencies and majority of the region’s city and municipal mayors witnessed the event.
“Statistics play a vital role in implementing effective and efficient social protection services,” said ASec Cabrera in her keynote speech. “With quality social protection targeting system, government can now focus its programs on those who are really poor, thereby improving outcomes, changing lives.”
RDC 11 Chair Duterte lauded DSWD for conceptualizing and sharing the NHTS-PR project. “Our task for the poor is truly overwhelming and this MOA signals the start of a more effective execution of Davao Region’s poverty alleviation programs,” she said.
Duterte added that the system shall be very helpful as the region needs to intensify its efforts with only five years remaining before the 2015 target date on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
The NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. This breakthrough project makes available to public and private social protection stakeholders a socio-economic database of poor households to guide them in identifying qualified beneficiaries for their programs. As of July 2011, DSWD has identified some 272,933 poor households in Davao Region under the system.
By way of Executive Order 867 signed on March 9, 2010, all government agencies are directed to use the NHTS-PR as mechanism in identifying the poorest population for poverty reduction programs. It is through this order that DSWD is able to share the data through MOAs with Philhealth and the Department of Health, for their programs such as the awarding of Philhealth cards to indigents and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
