Ma. Annabelle S. Jabla, Deputy Regional Program Manager of Kalahi-CIDSS, discusses the impact of harmonization of tools of Kalahi-CIDSS and the provincial government.

Nabunturan, Compostela Valley -The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Kalahi-CIDSS (Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services) recently attended the Provincial Inter-Municipal Forum (PIMF) and Provincial Core Team (PCT) joint meeting here on project sustainability.

Held at the Provincial Capitol, the meeting aimed at establishing a mutual partnership agreement in crafting an evaluation tool on project sustainability.

Santos M. Eusebio, Regional Community Infrastructure Specialist of Kalahi-CIDSS, presented the status of completed sub-projects under Kalahi-CIDSS during the Project Sustainability Dialogue cum Workshop.

“Kalahi CIDSS wants to harmonize the evaluation mechanism of the program and the provincial tool to help the Local Government Units in assessing the sustainability of the implementation at the PLGU level,” stressed Ma. Annabelle S. Jabla, Deputy Regional Program Manager for Kalahi-CIDSS.

Compostela Valley and Albay Province are the two selected sites for the pilot testing of the Enhancement of PLGU Engagement in Kalahi-CIDSS funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Raymond Fabre, ADB representative said, the PLGU engagement strengthens coordination among the program implementers, local government units, and targeted communities.

“We want to build harmony down to the grass roots level to form best practices and discover what can be replicated into future projects.”

ComVal is among the PLGUs that have demonstrated innovations in adopting the community driven development (CDD) approach in the past through their implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS.

In 2010 to 2011, it implemented the Assistance Toward Unity for Progress thru Empowerment, Accountability, Cooperation, and Efficiency (ATU-PEACE) initiative, which was based on Kalahi-CIDSS and uses CDD in implementing small-scale projects, with financial support from the PLGU.

Kalahi-CIDSS is one of DSWD’s flagship anti-poverty programs. It recently scaled up into a national community-driven development program and is implemented to provide poor communities access to services and increase their participation in more inclusive local planning, budgeting and implementation.

The Enhancement of PLGU Engagement in Kalahi-CIDSS strives to collaborate with MLGUs at the provincial level to mobilize resources and technical assistance to communities and adopt community identified priorities.

Under this initiative, 10 projects are being implemented in the province’s 11 municipalities to date. DSWD