The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 5 has launched LISTAHANAN as the new brand name for National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR). This was held last October 14, 2013 at Alvis, Cafe Daraga Albay.

Listahanan 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.

The event was part of the month long celebration of National Statistics Month. “The theme for this year’s NSM is “Statistics That Matter to Every Filipino” highlighting the vital roles that data and statistics play in the everyday lives,” Engr. Gil Arce,National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Regional Head bared.

Meanwhile, DSWD Regional Director Arnel B. Garcia announced that the 2nd round of household assessment is on the last quarter of this year. “On going interviews are being done for all positions in order to fill the 3, 450 manpower requirements of the program. “Bicol region has an estimated target of 1.08 million households for both rural and urban areas.”

On the other hand Engr.Luis Banua,  NEDA  Assistant Regional Director commended DSWD for  coming up with an improved name for NHTSPR. “With the new name, LISTAHANAN  will have a strong recall and easy pronouncement.”

To have a deeper understanding about the project, Mr. Don Abejuro Jr. Regional Focal Person of Listahanan oriented the participants on its enhanced project cycle for the coming assessment.” For this year’s assessment, we will use android tablets instead of paper and pencil for data collection in urban areas.”he said. “Also enhancements on systems and procedures were developed such as the inclusion of barangay community characteristics derived from the 2009 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) as determinants of poverty status in the new PMT model and the classification of occupation consistent with the Philippine Standard Occupation Classification (PSOC)” he explained.

A covenant signing with the media and the Regional Statistical Coordination Committees (RSCC’s) formed part of the activity. It stressed the essential role of the media in keeping the public well informed and involved about governments programs.

            Also, Philhealth and LCC Foundation as data users shared their testimonials on how they utilized Listahanan’s data in the implementation on their pro-poor programs.

The event was participated in by the Regional Statistical Coordination Committees ( RSCC’s), DSWD technical staff and media.###crbarrameda