Tulfo reiterates need to develop registry of vulnerable groups

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo on Tuesday, July 26, reiterated the importance of developing a registry of the vulnerable sector, which will include street children and persons with disabilities (PWDs), to ensure that social services are delivered effectively.

“With the new administration’s aim to reduce the country’s poverty rate to 9 percent, it is critical to ensure a strong poverty alleviation agenda, which aims to improve the quality of life of the Filipino people through a broad-based and inclusive approach to public service delivery,” Tulfo said in his post-SONA (State of the Nation Address) speech.

He pointed out that there is a need to “harmonize profiling and targeting systems for the vulnerable Filipinos.”

“To implement policies in social protection programs in an effective and timely manner, PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) in cooperation with the concerned stakeholders should develop a registry of vulnerable groups,” he said.

Tulfo noted that the registry should include the unemployed OFW returnees, displaced farmers and fisherfolk, especially the street children, older persons, persons with disabilities, workers in the informal economy and those affected by the pandemic and development interventions.

“Harmonizing system that will generate updated, desegrated data is necessary in targeting beneficiaries,” he said.

“This initiative will consider integrated data from the community-based monitoring system—Listahanan—and other existing registries to institutionalize a social protection floor,” he added.

Tulfo also said that the registry will be configured to be interoperable with the PSA’s Philippine Identification System or PhilSys.

“Multiple information system exists as they were developed to meet business processes and requirements whenever needs arose. As a result, each program has its own system. The lack of interoperability and integration among different programs is a major challenge to efficient business processes and digital data governance,” he said.

“Thus, digitial transformation is essential for us to adopt a cutting edge digital technologies and platforms for efficient service delivery,” he added.