CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has urged social service providers in private and government sectors to be their partners in providing social protection programs to the marginalized sector of society.
In a statement on Wednesday, DSWD-3 regional director Jonathan Dirain said they can now share data with other national government agencies, local government units and other organizations or stakeholders implementing social protection programs and services through the Listahanan 3 poverty database.
Listahanan 3, the third version of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are, which can be used as the basis for targeting beneficiaries for social protection programs.
“The Listahanan 3 will help us in providing assistance to the poor and vulnerable sectors of society. I urge everyone to use Listahanan 3 to reach the poorest of the poor,” Dirain said.
A total 270,456 were identified as poor households in Central Luzon following Listahanan’s third round of assessment that covered 1,512,928 households in the region.
Of the total, 124,440 poor individuals in the targeted poor households reside in urban areas and 146,016 live in rural areas.
Meanwhile, there are 16,137 or 5.97 percent poor households belonging to the indigenous people’s (IPs) group. The highest numbers of IPs are found in the province of Zambales.
“We appeal to our partners to prioritize those poor households and individuals in providing social protection programs so that they can achieve improved well-being. Through our collective efforts, including partner LGUs and organizations, we can extend a positive impact on the lives of our less fortunate Filipinos,” Dirain said.
The Cabanatuan City government was the first Listahanan 3 data user in the region.
Helen Bagasao, head of the Cabanatuan City Social Welfare and Development Office, cited the usefulness of the Listahanan in identifying clients for various social welfare programs and services.
“Ang Listahanan ay malaking tulong sa LGU upang ma-identify ang totoong mahihirap na kinakailangan nating tulungan (The Listahanan is big help to the LGU in identifying those who are really poor that we need to help),” Bagasao said. (PNA)
