Known for adopting the KALAHI-CIDSS concept, Compostela Valley Governor Arturo T. Uy vowed to find ways to perfect the concept so that it will suit its implementation at the provincial level.
KALAHI-CIDSS or Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan –Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services is a community-driven development (CDD) project of the government where decision-making resides in the community.
Gov. Uy has emulated the concept through his ATU-PEACE (Assistance Towards Unity for Progress thru Empowerment, Accountability, Cooperation and Efficiency) program.
In a briefing for the visiting team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the governor said that at present, his administration has started going through the ATU-PEACE program and how it can improve its implementation.
“If we have technical people coming from DSWD or other agencies to help us with the innovations to make it (ATU-PEACE) more perfect, more like the KALAHI-CIDSS program or a twin KALAHI-CIDSS program, then it would be better,” the governor said.
He said KALAHI-CIDSS concept is one of the best programs of the national government through DSWD because this has provided assistance to those who really need help.
“The system community-driven development or CDD is so rigid and it involves the community. Ibig sabihin it is not only what the barangay officials or what the barangay captains need or want. Kasi there are barangays where the officials or the captains are the only ones who choose the project like farm-to-my-house roads,” he added.
When he assumed as governor in 2007, Gov. Uy found that not all barangays were able to get a share out of the 20% provincial development fund.
So that when he attended one of the KALAHI-CIDSS activities, he asked officials of the department, including Assistant Regional Director Priscilla N. Razon, about the nitty-gritty of the project.
An Extra Mile
The governor said that as a rule of thumb, he can set aside even beyond the 50% provincial development to the community-driven development approach.
“I think the most fair way of giving them projects is adopting the KALAHI-CIDSS program,” he said, adding that the concept removes the hold of politicians in the project implementation and allows the community to identify its priority.
The provincial government has even set up a 50-person Community Affairs Office whose members are assigned to the 11 municipalities of the province to help in facilitating barangay assemblies with the end view of empowering communities.
He said he liked KALAHI-CIDSS as a project because it involves the whole community. “If it is the whole community that decides the project, it must be the priority of that community. That’s why I adopted the KALAHI-CIDSS concept,” Uy added.
Under the ATU-PEACE program, the governor set asides P300,000 to each barangay for its priority project, but the amount can be increased dependent on the priority of the barangay. The program is now on its third year of implementation and has disbursed a total to P75 million.
Engaging PLGUs
In explaining the need to involve the local government units, Joel Mangahas, ADB team leader, explained that the mission wanted to look at the involvement of the provincial government units (PLGUs) because the national government is scaling up the CDD approach of KALAHI-CIDSS into a national anti-poverty strategy for all government agencies.
“In the scaled up implementation it is envisaged that there will be a more active and direct engagement of the provincial local government units not only in providing counterpart funding but also in fulfilling the service mandates of the PLGUs, namely, and among others, to promote area-wide and integrated development within the province, addressing some of the inter-jurisdictional gaps and issues of development, a province-wide targeting of poverty,” Mangahas said.
Mangahas added the visit will help the Bank process and document “the good practices of PLGU engagement.”
In singling out Compostela Valley, Mangahas said the province “has demonstrated a strong commitment and support to the CDD initiatives and it has not only provided the required local counterpart to KALAHI-CIDSS but it has also even top-up the funds and also follow the KALAHI processes.”
