LAOAG CITY, July 30- Local executives in Region 1 joined a planning workshop on implementing strategies against poverty that the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Ilocos conducted recently.
The workshop also involved people’s participation in planning and budgeting which were components of the new poverty reduction program.
Marcelo Nicomedes Castillo, DSWD director in the Ilocos, led the team that discussed the program called “Kapit – Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) -Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) Community Driven Development Program (NCDDP).”
“The manner of implementing the program was explained during the workshop among the local chief executives and their concerned staff,” he said
The program was introduced to 11 municipalities with 26.5 percent poverty incidence, he added.
The towns include Alilem, Burgos, Nagbukel, Quirino, Sigay and Sugpon in Ilocos Sur; Pugo, Santol, San Gabriel in La Union and Burgos in Pangasinan.
The DSWD said the community’s participation in planning, budgeting and implementation of community projects, co-ownership and attentiveness to project details will ensure that projects are better kept.
Meanwhile, deputy program manager Alexander Glova, quoting South African leader Nelson Mandela, said poverty is man-made and it could be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
“With the KALAHI program, local residents, local governments and partners would draw solutions to the communities’ needs,” Glova said. (FREDDIE G. LAZARO)
