DSWD poverty reduction project gets award in US

The poverty reduction program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development was one of the awardees of the United States Treasury’s second annual Development Impact Honors Awards, beating over 40 other candidates from all over the world.

The DSWD’s Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services or Kalahi-CIDSS was chosen for its “especially high-impact and noteworthy development intervention,” according to US Secretary of Treasury Jacob J. Lew.

The awarding was held yesterday at the main Treasury building in North Washington, USA.

The Development Impact Honors Awards recognizes the different projects supported by multilateral development banks all over the world. The awards are meant to distinguish development-oriented programs, such as those that fight poverty, hunger and disease.

The entries were judged based on the quality of results, focus on priority sectors, innovations used, and risk mitigation strategies used.

Kalahi-CIDSS’s achievements include 5,876 small-scale community projects, catering to about 1,345,767 households in the 42 poorest provinces nationwide.

The program has also improved community participation rates in project activities which in turn make service delivery of various local government units more participatory, inclusive and transparent.

Finally, Kalahi-CIDSS has improved household income per capita consumption of beneficiary communities by 5 percent based on studies by the World Bank in its Impact Evaluation Report in 2012.

Due to its effectiveness in addressing community needs, Kalahi-CIDSS was recently scaled up into a national program coined as the National Community-Driven Development Program (NCDDP).

“We are happy that Kalahi-CIDSS has been recognized by an international awarding body since this will garner additional leverage and general patronage for the program which is needed in scaling it up,” DSWD Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat said.

DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Juliano-Soliman was delighted with the recognition.

“We are honored to have Kalahi-CIDSS chosen as one of the awardees by the U.S. Treasury,” she said. “We are optimistic that with NCDDP, we will be able to help even more families and communities rise from poverty”, she said.