The Department of Social Welfare and Development held a 2-day Social Welfare and Development Forum with Local Social Welfare and Development Officers (LSWDO) across the region on May 31-June 1, 2016 in one of the hotels in Zamboanga City.

The forum was attended by 72 Municipal/ City SWDOs to get updates on the program and projects implemented in their respective localities.

The forum highlighted the updates on the core poverty reduction programs such as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Kalahi-CIDSS and Sustainable Livelihood program. It also created an avenue for participants to raise their issues and concerns in line with the implementation of DSWD’s devolved programs such as Supplementary Feeding and Social Pension. The participants were also briefed about the result generated from the Listahanan’s poor household assessment, wherein they found out the poverty incidence of their respective municipalities and the count of poor households in their Area of Responsibility.

The said forum has provided opportunity for the department to thresh out issues and concerns and level-off expectations with its local counterparts. In this manner LSWDOs will be able to grasp of the social welfare and development situation in the region and appreciate the milestones and accomplishments along major SWD programs and services provided to their constituents.

Futhermore, DSWD 9 Regional Director Atty. Araceli Solamillo expressed deep appreciation to LSWDOs for the assistance and support that the latter have been extending to the department and for ensuring that basic social services to are efficiently delivered to address issues of poverty in the region. She also emphasized that the mandate of reducing poverty is not monopolized by DSWD, but should be a collective effort by multiple stakeholders.

“DSWD considers social protection and poverty reduction as a shared responsibility. It requires our collaboration and joint efforts with the local government units and other social protection program implementers to muster the resources, vitalities and intellectual capacities to produce an optimum result.” Solamillo said during her opening remarks. ###