BUTUAN CITY – With its main goal of providing the underprivileged communities with a wider range of income-generating and capacity-building opportunities, the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office Caraga held a networking and collaboration activity to help its staff in building a relationship with potential program partners on March 16-17, 2021.

The said activity, which was attended by SLP-Regional Program Management Office (RPMO) technical staff, provincial coordinators, and provincial monitoring and evaluation officers, primarily aimed to upskill the SLP staff in building and strengthening relationships with partners and stakeholders that would help attain the program’s main goal.

DSWD FO Caraga OIC-Asst. Regional Director for Operations Jean Paul Parajes deemed the activity fitting, especially that SLP is included in the list of DSWD programs to be devolved to the governance of the local government units (LGUs) in 2022.

“The conduct of this activity is very timely and beneficial to our staff, particularly now that we are preparing for the implementation of the Mandanas Ruling or devolution of the program to the care of the LGUs. I hope this activity will help you create and sustain a harmonious relationship with our partners from the LGU so that the program’s transition phase will be smooth and organized. At the end of the day, we must remember that establishing good ties with our partners in the community is essential in our duty to deliver prompt and quality service to our people,” Parajes said.

Parajes also added that aside from establishing partnerships with the LGU, it is equally important for the SLP staff to create links with other sectors or stakeholders, such as national government agencies and private organizations because this will help in the promotion and development of the products and services of our SLP associations.

During the second day of the activity, partners from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Caraga, Shopmasy Online Shop, and Resellee graced the activity and discussed the basics of marketing and digital marketing.

During her discussion, Marketing Consultant April Dabalos, a recommended consultant by DTI Caraga, emphasized that marketing plays a vital role in selling products and services as it is through this channel that the merchant is able to introduce and promote the product, create a connection with the potential consumers or audience, and cultivate brand integrity.

Hands-on workshops were also incorporated after each session to ensure that the participants were able to capture the discussions.

The networking and collaboration activity is one of SLP’s measures to assist SLP associations in the Caraga Region to establish their products and services and promote them effectively to its target audience or consumers.