CALOOCAN CITY, December 13, (PIA) - - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Friday, December 11, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Move Up consortium and a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the National Poverty Commission (NAPC) amid the series of disasters that struck the country.
During the signing ceremony, DSWD Director Restituto Macuto who represented for Undersecretary for Operations Aimee Neri, said the Philippines is prone to a plethora of disasters and calamities due to its geographic location that was lately compounded with by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On the face of every disaster, we see the sufferings of affected individuals, families and communities, their fears and lost hope, we can also hear their cries and pleas,” Macuto said.
He said Macuto , the partnership with NAPC is another testament of groups sharing the same vision of delivering unhampered programs and services to disaster stricken, vulnerable and marginalized Filipinos.
The MOU with the MOVE UP consortium will be a collaboration to promote and strengthen resiliency and disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. It will provide free voluntary technical support and assistance from the consortium to DSWD for the following: DSWD sustainable livelihood program in developing disaster resilient livelihood thru protection of assets through micro finance insurance, market diversification and strengthening strategies; Disaster Risk Management Bureau (DRMB) in developing alternative temporary shelter housing model for disaster resiliency and development of learning modules and knowledge product in increasing disaster resilient livelihood for urban poor beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, DSWD’s MOA with NAPC aims to contribute to the following: the achievement of the activities of the enhanced partnership against hunger and poverty convergence program, the attainment of the administration’s 10 point-socio economic agenda; and the development goal as articulated in the Philippine Development Plan through the provision of the following; capability building and livelihood intervention to qualified participants whom DSWD caters to the food-related program of the enhanced partnership against Hunger and Poverty partners.
“As we inked our partnership today, we also celebrate our commitment and dedication for genuine developmental works. We continue promoting solidarity in bridging opportunities for livelihood or SIBOL of the Sustainable Livelihood Program.,” Macuto said.
“We are proud that through our continued engagement with stakeholders, we shall be able to further our goals in fulfilling the DSWD’s mission of providing social protection to the poor, vulnerable and marginalized sectors thereby contributing to a better quality of life,” he added.
Meanwhile, NAPC Secretary Atty Noel Felongco shared the following data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA): Poverty incidence in the country in 2018 is 16.7%. This means 16.7 million Filipinos have lived below the poverty threshold pegged at 10,757. In the 2020 Global Hunger Index, the Phils ranked 69th out of 107 qualifying countries with a score of 19%. This confirmed that the country is suffering from a modest hunger level. Last Sept. 27, 2020, an SWS survey reported that an estimate of 7.6M Filipino families has experienced involuntary hunger amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With these figures, the urgency of convergence and continued enforcement of whole government and whole nation approach is being called for. Since the govt needs the active participation and contribution of all sectors including the 14 basic sectors of the society to end hunger and poverty in the country, it is high time that we streamline and make our anti-poverty and anti-hunger intervention programs and projects be more efficient and be more felt in the grassroots level,” Felongco said.
Move Up consortium, represented by Deputy Country Director of Action Against Hunger (AAH) Suresh Murugeso said that the signing of MOU celebrates the joint partnership towards building an effective partnership which will significantly contribute to the positive transformation among the greatly disadvantaged sector including the poor society.
“Building resilience is not easy and does not happen in an instant. It involves the concerted effort of public and private and is a complex undertaking for over a long period. To help the poor is an urgent task. We joined DSWD and NAPC to this effort,” Murugeso added.
Director David Gazashvili, Country Director of CARE Philippines who is also a member of the consortium explained that the alternative temporary shelter (ATS) component of Move Up aims to safeguard the rights of the displaced population to receive immediate and dignified assistance including safe spaces and shelter. It also reiterates the role of the govt and other stakeholders in providing safe structures and ensuring that these are efficiently incorporated in the camp coordination and camp management (CCCM) plans.
ATS and CCCM call for meaningful participation of displaced populations themselves from contingency planning, designing, and setting up of ATS to camp mgt. These not only contribute to bldg. resilience capabilities but also help improve socio decisions and encouraging community participation.
“ As the lead agency in social protection, we acknowledge the need for the implementation of people-centered, culture and gender-sensitive disaster mitigation, risk reduction and management measures that would help reduced the impact of extreme weather condition to the poor and vulnerable sectors of our society,” DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said
“Our collaboration is a great opportunity to amplify our means and strategies to further reach out to our poor citizens and deliver an intervention that is responsive for their needs,”Bautista added. (PIA-NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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