In accordance with Republic Act No. 11494 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) has allocated more than 68 million to provide Livelihood Assistance Grants (LAG) to aid in the recovery of families and households continuously affected by Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).

LAG is a financial assistance granted to eligible low-income families belonging to the informal sectors whose livelihoods were affected by the community quarantine, and can be used as (1) support to preferred micro-enterprise activities of the beneficiary; or, (2) augmentation to the expenses on pre-employment, food, as well as transportation allowance of the beneficiary during the first month of employment.

For the implementation of LAG the table shown the target per province:

The provision of LAG covers all the municipalities and cities that imposed quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic, target beneficiaries were pre-assessed as for the provision of LAG with the following criteria of the DSWD:

1. Included in the list of target families as enumerated in Section VI-A of the Omnibus Guidelines in the implementation of Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP) of DSWD and with at least one (1) member working in the informal sector prior to the ECQ/CQ;
2. Profiled through the Social Amelioration Card (SAC) for non-4Ps and included in the Pantawid database for the 4Ps beneficiaries;
3. Source/s of income (employment, livelihood, etc.) were affected during the Enhanced Quarantine Period (ECQ) or locally-declared or mandated quarantine and/or projected to continuously be affected in the next three (3) to six (6) months after the lifting of the ECQ and locally-declared or mandated community quarantine); and
4. Not included as recipients of various livelihood recovery or rehabilitation projects of other national government agencies and/or other stakeholders.

The assessment process of LAG started during the community quarantine period in order to facilitate the processing and provision of LAG. The C/MLGUs in the collaboration of key leaders or official of existing organizations/associations/groups of informal sectors in the city or municipality shall identify feasible, profitable resource-based and market-driven livelihood projects which are contributory to the livelihood recovery and rehabilitation.

SLP Regional Program Coordinator for Operations Earl Maximillan A. Cecilio said the program provides a maximum of PHP15,000-livelihood fund to an eligible beneficiary, LAG is not exclusive for families provided Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP) from DSWD during the quarantine period but shall only be provided to low-income families. Participants who preferred micro-enterprise activities may opt to have 1) a group project or 2) a combination of both individual and group projects.

“Further, the type of project should be able to provide immediate income for the family and through SLP PDOs beneficiaries shall be monitored on the progress of their projects funded by LAG either by LGUs or DSWD”., he added.

SLP is a community-based capacity building program that aims to improve the socio-economic condition of the participants. It facilitates interventions that expand the existing livelihood assets (human, social, physical, natural, and financial capital) of the participants so they may either have gainful employment or establish their chosen micro-enterprise.