The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) conducted a forum on enrollment conditions precedent with the different municipal local government units (MLGU) that are covered for the expansion of the project this year. The said MLGU participants are: from Eastern Samar – Dolores, General Mac Arthur and Llorente; and Northern Samar – Bobon, Catarman, Lavezares and Lope de Vega.

Discussed during the forum were the different enrollment conditions such as prospects, timelines, finance, and counterpart arrangements in the new municipalities, the local cash counterpart delivery plan and the potential problem analysis by municipality. All of these binding precedents must be followed or applied once the MLGU engages in the KALAHI-CIDSS project.

Natividad Sequito, KALAHI-CIDSS Regional Project Coordinator (RPC), said during a speech that there are certain ways and practices that MLGUs have to “learn” and “unlearn” in the process of the project implementation.

“For LGUs, they have to “unlearn” overly bureaucratic and technocratic processes to allow citizens more space for participation. For the citizens, they have to “unlearn” years of distrust in the government. On the other hand, “learning” for LGUs mean that they have to learn new methods of facilitating participation; and for citizens, they have to learn new approaches to engage in an informed dialogue and decision making”, RPC Sequito explained.

KALAHI-CIDSS is a government project spearheaded by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It promotes the Community Driven Development (CDD) and aims to empower the community, improve local governance and reduce poverty.

“KALAHI-CIDSS is beyond infrastructure, it is a process”, RPC Sequito stressed.

Novellita Villarin, Regional Community Development Specialist, added, “As a process, KALAHI-CIDSS is guided by certain principles. These are the localized decision-making, empowerment, transparency, community participation, inclusiveness, demand driven, simple and sustainable”.

The four-day forum was held on January 16-19, 2012 at Don Felipe Hotel in Ormoc City, Leyte. Some of the participants were Mayors of the different LGUs, the Municipal Engineers, Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer, Municipal Planning and Development Officer and the Focal Persons.