“Whatever you do, be different. If you’re different, you will stand out.”
This quote by Anita Roddick has been proven true by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office Caraga’s finalist for the 2020 PRAISE Individual Award Best Technical Staff.
With her 19 fruitful years in the department, Ms. Aldie Mae A. Andoy has been recognized for her exemplary contributions and effective working relationship with colleagues and partners. She defines the vision of excellence through her remarkable performance that contributed in attaining the department’s mission.
Her experiences since she joined DSWD FO Caraga as a technical assistant for Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) in December 2001 until today have molded her competencies in providing technical assistance to the local government partners, particularly the Local Social Welfare and Development Offices (LSWDOs) for the improvement of the delivery of social welfare and development (SWD) programs and services.
With a compassionate heart to serve the vulnerable sector, she was promoted to Social Welfare Officer (SWO) III where she handled the Community-Based Section and Sectoral Unit for seven years. She was further designated as the regional focal person for Children, Women, Filipino Family and Sectoral Programs, and focal person and secretariat of the Regional Council for Welfare and Children (RCWC) and Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB). In that span of years, she effectively and efficiently provided technical assistance and monitored the performance of FO-Based SWO handling court-related cases.
Through her leadership as the section head of the National Household Targeting Section, the department received numerous recognitions. These include the completion of the 2nd round household assessment and special validation for the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT)-identified Listahanan beneficiaries. Her recent significant recognition was when the FO Caraga was the first to complete the Listahanan 3 enumeration phase in the entire country. With that achievement, the FO recently bagged various awards during the National Household Targeting Office Yearend Recognition Day. These include the Road Runner Award (FO that consistently runs to achieve their targets on or ahead of time, starting from Preparatory Phase, to the Data Collection Phase until the Validation Phase) and the Mamba Mentality Award (the NHTS that was able to complete encoding activity during the data collection phase in 2019). The nominee also received MVP award (or the regional field coordinator who performed task with excellence as shown in the documentation of good practices of their FO as well as in the timeliness of achieving their targets).
Despite the demand and pressure at work, she managed her time to do office work and immersion with the community. She visits households even living in far-flung areas to do spot checking and provide coaching with the Listahanan field workers who serves as front liners during the household assessment. She led the team in coordinating with the Philippine Army in Agusan del Norte, visiting Indigenous Peoples community in Agusan del Sur, and visiting religious cults in Surigao de Sur. She herself experienced trekking the mountains, crossing the rivers and seas, and walking muddy places just to ensure quality of work and assessment inclusion of households belonging to the marginalized sectors.
As a result of her exceptional work performance, the poorest households have become beneficiaries of different programs and services of different partner-stakeholders that have. obtained the 2015 Listahanan database with comprehensive list of poor households. These include the Provincial Local Government Units (PLGUs) of Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Norte and Province of Dinagat Islands. For National Government Agencies, these include the Department of Trade and Industry, Commission on Higher Education and Commission on Population. While two Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) namely Surigao Economic Development and Microfinance (SEDMFI) and Sibog Katawhan alang sa Paglambo (SIKAP) Inc., also used the same list for the implementation of their projects. These achievements were the product of her ceaseless promotion of L2 by conducting inspection meeting with the prospective data users, lobbying of data sharing guidelines, and providing technical assistance.
Known for her strong work ethic and positive attitude, from PDO IV she climbed-up to being OIC-Division Chief of Policy and Plans Division just last year. She provided timely and appropriate technical assistance or support to units/sections/offices to help them achieve their targets and deliverables.
While the world is shaken by the COVID-19 Pandemic, her technical competence has been shown during the implementation of the Social Amelioration Programs (SAP) as one of the team leaders during the post-validation of beneficiaries. Her learnings from the field and various engagements during the SAP 1 implementation became valuable inputs in the development of the Supplemental Guideline on the Regional Institutional Arrangement on the Implementation of the DSWD Programs in Relation to the Bayanihan To Recover as One Act. This document served as additional reference for the Field Office to ensure better management of the Bayanihan 2 program at the FO level.
With her strong systematic and organizational abilities, she also managed and oversaw the Grievance Help Desk installed at the field office to cater complaints/grievances on families/households for their non-inclusion in the said program. She was also part of the Technical Working Groups such as Quick Response Team for disaster reporting and Regional Monitoring Team for the provision of Technical Assistance and Resource Augmentation (TARA) program.
Her learnings from the aforementioned initiatives and plans are applied in the performance of her duties and responsibilities at work. As a result, she has earned the respect and support of her colleagues and the Management as she became known for her ability to yield positive results within the timeline set, while keeping a great working relationship via open communication and facilitative leadership approach.
She leads by example and manifests while going beyond or taking extra miles of what she is expected to do. She displays a “can do” attitude even in demanding situations. This is excellence.
Indeed, the standout performance shown by Ms. Andoy is one of the secret keys why the field office tops among the region in terms of excellence.
