DSWD, PBSP eye tieup for community projects

The Social Marketing Unit of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD) organized a meeting with the Philippines Business for Social Progress (PBSP) Visayas Regional Center for possible partnership for the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan–Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) project in Cebu City recently.

The meeting was aimed to establish linkage between the DSWD and donors willing to help fund the Kalahi-CIDSS projects in Negros Oriental with PBSP as the bridge.

The PBSP has more than 240 member-companies committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) all over the country.

With the use of a new knowledge hub being piloted by the PBSP in the region, this means that more projects will be constructed and many communities will benefit from this innovative technology.

The knowledge hub is a platform for users and partners of the National Infrastructure Information System to interact and exchange information relevant to the system and industry.

It is an electronic system to support infrastructure project preparation, planning and financing, identify and mitigate project risks, and guide a project towards Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) structuring and private-sector institutional and commercial investment by providing links to marketing and funding resources.

Other than the social marketing unit, the meeting was also attended by National Health Director and PBSP assistant director for the Center for Corporate Citizenship Eric Camacho and PBSP Visayas Regional Center Director Jessie Cubijano.

Camacho discussed PBSP as a corporate-led foundation that promotes commitment of the business sectors to social development.

“We hope that with this knowledge hub, we could increase the quality of delivery of social welfare services and programs of different organizations.”

Simeon Remata III, Regional Social Marketing officer for the Kalahi-CIDSS project, gave a background of the project during the meeting.

“We seek partnership with business groups, non-government organizations, academe, church and other civil society groups to improve the quality of the project and enhance service delivery to the beneficiary communities,” Remata said.