ZAMBOANGA CITY – The government’s official database of poor households through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan will be made available soon to national government agencies (NGAs) and other social protection stakeholders as DSWD Field Office 9’s preparatory activities are on-going before the commencement of the project’s third phase (Validation and Finalization Phase) this month.

In Zamboanga Peninsula, a total of 718,638 households were assessed from November 27, 2019 to February 8, 2020. Among its three provinces, 227,377 households were covered in Zamboanga del Norte while 184,741 were assessed in Zamboanga del Sur. In Zamboanga Sibugay, 129,267 households were interviewed during the data-collection period. Moreover, 156,055 and 21,198 households also participated in Zamboanga City and Isabela City, Basilan respectively during the said activity.

The Listahanan project cycle has four phases: Preparatory Phase, Data Collection and Analysis Phase, Validation and Finalization Phase, and Reports Generation and Management Phase. During the first phase, the identification of the areas to be assessed and the data-collection strategy appropriate for the areas were identified. All 17 regions, 81 provinces, 145 cities, 1,489 municipalities, and 42,045 barangays were covered by the household assessment.

During the succeeding phase, home visits were conducted to collect the socio-economic information of the households using Household Assessment Forms (HAFs). The data collected were encoded directly to the database using a data-entry application. All encoded information indicated in the HAF was subjected to Proxy Means Test (PMT)- a statistical model that approximates the family welfare level based on observable and verifiable proxy indicators of the household’s income such as materials in housing structure, household’s access to basic services and facilities like water and electricity, and ownership of specific assets, among others.

For the upcoming Validation and Finalization Phase, the initial list of poor households generated from the previous period will be posted in conspicuous places within the barangay to undergo community validation. This will allow the community to transparently review the accuracy of the initial list of poor households. Those who were not interviewed during the data-collection period may appeal for assessment. Appeals and grievances on household information and classification (whether poor or non-poor) will be received and evaluated through formal channels beginning with the Area Supervisor, followed by the Barangay Verification Team (BVT), and the Local Verification Committee (LVC). The BVT will be composed of Barangay Chairperson, First Kagawad, Kagawad in-charge of social services, one representative of a Civil Society Organization (CSO), and Sub-Project Management Committee Chairperson for KALAHI-CIDSS areas. The team will be tasked to evaluate the grievances received from the community together with the field personnel of Listahanan. On the other hand, the LVC will have the Local Chief Executive or his/her representative, City/Municipal Social Welfare Development Officer, City/Municipal Planning and Development Officer, and one representative from two CSOs as its members. They will resolve all the grievances filed, identify, and certify households that have not been assessed during the data-collection phase. Those households will undergo assessment and even re-assessment for those that will question their non-inclusion in the initial list of poor households. Furthermore, appeals and grievances may also be filed online through https://listahanan.dswd.gov.ph/grievance/.

After the list of poor is finalized, the DSWD produces the “Profiles of the Poor” and disseminates these to NGAs, local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs), academe, and other interest groups as part of the Reports Generation and Management Phase of the Listahanan project cycle.

The Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. The system makes available to NGAs and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor households as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services. 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 poor in social protection programs and services considering that the resources of the government is limited.  

However, the department clarifies that the project itself does not provide any cash aid to any beneficiaries, and having been assessed under Listahanan does not guarantee a family or household to be included right away in Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or in other social protection programs or services.

The department’s National Household Targeting Office (NHTO) spearheads the implementation of this project together with the regional offices of DSWD.

The first nationwide household assessment was conducted in 2009 wherein 5.2 million households were assessed out of the 10.9 million target households. In 2015, the number of poor households remained the same despite having a target of 15.4 million households which could mean that the status of poverty in the country somehow improved. In 2019, the household assessment began its implementation nationwide given the 16 million target households.  As of December 8 last week, 14,522,155 HAFs were already encoded from the 14,524,360 households assessed. ###