The new guidelines for Listahanan data-sharing were officially presented to more than 30 social protection stakeholders in a forum held last November 7 at Grand Astoria Hotel, Zamboanga City.
“The activity aimed to encourage more stakeholders to utilize the data generated by Listahanan in 2015,” said the Regional Field Coordinator of National Household Targeting Unit-ARMM-BaSulTa, Ben Nasser B. Isnain.
During the activity, the participants were oriented on the background and objectives of Listahanan. It was explained that the information management system aims to establish an objective targeting system and reduce the leakage (inclusion of non-poor) and under-coverage (exclusion of the poor) in social protection programs and services. A discussion of the process involved in the targeting system was also conducted. Furthermore, some of the highlights of the 2015 assessment results were also shared to them.
According to Isnain, accessing the data from Listahanan is guided by laws and issuances related to data-sharing, and data protection and security. One of these laws is the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Under its general provisions, it states that it is the policy of the state to protect the fundamental human right or privacy, of communication while ensuring free flow of information to promote innovation and growth.
Aside from these, there was also a discussion of Proxy Means Test (PMT), a statistical model used by Listahanan in order to estimate the income of the households assessed using 52 proxy variables reflected in the Households Assessment Forms (HAFs).
Moreover, the Regional Information Technology Officer, Alexander S. Ansao II explained to the participants the guidelines for data requests. These guidelines shall accordingly apply to requests pertaining to the use and/or access of the database of poor families by social protection stakeholders, including the academe.
Based on the guidelines, a stakeholder who would like to request for statistical data is required to submit a letter of request addressed to the regional director enumerating the specific data needed, the purpose of the request, and the timeline of the releasing of data. Furthermore, those who would like to request for either personal information or sensitive personal information from the information management system must enter into Memorandum of Agreement with DSWD and should designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who shall plan, implement, and evaluate policies for data privacy and security in accordance with the aforementioned law on data privacy. Likewise, an annual report of how the data was utilized in the implementation of social protection programs and services must also be submitted to the field office through the NHTU.
The Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) is an information management system that provides a database of poor families as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs.