After communities conducted a participatory investigation and research identifying the most pressing need in their village, about 500 community proposals from the barangays under the municipalities covered by the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) project were presnted.

“People living in the communities know more about their current local conditions and making them identify their priorities is important in the formulation of development plans,” Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Dir. Remia T. Tapispisan said.

Community proposals were made by a group of trained community members. They are called the Project Preparation Team (PPT), elected by each of the barangays during the Barangay Assembly (BA) for the validation of the identified needs in the community, are taught the key processes and tools to identify, select, and design appropriate solutions to address such problems.

Community proposals are presented during the prioritization activity where the community volunteers, municipal and national governments, non-government organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs) and other groups and individuals within a municipality are gathered. This is called the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum- Participatory Resource Allocation (MIBF-PRA) in which community proposals are prioritized for funding.

MIBF is a criteria-based allocation of development investments wherein all the barangays within a certain municipality decide what community proposals should be approved for funding. The grant a municipality receives is equal to the total number of barangays multiplied by Php450,000. These funds are directly downloaded to the community accounts once the community proposals are approved for implementation.

George Borja, a community volunteer from Sorsogon celebrates with the villagers of Tupaz because of the forthcoming fulfillment of a long-time dream. Out of 22 barangays of Prieto Diaz, their barangay was one of the prioritized projects with a community proposal of motorized bancas amounting to Php1.2 million.

“Inot, gusto kong pasalamatan itong nagboto sa samuyang proyekto pero mas gusto kong pasalamatan su mga nagpaunod dahil naging mahiwas ang saindong pagunawa. Sana sa mga masunod na arog kaining pagtiripon, pirmi tang pairalon ang pagunawa asin pagparaya ta iyo yan ang mabukas ning dalan pasiring sa kauswagan [I would not only thank those who voted for our project but also those people who understood where we are coming from. I hope that we keep our compassion towards one another because this will take us to the road of development],” George Borja said.