Butuan City – Presently, the National Household Targeting System Office (NHTO) staff of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are in full force in sharing the database of the poor to the Local Government Units (LGUs) in Caraga region.

The NHTS staff are currently visiting the municipalities to communicate with the Mayors and other Municipal officials explaining to them the NHTSPR database and how they can benefit the data. Their intent letter to DSWD after the visit will be considered their expression of interest in partnership, and thus, will be followed by a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing before they can get the software database.

In 2009, there were 405,310 households (HHs) assessed and 232, 301 were identified as poor and among those only 59, 900 (25.79%) HHs have availed at least two(2) of DSWD’s core social protection programs such as; Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and Social Pension.

As of August 2013, 52,890(22.77%) poor HHs are not yet served of any social welfare development programs or services of the DSWD. This is because some poor households are not qualified based on the requirement of the program. For instance, in 4Ps, a household must have 0-14 years old children.

“We are encouraging the LGUs and sharing the list of the poor to them for the data to be utilized not only by DSWD but also by other stakeholders who share the same advocacy to reduce poverty incidence in our region and for the formulation and design of local programs, projects,planning and other purposes,” said Dante Rosales, Regional Focal Person of NHTS-PR.

This database of poor households will be useful and meaningful to our stakeholders, partner agencies and concerned groups in providing social protection programs and services for deserving families.

This has been supported by the issuance of Executive Order 867 series of 2010 mandating all national government agencies to use the NHTSPR database to identify the beneficiaries of their social protection programs.

The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR) is a project of the government implemented by DSWD which identifies who and where the poor are in the country. ### Social Marketing Unit (Maria Cecilia N. Sosas)