Babylonia cannot anymore contain her excitement with the Bagsakan Center project that is now being constructed in their village in the municipality of Sibutad, Zamboanga del Norte.

“Excited na kami matapos kasi maraming pamilya ang matutulungan na kumita.” (We are very excited because it will help more families to earn.)

Babylonia is one of those rural settlers who will soon enjoy more facilities on health, education and livelihood through DSWD’s Kalahi-CIDSS program.

The Community-driven development program is funding a total of 519 community projects this year. The projects that are currently implemented will benefit the residents of1,038 barangays in 45 municipalities across the region. Topping the list of prioritized community sub-projects are day care centers, with 117 currently being implemented by the volunteers, followed by barangay health stations, numbering 108. The third most prioritized type of sub-project is school buildings, numbering 89 and fourth is economic support projects which include training centers, livelihood trainings, numbering 51. Others include road concreting, water system, foot-bridge, tire-path, drainage, agricultural facilities, flea market among others.

Kalahi-CIDSS Regional Community Driven Specialist Ma. Luisa Fabian explains that the prioritization of the schools and health stations can be attributed to the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) conditional cash transfer. She noted that the issue of supply-side gaps is because of the absence of health centers and schools in these poor areas. In order for households to receive the cash grants, they should ensure their children’s attendance to school and have them receive regular health check-ups.

“This is an indication that the two poverty-alleviation programs are complementing each other, through the participation of the volunteers, after all, it was them who identified these priorities in the first place.” Fabian said.

These projects were identified during the Municipal Inter-barangay Forum – Participatory Resource Allocation (MIBF-PRA), where community members are given the opportunity to decide which project will address their felt needs.

Aside from this, Fabian also disclosed that most of the community members have expressed their concern over the lack of classrooms and school facilities, inaccessibility of health

centers in their locality.

Meanwhile, Regional Director Zenaida L. Arevalo reveals that these projects are collectively worth a total of Php541,072,200.00 which is a good investment in mobilizing volunteers to be active in the development endeavor.

“The funds from the World Bank are directly downloaded to community accounts, giving the volunteers direct control in managing these funds so as to promote transparency in transactions. Kalahi-CIDSS aims to not only provide improved access to basic services in poor municipalities through infrastructures, but it aims to empower the people to work hand in hand with the government in solving the perennial problem of poverty though capacity-building activities.” Arevalo stated.

As a result of the various trainings on procurement, finance, and others, volunteers are capable enough to implement these projects by themselves, with the help of the barangay and municipal local government unit through provision of technical assistance.

To date, of these 519 prioritized projects, 6 have been completed and 173 are on-going and which are expected to be completed at the end of August for old municipalities which have started earlier than the new ones which were given until September this year. Of the Php500 million allocated, 132 million have been initially downloaded.

Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) has been operational since 2003 that paved the way for 2,765 community infrastructures constructed in 1,488 barangays of 65 municipalities which have been benefitted by 63,405 pantawid households out of the total 135,016 families. Kalahi-CIDSS employs community-driven develop (CDD) strategy that gives people the power to decide for their community in ensuring that their needs are addressed, hence empowering them to become active citizens of the country.###