DSWD-7 welcomes partners in Pantawid

“We want to reduce hunger and poverty but DSWD cannot do it alone but together we can make a difference.”

This was said by Assistant Regional Director Nemia Antipala of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) as she welcomed civil society organizations which attended the orientation on Family Development Sessions Plus (FDS+) and the implementation of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer.

Seventeen organizations showed interest in DSWD’s call for public-private partnership in strengthening the promotion of family life among beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilya program.

As DSWD acknowledges the strength and uniqueness of each organization in their delivery of service to identified disadvantage sectors of society, it also believes that this could harness into a partnership.The partnership would enhance the program by helping provide basic knowledge and skills in meeting family and parental responsibilities of each household through their participation in the conduct of the monthly family development sessions.

Together with various civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs), FDS Plus is a program of learning networking and other capacity building activities that Pantawid Pamilya household partners can voluntarily participate in to promote family development and transition out of poverty.

Its objectives are to be more responsive to the needs of the family and their communities and become socially aware and participative in community development.

The rationale behind this call for partnership with the CSOs and NGOs is to deliver additional inputs, with content lying outside the current FDS modules being used in the area allowing flexibility of topics. Possible topics include Adult literacy programs, livelihood skills training and community mobilizations.

DSWD sees the importance of CSOs and NGOs in strengthening the current FDS and in implementing the FDS Plus to maximize the effectiveness of the program. It also gives importance to the organizations’ stability and capability in implementing the FDS Plus that is why certain requirements are called for in these one-year engagement but renewable based on agreed arrangement and joint evaluation of the parties involved.

Requirements include updated work and financial plan, monthly monitoring report, quarterly accomplishment report, financial reports and project documentation report at the end of the project period.

Partner organizations must be registered with concerned government agencies or accredited by the DSWD, have good track record in the implementation of anti-poverty programs, have enough staff to manage the project implementation and reporting/liquidation requirements, audited financial statements for current and past year, have list of counterpart and have signed an agreement with the DSWD on FDS implementation.