The Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach being used in the implementation of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) will now become a National Community-Driven Development Program (NCDDP) of the government in its fight against poverty.

NCDDP aims to provide poor communities access to services and increase their participation in a more inclusive local planning, budgeting and implementation.

At present, Kalahi-CIDSS covers 12 regions all over the country. With the NCDDP, the Project will expand to 15 regions, including the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Of the 15 regions, 19,395 barangays from 900 municipalities in 68 provinces shall be included in the program.

In Region Eight, from the 53 Municipalities presently covered by Kalahi-CIDSS, this will expand to 132, the biggest area of coverage nationwide. This will be implemented starting this year until 2019. For this year though, only six (6) municipalities will be covered – Hernani, La Paz, General Mac Arthur, Llorente, Dolores and Palapag.

Implementation of NCDDP for the above-mentioned municipalities will start by the second semester of this year.

Kalahi-CIDSS Field Office Eight Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Reynaldo Soliveres disclosed that the expansion of CDD to NCDDP will open opportunities for job employment since more staff will be needed for its implementation.

“With the implementation of NCDDP, we will be hiring more or less 600 staff, both for the field and the Regional Project Management Office (RPMO)”, Soliveres said.

Aside from expanding its coverage, the Program has enhanced its services for its beneficiaries by providing bigger allocations to poorer areas and promoting intensified convergence not only among DSWD’s programs and services but also with other government agencies. Its engagement will be Inter-Agency, Provincial, Municipal and Barangay level.