Various development partners expressed their support to the new priority programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) during its Partnership Forum on Social Welfare and Social Protection held on Thursday (June 29) at the Seda Hotel Vertis North, Quezon City.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said the new priority programs will support the Marcos Administration’s vision of a hunger and poverty-free Philippines.

“The DSWD organized this Partnership Forum that will serve as a platform for fruitful discussions and stronger collaboration between the Department and its partners and stakeholders,” Sec. Gatchalian said in his speech.

“Through this event, we hope to promote the whole-of-society approach to uplift the lives of Filipinos through the seamless delivery of social protection programs and services that will facilitate inclusive and sustainable development,” the DSWD chief pointed out.

One of the partners who expressed support to the DSWD’s new priority programs is Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Her Excellency Hae Kyong Yu PSM.

“We partnered with DSWD because we believe in them. We believe in their ability to transform and deliver for the most vulnerable in this beautiful country,” Ambassador Hae Kyong Yu PSM said.

Dr. Ndiame Diop, World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, & Thailand also expressed the support of his organization.

“I want to reiterate the World Bank’s commitment to support the work and the initiative of DSWD, and the entire government,” Dr. Diop said.

In his closing remarks, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative in the Philippines Mr. Lionel Dabbadie also commended the DSWD for organizing the forum.

“This forum has been an opportunity to reinforce our cooperation, and explore new alliances. Congratulations once again to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for successfully putting us all in one room,” Dr. Dabbadie said.

Other international organizations that joined the event were the Embassy of Finland; Embassy of New Zealand; Embassy of Canada; Embassy of Hungary; Embassy of Singapore; Embassy of Japan; Asian Development Bank (ADB); United Nations Coordinator Office; European Union; Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group; Innovations for Poverty Action; United Sates Agency for International Aid (USAID); International Organization for Migration (IOM) Philippines; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA); World Food Programme (WFP); and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

New Priority Programs

One of the featured programs in the forum was the WALANG GUTOM 2027: Food Provision through Strategic Transfer and Alternative Measures Program (Food STAMP), which aims to decrease incidence of involuntary hunger experienced by low-income households and make them productive citizens of the country.

The DSWD is also strengthening its disaster resilience capability through the Buong Bansa Handa Project, that will establish two parallel supply chains on disaster response.

The first supply chain will feature an expanded network of national and local government warehousing infrastructure, while the other one will be private-sector driven.

The DSWD will also revive its Social Welfare and Development Center for Asia and the Pacific (SWADCAP) into a DSWD Academy to serve as a learning facility that will provide specialized training, capacity-building activities, and other learning development interventions to social workers to enable them to meet the ever-changing social work landscape.

To prioritize the ease of doing social welfare, the DSWD will implement the Paspas Serbisyo – Digital Transformation (DX) initiative that will streamline the forms, steps, and requirements in the delivery of social welfare through the following features: Deployment of AI-driven ChatBot; Online portal for Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS); Online portal for permitting Social Welfare and Development Agencies-NGOs, Foundations; and, digital platforms for dispensing cash assistance.

The Oplan Pag-Abot is one of the latest initiatives of the DSWD to reach out to children and families, including indigenous peoples, staying or living on the streets by providing them with the necessary interventions such as livelihood opportunities and shelter assistance to help them live a safer, sustainable, and productive life.

The DSWD is also currently retooling its programs and services through policy reforms, recalibration of its implementation guidelines, streamlining of processes and timelines, as well as rationalizing cost parameters for interventions and modalities, in order to become more responsive to the needs of its clients and beneficiaries.

For those who are interested to support the DSWD’s new priority programs, they may visit https://kaagapay.dswd.gov.ph