Zamboanga City- More than 400 thousand identified households are currently verified by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as it commenced its Profiling of Vulnerable Sectors in Zamboanga Peninsula.
The list were taken from Department of Social Welfare and Development- Listahanan’s or known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction’s database of Poor Households. It is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. It is a database that envisions the improvement of design of the social protection programs that maximizes the benefit of the poor.
The 433, 456 thousand identified households in Zamboanga Peninsula comprises of the following breakdown: Service Workers/Market sales worker (30,868); Farmers/ Forestry workers and Fisherman (267,41) ; Trades and Related workers (6,436) ; Plant and Machine Operators and Assembles (7,196) and Laborers/Unskilled (121,476). Listahanan shared the list from the Provincial to the Barangay Level informations to include Roster of Families under it.
The said profiling seeks to identify areas with high concentration of vulnerable groups to serve as their reference for framing plans, programs and services in terms of livelihood assistance and other services offered by the agency. It is implemented in 16 regions nationwide.
Through the Listahanan database, DOLE shall also verify on field the targeted 46,059 vulnerable individuals which constitute Child Laborers and those from the Informal Sectors in Region 9. Based on the frequency surveys in the presence of DSWD, NSCB and DENR, All Zamboanga Peninsula provinces were included among the thirty (30) poorest provinces in the country.
Furthermore, the result of the Profiling will determine the need of interventions and preferred programs and services of the households from the National and Local Government Agencies.
The agency is currently waving its Flagship program called “DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program (DILP)” which contributes to Aquino Administration’s National Agenda on Reducing Poverty. It envisions productive , gainful and secure community employment to the disadvantaged and vulnerable workers in the informal economy. It focuses on three major areas: Formation (Provision of Starter Kits for Displaced and Vulnerable Workers) ; Restoration (Livelihood Assistance like Negosyo sa Kariton for victims of disaster) and Enchancement (Augmentation on Group Livelihood projects for sustainability and development). It also provides the following services: Aquisition of productive resources ; Trainings, orientations and advisories; Assistance in the establishment of common service facilities and Advocacy in setting-up of self -help mechanism for social security.
All recommended beneficiaries taken after the profiling shall benefit the agency’s Integrated Livelihood Program.
DOLE- Regional Office IX has already started its deployment of workers last March 4, 2014 who shall conduct House visits in all Listahanan identified municipalities and cities in the region. The pooling of Enumerators and Supervisors was conducted to serve as their field workers. They shall be using their own tools like Household Profile Forms which determines Household and Socio Economic informations, Support services and Needs assessment. Barangay forms will also be filled up by Enumerators to get its Physical and Demographic Characteristics, Economic Profile including questions on Child-Labor Free Campaign in the Barangay.
The Listahanan data of DSWD served as the agency’s baseline information as to the areas to be validated and verified. Household names were provided to the agency to facilitate easy identification of household’s location.
Executive Order 867 series of 2010 signed by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo mandates all National Goverment Agencies to adopt the NHTS-PR database as reference and basis in identifying beneficiaries to their social protection programs and services.##