Cordillera Administrative Region- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) here through its National Household Targeting Section (NHTS) intensifies its preparations for the third round of household assessment among poor households or the Listahanan 3 in the region. As early as June 2019, the NHTS has announced the beginning of the preparatory phase of the assessment that includes deployment planning, information dissemination, coordination with the local government units, procurement, conduct of capacity building activities and hiring of personnel.

As of 5 August 2019, the DSWD has started with the hiring process through the conduct of interviews. In the Province of Benguet including Baguio City, more than 400 applicants for enumerators trooped to the DSWD-CAR Training Center, of which only 81 will be hired for the position in the Province. For Abra, 75 enumerators will be hired, 33 in Apayao, 57 in Ifugao, 58 in Kalinga, and 46 in Mountain Province. Enumerators will be hired to conduct the house to house assessment to some 272,000 target households in CAR.

In the region, Listahanan will be hiring a total of 380 field staff that includes area coordinators, area supervisors, and enumerators. One hundred fifty-three (153) staff are needed for office works that will include encoders and validators. The training of more than 400 field workers will start this September.

“CAR has the least number of target households in the country but with the region’s geographical structure, our field staff will likely have a challenging time reaching every household that is why we ask everyone’s cooperation for the assessment,” DSWD-CAR OIC-Regional Director Leo L. Quintilla said.

The data collection and analysis phase is expected to start by October 2019. During this time, the hired field staff will be deployed in their specific areas to conduct the household assessment in close coordination with the NHTS.

Listahanan otherwise known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. By providing a unified criteria, it makes the database of poor households available as basis for identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services. #DSWD-CAR, SOCIAL MARKETING UNIT, Mark Erik King Guanzon