DSWD to identify poorest of poor in new survey

MANILA, Philippines – The government will hold a second nationwide survey this summer to identify the poorest of the poor families.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or the “Listahanan” was scheduled in the second quarter.

The onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda last Nov. 8 prevented the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) from holding the Listahanan in the last quarter of 2013 as its personnel were mobilized for the massive relief and recovery effort in Eastern and Central Visayas.

Almost 32,000 field enumerators will be hired to look for the poorest families nationwide to identify those needing assistance of anti-poverty programs and services led by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

They will be equipped with android tablets for data gathering, and to be aware of dole-outs and other government assistance given under the DSWD’s conditional cash transfer program.

Soliman said: “The use of tablets as data collection tool and encoding device will minimize the risk of losing the family assessment forms (FAF) during shipment and expedite the data collection process in urban areas.”

However, enumerators assigned in rural areas will continue to use paper and pencil due to the absence of reliable Internet connection.

The second Listahanan seeks to update the information management database built up in 2009-2011 to identify and assess the poor, and locate their whereabouts.

The Listahanan aims to build an updated database showing comprehensive information about poor families nationwide.

It will be for the use of national government agencies and social protection stakeholders.

The assessment will cover 15.3 million households estimated from the 2010 census of population results for rural areas.

The DSWD conducted the first assessment in 2009 involving 10.9 million households.

It resulted in the identification of 5.25 million as poor using the proxy means test (PMT), a statistical formula estimating family income based on observable family characteristics.

Beneficiaries of government programs like the 4Ps, National Health Insurance Program, Social Pension Fund were taken from the 2009 database of Listahanan.

In preparation for the upcoming assessment, the DSWD will be hiring 47,644 field staff comprised of 31,908 enumerators for one month, 6,383 area supervisors for two months, 1,277 area coordinators for three months, 4,038 encoders and 4,038 verifiers for one month.

They will undergo rigorous training and will be deployed in different provinces and municipalities and cities nationwide.

Another innovation is the inclusion of the barangay community characteristics derived from the 2009 census of population and housing as determinants of poverty status in the new PMT model.

Among these are access to mobile phone signal, availability of commercial establishments and recreational facilities.

The new PMT model will also use non-income variables such as housing features, family assets and access to water and sanitation facilities, among others which were sourced out from 2009 Family Income and Expenditure Survey and Labor Force Survey as income predictors.

Listahanan will classify occupation of family members into 431 specific categories consistent with the Philippine Standard Occupation Classification.

The 2nd Nationwide Assessment has a total budget requirement of P1.9 billion, including the cost of service of field staff, procurement of IT equipment, production of FAFs, and conduct of validation activities, among others. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)