GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 October) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region 12 has strengthened its compliance and monitoring systems for the government’s conditional cash transfer program to ensure proper implementation in the area.
Juliet Clavel, regional program coordinator, said the move is part of the strategies adopted by the agency to enhance the continuing rollout of the anti-poverty initiative, which is also known as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.
She said they recently met with the 4Ps provincial, municipal and city links to set new implementation targets and performance indicators.
Clavel said the new regional targets and indicators were based on the national targets and directions set by the DSWD central office.
“We need to ensure that the tasks brought down to the regional office will be smoothly delegated to our office personnel and program implementers in the field,” she said.
Region 12 comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
DWSD-12’s coverage area for the 4Ps includes Marawi City, which is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Clavel said among the key result areas indicated in the performance contract of 4Ps implementers were the strengthening of the program’s components such as compliance, completion and monitoring of supply side assessment; the conduct of family development sessions; the organization of parent leaders; and, the implementation of other program systems.
She said the provincial links will also be monitored through their supervisory skills and their reporting responsibilities.
“One of our program goals is the institutional strengthening. This means that we need to ensure that our regional, provincial, city and municipal advisory councils are properly functioning,” she said.
Advisory councils consisting of local officials, sectoral representatives and private groups are presently involved in the monitoring of the program implementation, she said.
“When we perform our tasks, we always see to it that it will be relevant to upgrading the level of well-being of our program beneficiaries such that those from survival stage will reach the
self-sufficiency stage,” Clavel added.
“When our tasks are clear, specific and have a numerical value, we can always measure our achievements and see how far we have gone given our individual targets,” she said.
As of September 30, the government has released around P1.83 billion to the area’s beneficiaries in the form of cash grants, around P883.53 million of which went to the health and nutrition component and P945.89 million to the education component.
The 4Ps program is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to “poorest of the poor” households to improve their health, nutrition and education, particularly of children aged 0-14 years.
The program provides beneficiaries cash grants of P500 a month for health and nutrition expenses and P300 a month per child for educational expenses. A household with three qualified children could receive P1,400 monthly. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)