The DSWD Field Office 9 through the National Household Targeting Unit (NHTU) is currently preparing for the upcoming Listahanan 3 assessment to be conducted later this year pursuant to the Executive Order 867, series of 2010 which requires the updating of the Listahanan database every four years. 

“Right now, we are doing some preparatory activities in line with the forthcoming assessment in October this year,” said Michael DS. Mustafa, head of NHTU.

According to Mustafa, a four-phase project cycle will be observed to guide the process of identifying the poor. These phases include Preparatory Phase, Data Collection and Analysis Phase, Validation and Finalization Phase, and Reports Generation Phase.

For Listahanan 3, the project cycle will run for 1 year and 2 months. “Since May 2019, we have already been working on with the first cycle.  The areas to be assessed and the data-collection strategy appropriate for those areas were already identified,” he added.

Furthermore, all provinces, municipalities, and cities across the region will be covered by the assessment. Apart from the identification of the areas, also included in the present phase are the updating of the Proxy Means Test (PMT) model, enhancement of the Listahanan information technology systems, hiring and training of field staff, and orientation of local government units (LGUs) and other project partners on the implementation of the L3 assessment.

“We will be deploying 1,247 field workers during the data-collection activity. They will be responsible for conducting house-to-house interviews to more than 700,000 target households,” he said. However, at present, the field office has yet to wait for the authority to hire before filling in the positions needed.

The Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are nationwide. It aims to establish a socio-economic database of poor households to serve as a reference in the formulation of programs and policies along with social protection. More importantly, it seeks to reduce the problems of leakage or inclusion of non-poor and at the same time, lessen exclusion or under-coverage of the poor, particularly in social protection programs. ###