GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 July) – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in Region 12 has launched a study to assess the region’s poverty incidence and the impact of its economic growth.
Arturo Valero, NEDA-12 regional director, said Friday they commissioned consulting firm All-Asian Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. (ASCEND) for the ongoing study, which covers the region’s four provinces and five cities.
He said the study focuses on the analysis of the causes of high poverty incidence in relation to Region 12’s performance in terms of the gross regional domestic product from 2010 to 2015.
“It is aimed to determine the root causes of poverty and the gaps in the implementation of policies, projects and programs in the region,” Valero said.
He said it will “analyze and recommend strategies, policies, projects and programs to address the gaps identified.”
Valero said they are targeting the completion of the study by next month based on their contract with ASCEND.
He said the study will cover a total of 4,242 respondents from selected municipalities and barangays in Region 12.
The agency tapped the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Region 12’s Listahanan database as reference for the random selection of the respondents.
Listahanan is an information management system that contains information on the identified poor households and beneficiaries of government programs and projects.
He said they signed a memorandum of agreement with DSWD-12 for the use of the database and its sharing with ASCEND as the third party entity as well as data collector and user.
As agreed, he said the data would be limited to the names and addresses of the identified poor households.
He added that the use of the database for the research study was bound by the provisions of Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012. (MindaNews)