The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office V hosted recently the National Year-End Program Review on National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction. This was held last November 12-17, 2012 at The Oriental Hotel, Legazpi City.

NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. The system makes available to national government agencies and other stakeholders, a database of poor households as reference in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs. It aims to establish an objective targeting system and reduce the leakage of social services to non-poor and minimize exclusion of the poor. Ms.Antoniette Maria R. Lucero, NHTS-PR National Deputy Project Manager said, “Our database is a gold mine so maximize its utilization and continue believing that Targeting is something good”.

The assembly aims to; assess the project’s accomplishments vis-a -vis its commitment/target and provide updates on the Project components and formulate a concrete communication strategy for year 2013.

DSWD Assistant Secretary Florita R. Villar, who graced the occasion, shared to the group the recognition given by FutureGov Awards held last October 19, 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The FutureGov Awards serves as an international benchmark by which public sector innovation is judged. It uniquely celebrates agency and project success including the most successful city modernization programmes in the region.

NHTO landed finalists slots in three categories. It was the only finalist from the Philippines. The first category is under the Connected Government which recognizes the office’s excellence in intra-agency and inter-agency workflows. Second is in the Information Management category which recognizes the NHTO’s excellence in the secure capture, storage and distribution of citizen information. Last is the Government Organization of the year which recognizes excellence in public information at the central, state, local government level.

Likewise, Dir. Vincent Andrew T. Leyson,NHTS-PR National Project Manager, stressed the difference between the  Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) from National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), that the two systems have diverse purpose to the community. The focus is on advocating what NHTS-PR is.

The event was participated by NHTO Central Office technical staff headed by DSWD Assistant Secretary Florita R. Villar, Field Office Regional Directors and technical staff from 16 regions.##crbarrameda