(City of San Fernando, Pampanga) The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office III (DSWD FO III) conferred the first Gawad Listahanan to the Provincial Government of Aurora and the Municipality of Jaen, Nueva Ecija during the 64th DSWD Anniversary celebration held on February 6 in this city.
The Gawad Listahanan or the Data Utilization Awards is an award that aims to recognize Local Government Units (LGUs) as the Department’s data sharing partners and advocates of objective targeting of social protection beneficiaries. It confers award to LGUs for providing services and assistance to the Listahanan-identified poor families.
The municipality of Jaen replicated the social pension of the Department in their municipality to respond to the needs of many senior citizens who are not covered by the national government. Listahanan-identified poor senior citizens are the first priority of the municipality. Out of 990 indigent senior citizens listed on the database 770 are still alive and qualified for the assistance.
The Listahanan database became part of every program and services of the Municipality of Jaen. The focal person of each sector uses the database as priority in different services which they call as ‘Listahanan Habit’. The Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) oriented all barangay captains of Jaen to fully understand and appreciate the importance of Listahanan.
On the other hand, the Provincial Government of Aurora (PGA) uses Listahanan database to identify their beneficiaries in their locally funded Educational Assistance Program. The program aims to supplement and augment educational needs through financial assistance to poor but deserving students.
To ensure the utilization of the Listahanan database, the PGA makes sure that the Listahanan identified poor are included and given priority. “The challenge for a local chief executive is not the provision or delivery of programs/projects of services to your constituents but it is in identifying who among them are the neediest so as not to miss anyone deserving help especially with the scarce resources. The Listahanan database of DSWD serves as directory in targeting and selecting beneficiaries vis a vis programs and services. As the chief executive, it helps me in investing and planning for the right intervention for the right clientele, unlike before when there is no available data and one has to guess,” Governor Gerardo A. Noveras said.
To qualify for the awards, the LGU must have an active Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department on Listahanan data sharing; it has funded and implemented a program that provides direct service/intervention to the Listahanan-identified poor, such as but not limited to Scholarship, Medical Assistance and Livelihood and Skills Training; and must be 100% compliant with the annual reportorial requirement of data sharing as specified in the MOA.
Currently, the DSWD Field Office III has 90 data users comprising of provincial governments, municipalities, cities and congressional districts.
Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. The system makes available to national government agencies and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor families as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services. (Alexis Myer I. Delicano)
