The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to hold a national consultative meeting with local chief executives on Nov. 8 to strengthen the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS).
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian will lead the meeting with some 650 local chief executives and representatives of various local government units (LGUs) at the SMX Convention Center in Angeles City, Pampanga.
The participants are from select LGUs that are implementing Kalahi-CIDSS National Community Driven Development Program-Additional Financing (NCDDP-AF) and the Philippine Multi-sectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP).
“We will conduct this meeting to ensure that implementing LGUs are engaged and involved in designing and employing strategies to maximize the impact of the program, and increase their level of involvement and participation in joint and more aggressive efforts in the completion of community sub-projects,” DSWD Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications and spokesperson Romel Lopez said in a statement on Monday, Nov. 6.
Kalahi-CIDSS is a poverty alleviation program implemented by the DSWD using the community-driven development approach.
The consultative meeting aims to provide a venue for an interactive engagement with the project's implementing LGUs to discuss milestones, encountered challenges, issues and concerns, and next steps to improve the program.
Lopez said the DSWD and LGUs will benefit from the local chief executives' experience in strengthening and enhancing their community projects through the implementation of sub-projects under Kalahi-CIDSS.
Other government agencies expected to join the consultative meeting are the Department of Health, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and DSWD-attached agency National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, among others,
Also participating in the Kalahi-CIDDS event are the Gawad Kalinga, Manila Water Foundation, non-government organizations, and other partner organizations.
Kalahi-CIDSS was piloted in Dolores, Quezon, in 2002 and rolled out in 2003.
Communities and local governments are trained to choose, design, and implement development projects that will meet their urgent needs.
Under the program, school buildings, farm-to-market roads, health stations, day care centers, and other facilities have been built.
In 2013, it received approval to expand into community-driven development operations on a national scale.