A team of researchers under the Good Governance through Data Science and Decision Support System (GODDESS) program of the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) is currently developing a data analytics and information system that would ensure the immediate delivery of social welfare services to some 8,000 pensioners in Butuan City.
The two-year project dubbed "Development of Data Analytics and Information System: Support on Social Welfare Services for Senior Citizens of Butuan City” was among the 10 newly approved projects under DOST-PCIEERD’s GODDESS program presented in an online forum held on Monday, Feb. 8.
“Through the data analytics, we can easily manage the distribution of the benefits based on the real time and reduce the waiting time to 80 to 90 percent,” said project leader Eltimar Castro of the Father Saturnino Urios University (FSUU).
He said the target beneficiaries of their project are the senior citizens, the local government of Butuan City and the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD), the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), City Health Office (CHO), and the barangays.
Castro noted that the local government of Butuan City has a lot of available data. However, there is a difficulty in utilizing the data due to lack of an enabling tool for data processing and analysis, he laments.
“The proposed project is a mechanism that will develop an information system and technology with data analytics platform to look at the data on their senior citizens. It is a combination of data analytics and system development,” he said.
He said the "full-blown" launch of the project is expected in 2023.
“The timeline of the project is two years, but we are developing it rapidly so that for the first year, we have initial testing then from time to time, we have an update. For full-blown release, it will be in 2023, we are going to release this in 2023,” Castro said.
He said other cities and municipalities can adopt their data analytics and information system project.
“If other cities want to have this, there might be calibration of the system. We are committed to share the system,” he said.
The nine other GODDESS projects are the following: Optimization of Decision Support System for Effective E-Governance on Preemptive Evacuation for Flood Disaster amidst COVID-19 in Cagayan Valley Project, Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Data Analytics Initiative (RiceLytics), Development of Iloilo Province Employment Portal and Services with Data Analytics, Hundred Island National Park Management System: Implementation of Smart Tourism, Prescriptive Navigation through Vision-based Traffic Monitoring, Dagupan City Smart Garbage Collection and Monitoring System, and Development of Automated Collection System for Bagsakan Market – An Automated Tariff Collection System.
The DOST’s GODDESS program aims to develop appropriate capabilities, systems, and technologies geared towards enabling local government units and national government agencies to adapt data-driven governance and evidence-based management.
It is the offshoot of the Council’s SPARTA Project, DOST’s data science training program.