LIS[DONE]HANAN: DSWD eyes 3rd poverty tracker system completion by February

Despite hindrances brought by COVID-19, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) estimates the update of the third issue of their household poverty database to be finished in the first quarter next year.

National Household Targeting Office (DSWD-NHTO) director Atty. Justin Batocabe clarified the status of National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), better known as Listahanan 3, in an online press conference held Sunday afternoon.

“Our revised timelines are in December 2021, we will complete our validation activities at the field office. In January 2022, we will finish the application of our data model or the proxy means test to generate the nal list of poor households. And in February 2022 database launching and commencement of data searching activities” said Batocabe.

The Listahanan project serves as a database legally adapted by local government units (LGUs) and agencies through Executive Order (EO) 867 s. 2010 to determine which households are deemed poor in all areas of the Philippines as beneficiaries of social protection programs.

“We use the proxy means test. It’s our data model. It’s a 50-variable confidential model that gives out a value once we input the 50 data parameters which we asked the poor households. And then once we grudge it up, it will come out with a value. If it’s below our alpha or poverty line, they could be considered a poor household. If it’s above our alpha or our predetermined poverty line value, they’d be considered a non-poor household,” Batocabe explained.

Out of the targeted 16 million households nationwide, Listahanan 3 has currently assessed over 14 million households with almost 5 million considered as poor, while 4.01 million grievances were resolved.

When asked about the difference with the census done by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) last year: “Listahanan asks different sets of questions compared to the ones asked in the nationwide census. Kasi sa PSA census, tinatanong lang kung ilan kayo sa isang tahanan, ano ang trabaho ano ang pinag-aralan. Sa atin po we go deeper than that, we ask them what’s their source of water, what’s their plumbing, what’s their source of energy, electricity ba or fire, what is the build of their houses among others, other data parameters that are more apt to describe a poor household as compared to census which is more general ang questions nya in its nature.”

Listahanan vs the rise of COVID

“Major challenge in implementing this project is sourcing of funds, because the funding of this project was approved in 2019, and the final data sharing should've been done in march of 2020, but as we know, this pandemic, this has lapsed. Pero dito, wala kaming budget sa 2020, moreso dito sa 2021,” said Batocabe.

Despite the project being postponed due to COVID which pushed the original plan for it to be completed in 2019, DSWD-NHTO continued to finish this amidst pandemic with observance of the disease prevention guidelines as the project was authorized by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) as “a critical government service.”

The Listahanan project played a huge part on the LGUs in implementing the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) to determine the vulnerable families in need in the first stages of COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines.

Not only that, the DSWD-NHTO director also expressed the importance of Listahanan in determining the beneficiaries for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps.

The DSWD-NHTO director stated that out of all the areas that they assessed, The National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon had the most grievances in terms of numbers.

“If you remember, NCR is likely na eh because of the large urban population that we have. 4A, also of the large population, but if you remember early last year, nagkaroon rin sila ng sakuna, yung Taal [Volcano]. So, Taal then just one month [later], nagkaroon ng COVID crisis, so medyo sila talaga yung hardest hit,” Batocabe explained.

According to Batocabe, this agenda can survive the change that the election season will bring because of the need of the government for “unbiased data gathering now that the resources are stretched thin.”

Batocabe shared that the implementation of Listahanan 3 is their current main concern and has no future projects in mind.