The municipality of Besao in the Mountain Province, along with five other municipalities in the country, was recently awarded as model local government unit (LGU) in harmonizing participation, transparency, and accountability in their governance system.

The award was given by the Department of Social Welfare and Development through the National Project Management Office of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) Project to recognize the LGUs’ efforts in adopting the process and principles advocated by the poverty-reduction project.

In 2010, on its first year of implementation, Besao was awarded the Best Sub-Project Implementation manifested by the impressive development especially on the completion of its community infrastructure projects. This was greatly attributed by implementers to the strong bayanihan spirit of its communities.

Besao is among the 16 municipalities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) that have implemented the Kalahi-CIDSS Project in 2012. This year, the town is moving to its 3rd cycle of implementation.

Meanwhile, the Monitoring and Evaluating (M&E) Team of the Regional Project Management Office (RPMO) Cordillera was also awarded as the Best M&E Team in the country. It bested 11 Kalahi-CIDSS implementing regions nationwide. The team is composed of Senior M&E Officer Analyn Lucas and M&E Officer Daisy Caranay.

For ten years now, the RPMO of the Kalahi-CIDSS Project has been working together with the LGUs and communities to ensure the proper and successful operations of the Project in the region.

As 18 January 2013, more than 54 million pesos worth of grants have already been released to the Kalahi-CIDSS areas in the region.

The municipalities of Conner and Kabugao in Apayao, Pasil, Pinukpuk and Tinglayan in Kalinga, Tinoc, Asipulo and Hingyon in Ifugao, and San Quintin in Abra are working on the disbursements and closing of their 2012 cycles while the new areas of Bucay, Bucloc, La Paz, Langiden, Pilar, Sallapadan, Malibcong, Tubo and Luba in Abra are about to conduct their sub-project implementation for their first cycles.

The Kalahi-CIDSS Project is one of the three core poverty-reduction programs of the DSWD. Together with Pantawid Pamilya and the Sustainable Livelihood Program, it aims to reduce poverty by empowering local communities to be part of the development process. # Nerizza Faye G. Villanueva/DSWD-CAR Social Marketing Unit