All six (6) provinces in Bicol region will inaugurate a total of 216 community sub-projects implemented through Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), one of the poverty-reduction programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Prioritized communities in the municipalities of Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate, Catanduanes, Camarines Norte, and Camarines Sur have utilized a total grant fund of P248 million to complete Kalahi-CIDSS community projects. By the end of 2012, all the community projects will be completed and inaugurated.

The Kalahi-CIDSS projects in Albay, Masbate and Sorsogon are funded by World Bank, while those in Catanduanes, Camarines Norte, and Camarines Sur are financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States of America.

In Kalahi-CIDSS, funds for community projects are released directly to communities. Furthermore, it has an open menu system for small scale community projects. The communities, through the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum, approve which projects will be funded.

While barangays are allowed to decide which projects to implement, these usually fall under the following sub-categories: general public goods or access projects, community enterprise projects, and human resource development projects. Projects under public goods or access projects are intended to deliver public services and/or address an issue of access to basic services. Community enterprise projects are those intended to directly contribute to increasing income of its intended beneficiaries while human resource development projects intend to increase local capacities and capabilities.

Kalahi-CIDSS is the flagship poverty-alleviation program of the Philippine government which adopts the community-driven development (CDD) approach as its overall strategy in targeting the poorest municipalities in the country. It is one of the three core poverty alleviation programs implemented by DSWD in partnership with local government units (LGUs).

The objectives of Kalahi-CIDSS is to improve local governance, reduce poverty, and empower communities by honing capacities of the people to analyze their local situation, identify community needs, and implement small-scale community projects in partnership with their LGUs.

CDD empowers the communities through the employment of participatory method, wherein people themselves decide on their priority needs and their responses to address these. Furthermore, they design and implement the project themselves and they manage the resources to be used in implementing the community projects.

After successful implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS in three cycles, comes the next cycle which is called the “Makamasang Tugon” (MT). It is an LGU-led CDD implementation modality under the Kalahi-CIDSS Project where good performing municipalities which have demonstrated adherence to the principles and processes that promote participation, transparency, and accountability in implementing the first 3 cycles of the KC Project is provided with performance-based incentive grant.

Kalahi-CIDSS MT aims to assist LGUs in integrating CDD principles and processes in the local planning and investment programming cycle, by way of an LGU-led implementation scheme of the KALAHI-CIDSS’ CDD technology.

20 municipalities in Bicol qualified under Kalahi-CIDSS MT implementation for 2011-2012 with 216 community projects to be completed. ###jmarbella