The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will geotag 3,803 community sub-projects constructed from 2002 to present for greater transparency in Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), a DSWD program that seeks to help alleviate poverty through community-driven development (CDD).

The location information of the geotagged photos of community sub-projects will be available in a Kalahi-CIDSS web application once uploaded. Geotagging of these sub-projects is expected to be completed by the end of year and soon will be shared to the public once all information is completely uploaded.

More than 1,000 DSWD field staffs deployed in 101 municipalities and 2,902 barangays will be trained on Geotagging. They will use their mobile phones as their Geotagging devices. They will be trained on the following Geotagging workflow: data collection, capturing images using global positioning system (GPS) and uploading the data in the cloud storage.

Moreover, some DSWD employees were already trained last October 7-8, 2015 held at Legazpi City who will be trainers in their respective areas of assignment.

In Kalahi-CIDSS, this technology will be also used for the verification and approval of sub-projects, progress supervision and operation and maintenance activities.

DSWD has initially geotagged 156 out of the 3,803 community sub-projects where 110 of which are already published on the Kalahi-CIDSS web application.

According to World Bank, one of the development partners of DSWD, Geotagging is an innovative and practical tool and considered as a Best Practice in sub-project transparencies and total public disclosure.

CDD puts power back in the hands of the people by giving them the opportunity to make informed decisions on locally identified options for development and manage resources to implement sub-projects that address needs identified by communities themselves.

Sub-projects refer to the community projects that are implemented through Kalahi-CIDSS. The program follows an open menu system, wherein communities will choose what sub-projects will answer their prioritized needs. These are basic services sub-projects, basic access infrastructures, community common services facilities, environmental protection and conservation and skills training and capability building.

The operations of the CDD approach expanded into a national scale, which was tried and proven effective by Kalahi-CIDSS. 101 poor municipalities in Bicol are under its expansion from 2014 to 2019 with a total of grant of Php4, 497,448,178.