Davao City -As partner in promoting transparency and accountability in governance, members of Davao Media will witness on Thursday the conduct of Listahanan survey wherein DSWD enumerators will be using tablet devices in filling out Family Assessment Forms (FAFs) as they interview families inside their homes.

Invited media will observe the DSWD Survey in Barangay 23-C (Isla Verde) and Barangay Matina Aplaya here.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development Listahanan or Talaan ng Pamilyang Nangangailangan survey results will tell who are the poor and where are they located.

DSWD Listahanan aims to 1] Formulate a uniform set of criteria in identifying poor families in the country through scientific means, 2] Improve the design of social protection programs to maximize the benefit of the poor, 3] Minimize wastage of resources by ensuring that only those who are deserving benefit from social protection programs, and 4] Facilitate sharing of high-quality database to public and private social protection stakeholders.

“The use of tablet devices as a data gathering tool expedites the assessment process. By using tablets, accomplished electronic family assessment forms can be automatically synchronized directly to the server,” Regional Director Priscilla N. Razon of DSWD said.

This assessment will update the database of poor households that was generated during the 2009 assessment. It can be recalled that DSWD had identified some 5.2 million poor households nationwide of which 547,775 came from Davao Region, Director Razon pointed out.

Moreover, according to Director Razon, the Listahanan second assessment will provide a more relevant database of poor families that will serve as potential beneficiaries of social protection programs of National Government agencies (NGAs), Local government units (LGUs), non-government agencies (NGOs) and other stakeholders.

To date, Region XI has already assessed 578,911 households and encoded 487,363. (DSWD)