The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) received a Silver Trailblazer Award from the Institute for Solidarity (ISA) for its performance governance "breakthroughs."

The ISA, a non-profit organization that is committed to facilitating transformations in public service for a better Philippines, conferred the award to the DSWD during the online revalida on Dec. 9.

The award was given after the DSWD passed the Proficiency Stage, and a year after it breathed life into its Performance Governance Scorecard (PGS) journey towards good governance.

The DSWD explained that a Silver Trailblazer Award for the PGS is given to an institution with breakthrough results, with regular progress reports on strategy; with regular process coaching for lower level units; with presence of rewards mechanisms; and with initiatives led by the Multi-Sectoral Governance Council (MSGC) partners.

It said the PGS was instrumental in DSWD’s mapping out of strategies to help fulfill its vision.

The PGS has been described as a holistic and collaborative framework for designing, executing, monitoring, and sustaining roadmaps to reforms.

During the online revalida, DSWD Secretary Rolando Joselito D. Bautista presented the breakthroughs and accomplishments of the DSWD in program implementation as a result of the PGS.

The online revalida serves as a virtual platform wherein the institution’s progress in the PGS journey is showcased, providing ISA a closer look of the processes and systems put in place, as well as the breakthroughs in program implementation, the DSWD noted.

Bautista said through the PGS, the DSWD’s vision is clearly laid out in the agency’s Strategy 2028.

The DSWD Strategy 2028 provides the employees with the direction for quality work performance to give poor Filipinos access to social protection programs that are responsive to their needs.

During the revalida, the DSWD chief was asked by the ISA panel about the barrage of criticisms and complaints received by the Department, particularly on the implementation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

He said despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the DSWD was able to handle the implementation exceptionally well, and turned the criticisms into lessons for improvement, and facilitated the grievances to the right channels for immediate action.

He cited the DSWD employees’ commitment to serve the public under the banner of “puso at galing sa serbisyo, serbisyong galing sa puso” despite the pandemic.

Sitting at the panel are ISA Trustee Guillermo M. Luz as the chair, and IloIlo Economic Development Foundation Executive Director Francis E. Gentoral as vice chair.

ISA Trustee Emmanuel T. Bautista; ISA Fellow Mel Senen S. Sarmiento; and GMA Kapuso Foundation Executive Vice President and CEO Rikki Escudero-Catibog are also part of the panel.

The PGS prodded the DSWD to draft its SULONG Recovery Plan which contains its revised targets and strategies to meet the demands of the new normal brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DSWD said the Plan has six strategic priority areas. These include the services for the recovery of sectors from the socio-economic impact of the pandemic; capacity building for local social welfare and development officers (LSWDOs) for the devolution; improved organizational processes, and services to guarantee the safety and welfare of the DSWD employees.

Recognizing DSWD’s strategic adjustments, the ISA had invited the Social Welfare department as a presenter for its skills laboratory training to share its conduct of strategy review in the new normal, which featured the recalibrated strategy and SULONG Recovery Plan.

Bautista said with the conferment of the Silver Trailblazer Award, the DSWD has created the Office for Strategy Management (OSM) to oversee the institutionalization of the Department’s Strategy journey.

“With the guidance of the OSM, the DSWD commits to remain on track with the sustainability of the strategies set to meet strategic targets,” the DSWD said.

“This is with the end vision that by 2028 the DSWD will have reached 4 million self-sufficient households of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, all its Center and Residential Care Facilities are centers of excellence, and all Local Social Welfare and Development Offices are fully functional.”