Butuan City – After the conduct of series of examinations, the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) is now ready to orient the one thousand five hundred seventy-seven (1, 577) field workers for the second round household assessment in September this year.

“Field workers are like soldiers sent out to the battle fields. They need to be armed accordingly for whatever challenges they will face. Intensive training for them is highly required so they will be able to perform well in the field,” saidTherese MargaretteBabanto, Regional Field Coordinator of NHTS-PR.

“The orientation will help the newly hired applicants to know their roles and responsibilities on what to do in the field. This is not a mere survey as what other people think. This is a big responsibility because the results of the database will be the baseline of ourpartners in giving social protection services,” said Dante Rosales, Regional Focal Person of NHTS-PR.

The orientation aims to provide understanding of the project, to equip the field staff the knowledge and skills required for the job and to set expectations and even exceed them in the conduct of the household assessment.

The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction is a government project implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. This has been supported by the issuance of Executive Order 867 series of 2010 mandating all national government agencies to use the NHTS-PR database to identify the beneficiaries of their social protection programs.