Seventeen municipalities in Region 12 or the Soccsksargen Region are set to receive multimillion-peso worth of socioeconomic projects under the national government’s expanded Kalahi-CIDSS program.
Emerita Dizon, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 12’s coordinator for Kalahi-CIDSS, said Monday the preparatory activities are now underway for the implementation in the region of the scaled-up initiative, which is dubbed Kalahi-CIDSS National Community Driven-Development Program (NCDDP).
Kalahi-CIDSS stands for Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services, a World Bank-assisted poverty alleviation project implemented since 2003 by the DSWD.
President Benigno S. Aquino III recently approved the expansion of the community-driven development program as a national strategy for poverty-reduction.
In Region 12, Dizon said the initiative is set to expand before the second half of the year in 17 towns of three of the region’s four provinces.
These are the municipalities of Glan, Kiamba, Maasim, and Maitum in Sarangani province; Alamada, Aleosan, Banisilan, Carmen and Pikit in North Cotabato; and Bagumbayan, Isulan, Kalamansig, Lambayong, Lebak, Lutayan, Palimbang and Senator Ninoy Aquino in Sultan Kudarat.
The region, which is also known as the Soccsksargen Region, comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
A report released by DSWD-12 said a total of 25 municipalities have benefited from the program in the region in the last 10 years.
Under its additional financing component that started in 2010, a total of 13 towns were enlisted as beneficiaries and five of them presently have ongoing projects.
Dizon said they are currently assisting the 17 local government units (LGUs) in the preparation of the required documents for the availment of the program.
“Each LGU will be given a minimum of P12 million to a maximum of P20 million grants to fund various community projects,” she said in a statement.
The allocation of the grants will depend on an area or LGU’s population, poverty incidence and income classification, she said.
“It means that more and more pressing needs in various communities will be addressed with a much bigger grant now from the program,” Dizon added.
Kalahi-CIDSS-NCDDP mainly aims to empower communities to achieve improved access to services and to participate in more inclusive local planning, budgeting and implementation of community-based socioeconomic projects.
It aims to cover 5.4 million households in 847 municipalities of 58 provinces in the entire country.
The national government has set aside some P43.9 billion for the implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS-NCDDP, which was also set as a support initiative to the government’s post-disaster response and development activities in areas affected by typhoon "Yolanda."
The program is supported by loan grants from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=638541
Normally, the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services projects target insurgency-affected/at-risk communities and is one of key COIN economic development efforts used to undermine the influence of insurgents in threatened communities.
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