The DSWD Field Office Eight oriented some 19 government information officers on the Department’s Convergence Strategy Program and the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR) last Monday, July 25, at the Balay Inasal, Leyte Park Hotel Compound in Tacloban City.

The move was part of the agency’s social marketing efforts, at a timely occasion when the Field Office was host of this month’s meeting of the Association of Government Information Officers – Eight (AGIO-8). The AGIO-8 is under the auspices of the Philippine Information Agency Region Eight headed by Regional Director Erlinda Olivia Tiu.

Said Regional Director Leticia Corillo of the DSWD Field Office Eight, “ the gathering provided a venue for the office to share what are new in the Department, what we think other agencies ought to learn, and for agencies to know what areas they can link.

In her talk, Corillo mentioned that while the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have joined for a convergence program, the DSWD has put together three of its own core protection programs as a convergence strategy to speed up poverty reduction efforts  These are the PANTWAID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM, KALAHI-CIDSS, and the SELF-EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE-KAUNLARAN PROGRAM.

She revealed that the showcase areas are Javier for Leyte, Tarangnan for Samar, and Mondragon for Northern Samar. These are where the three programs are already existing, and now, are given more focus so that the poorest of the poor will really be uplifted from poverty.

Roselle Almyda and Wenson Gatdula, the Focal Person and Information Technology Officer for NHTSPR, respectively, presented to the group the NHTSPR as a data bank and information management system that identifies who and where the poor are

Almyda said that with the database,   government and non-government agencies alike can direct resources to the ones who need them the most. She, however, stressed that a formal request to DSWD Central Office is always required to be able to access data from the NHTSPR database. She bared that per program guidelines on data sharing, the receiving party should ensure the safekeeping, proper transmittal, handling, and restricted access to the agreed purpose of the data.

The NHTSPR will be launched on October, with DSWD as lead, this time, of the celebration of National Statistics Month.