The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is pushing for the institutionalization of the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach used in implementing the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan - Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS).
“We want to institutionalize the CDD as an approach and the KALAHI-CIDSS as a program,” lawyer Bernadette A. Mapue-Joaquin, KALAHI-CIDSS National Program Manager, said in an interview on the sidelines of the kick-off of the Knowledge Exchange Forum for Western Visayas in Iloilo City on Friday.
The forum served as a venue for discussing the best practices and impacts of the KALAHI-CIDSS program, the status of the institutionalization, and ways forward.
Institutionalization will ensure the continuity of the program because there will be sustained funding, she said.
Currently, 80 percent of KALAHI-CIDSS funding comes from foreign donors, plus 20 percent counterpart from the Philippine government, she added.
Joaquin said under the CDD approach, the people in the community identify their needs and determine how they can be addressed.
Once the CDD and KALAHI-CIDSS are institutionalized, the implementation of projects, whether by the DSWD or not, will be community-driven.
It means that all projects are identified through consultation, implemented with the principles of transparency and accountability, and continuously monitored, Joaquin said.
Nationwide, the KALAHI CIDSS has generated about 60,000 jobs and mobilized more than 2 million volunteers.
In Western Visayas, from 2021 to 2024 alone, the KALAHI-CIDSS has provided PHP1.5 billion in grants for 1,878 community projects, benefitting 1,203,148 households.
DSWD OIC-Director Arwin Razo, in a separate interview, said institutionalizing the CDD has a huge implication in improving the marginalized communities’ access to basic services and funding support for project implementation of local needs and priorities that are responsive to prevailing local conditions.
“It would probably help us along the certain level of transformation when it comes to governance when it comes to accountability and transparency mechanisms,” he said.
He added that studies have shown that CDD has proven to be one of the best alternatives for implementing development programs. (PNA)
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