Butuan City – Out of 494, 498 family households assessed during the 2nd round assessment conducted by the Listahanan project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Caraga, 259, 858 household are identified poor in the region.
Most of these poor households are found in the province of Agusan del Sur having 82,441, followed by Surigao del Sur with 63,633, Agusan del Norte with 56,885, Surigao del Norte with 44,700 and Dinagat Islands with 12,199.
In terms of poverty incidence, Agusan del Sur ranked first among the provinces in the region with 61.94%, followed by Surigao del Sur with 53.39%, Dinagat Islands with 50.9%, Surigao del Norte with 47.58% and lastly, Agusan del Norte with 45.76%.
A total of 256,491 young people ages from 18 to 24 are Out-of-School-Youth (OSY) in the region, while 73,689 senior citizens ages from 60 and up are identified poor.
A special project of DSWD, the Listahanan identifies who and where the poor are in the country. Last year, it conducted the 2nd round Family Assessment saturating the rural and urban areas even far-flung communities resided mostly by Indigenous Peoples (IPs).
The assessment had different cycles namely, preparatory, data collection and analysis phase, validation and finalization. The Family Assessment Form (FAF), containing 52 variables was used and these underwent encoding, thorough verification and results were analyzed through the Proxy Means Test (PMT).
The Field Office is now preparing for the regional launch of the updated Listahanan database and Regional Profile of the Poor this coming June 23, 2016 that will be attended by the Local Government Units (LGUs), National Government Agencies (NGAs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and other partners of the Department. ###(ABEGAIL R. ALVAREZ/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)
