DSWD I.Norte awarded

LAOAG CITY Feb. 14 (PIA) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) conferred the first Gawad Listahanan Award to Ilocos Norte for using its Listahanan database in the campaign against poverty.

Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) Corazon Lilian Rin said Saturday that she personally received a plaque and a cash incentive of P50,000 from Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman in simple rites at the DSWD’s central office in Manila last January 29.

She said that the Gawad Listahanan or Data Utilization Awards was given by the DSWD to local government units (LGUs) that have registered the most number of beneficiaries in their locally-funded anti-poverty programs in the Listahanan database of poor families through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

“The NHTS-PR database had been used by Governor Imee Marcos as reference in identifying the beneficiaries of her Millenium Development Goal (MDG) localization program in which these recipients were classified as poor, middle poor and get away poor. This was our basis for prioritizing the poorest families by providing them protective services such as medical and dental missions, granting animal dispersal and other services,” Rin explained.

Based on the NHTS- PR record in 2009, a total of 24,980 were listed as poor households in Ilocos Norte.

The NHTS-PR is an information management system that makes available to national government agencies and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor families as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services.

During the launching of the MDG localization program in 2010, the province targeted to serve the 246 out of 577 barangays with 10,524 households as initial beneficiaries.

Upon the launching of the Capitol Express ni Manang Imee in 2013, all the poor households in the province were targetted to be served.

As initial result of the MDG localization, the overall poverty incidence rate in Ilocos Norte was reduced from 12.2 percent in 2009 to 9 percent in 2014.

“We have quelled the growth in the poverty numbers, more importantly we have identified the different segments of the poor here in Ilocos Norte, particularly identifying the poor,” Marcos had said.
She said the poor have in their power the skill and the ability and the commitment to break out of poverty through their own efforts with just a little help from the public sector.

“I am hopeful that the change in the poverty map will continue, having less in the coastal areas which we saw in 2010 and dwindling numbers in the interior upland zones,” Marcos added.

Earlier, Secretary Soliman cited Ilocos Norte as the model champion in poverty reduction in Region 1 as Marcos had shown success in her commitment to achieve the primary goals of MDG – the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) worldwide initiative to eliminate extreme poverty and promote global partnership for development. (Freddie G. Lazaro/PIA -1 Ilocos Norte)