DSWD FO V Dir. Arnel Garcia discusses the regional target of KALAHI CIDSS project in front of local government officials headed by their mayors last May 13, 2014 during the Regional Accountability Reporting in Legazpi City.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office V Director Arnel Garcia urged the local government units (LGUs) through its mayors to continuously support the implementation of KALAHI-CIDSS.

During the Regional Accountability Reporting last May 13, 2014 in Legazpi City, Dir. Garcia stressed the crucial role of the LGUs in achieving the regional target of Bicol to complete the community-proposed subprojects.

“All implementing LGUs are responsible to the regional target of DSWD considering that Bicol is one of the regions with the largest coverage of KALAHI-CIDSS nationwide,” Dir. Garcia said.

He reminded the municipal LGUs’ commitment to deliver the expected 30% local counterpart contribution of the annual total project cost is required by KALAHI CIDSS to meet its commitment for the project.

“The LGUs need to fully deliver their financial counterpart so that the grant will be downloaded to the community and complete the implementation of their subprojects,” he added.

The purpose of the Regional Accountability Reporting is to gauge the LGUs’ performance, sum up the experiences of the first year of KALAHI-CIDSS implementation, gain insights on good practices, and set directions and agreements for 2015, which is when the Project will end. The activity evaluated the performance of the municipalities that are implementing KALAHI-CIDSS with funding support from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent US foreign aid agency.

KALAHI-CIDSS follows a strict timeline of activities, with each project cycle expected to run for roughly one year. The first year of implementation of the Project ended this March while the second and third is expected to be completed in August 2014 and 2015, respectively.

“There is an overlapping implementation of the project’s cycles so we need the commitment of our stakeholders to support DSWD and KALAHI-CIDSS to complete the subprojects within the given timeline,” Dir. Garcia said.

In response to the challenge posed by DSWD, the fifteen LGUs funded by MCC assured the Regional Project Management Office (RPMO) of KALAHI-CIDSS to complete the remaining community subprojects by August.

The fifteen municipalities funded by MCC are Libmanan, Cabusao, Gainza, Labo, Baao, Ocampo, Ragay, Basud, San Vicente, Gigmoto, Viga, Bato, Bula, Bombon and Caramoan. These will be implementing KALAHI-CIDSS for three years from 2012.

To date, the partnership between KALAHI-CIDSS and MCC has funded 334 community-proposed subprojects such as day care centers, concrete pathways, water systems, classrooms and other similar small-scale infrastructure. It has provided about Php600 million grant to 15 municipal LGUs. MCC is only one of the development partners by KALAHI CIDSS aside from Australian Aid, World Bank and AECID.

Present during the meeting were Mayors Melquides Gaite of Baao, Francis Ong of San Vicente, Marilyn Jimenez of Libmanan, Ma. Luisa Angeles of Bombon and Constantino Cordial of Caramoan, who were joined by their planning officers, budget officers, accountants and social welfare officers.

“DSWD provides the resources, technical assistance, logistical support, capacity building and implementation support so I am confident that they can deliver their commitment in support to the project completion in order for the communities to harness the benefits they can get from these subprojects,” he said.