Tacloban City – A total of 1,451 field staff hired by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are now ready for deployment across Eastern Visayas for the roll-out of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services – National Community-Driven Development Program (KALAHI CIDSS –NCDDP).

Since the rapid start-up of NCDDP is a response to the rehabilitation efforts on Yolanda-affected areas along with its objectives on community empowerment, improved local governance and poverty reduction, 136 municipalities within the region will be qualified to enroll for NCDDP regardless of poverty incidence. Region eight has the largest coverage of the KALAHI CIDSS-NCDDP in the whole Philippines.

The huge coverage therefore entails massive hiring of additional staff to implement NCDDP in the 136 areas. In order to facilitate the implementation of the program, an Area Coordinating Team (ACT) shall be positioned in each municipality. Each ACT consequently needs one Area Coordinator (AC); every 25 barangays of each municipality need one Deputy Area Coordinator (DAC) and one Municipal Financial Analyst (MFA); and every three barangays, one Community Facilitator (CF).

“We need to hasten the project implementation in order to catch up with delays due to the effects of typhoonYolanda, and that the success of the implementation relies on the performance of the Area Coordinating Team of each municipality,” Regional Program Coordinator, Natividad Sequito said during a technical meeting with the ACs.

The newly hired KALAHI CIDSS-NCDDP field staff were already convened for orientation and contract-signing right after their individual employment requirements were completed.

KALAHI CIDSS-NCDDP is one of the three core poverty alleviation programs of DSWD, alongside the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the Sustainable Livelihood Program. It scales up the community-driven development (CDD) strategy which was used and proven effective by Kalahi-CIDSS in its past 11 years of implementation. #