MONKAYO, Compostela Valley – The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has continued to provide basic social services in poor communities as it pursues operations in three towns in Compostela Valley Province for the Tier 2 implementation of the program.
The municipalities of Monkayo, Nabunturan, and Maco have conducted the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum for Participatory Resource Allocation (MIBF-PRA), a criteria-based allocation of development investments where all barangays within the municipality decide what community proposals should be approved for funding.
Tier 2 is LGU-implemented incentive round for well-performing municipalities using the process of Kalahi-CIDSS and funded by foreign exchange gains from Asian Development Bank (ADB) emergency loan.
Joel Quiňo, Kalahi-CIDSS Regional Community Development Specialist, said the funds shall be used as an incentive grant to well-performing municipalities to address their pressing needs. During MIBF-PRA, community proposals are presented during the prioritization activity where community volunteers, municipal and national governments, non-government organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and other groups and individuals in the municipality are gathered.
“People living in the communities know more about their current local conditions and making them identify their priorities is important in the formulation of development plans,” Quiňo said.
The top projects prioritized are access road, community activity center, potable water system, solar light and multi-purpose building.
The three municipalities in Region XI obtained a total grant allocation of PhP20 million each.
“That is the essence of the Community Driven Development (CDD) program – the responsibility of decision making for the use of resources are crowdsourced, not based on a select few,” shared Judy Damasin, Gender and Development (GAD) Focal.
Kalahi-CIDSS is one of the programs of DSWD that uses the CDD approach to empower local communities to undertake their own development projects by actively and directly partaking in local governance in identifying their community needs as well as taking part in implementing projects that will address these needs. (Carmela Duron/PNA)
