Validation of indigenous people, informal labor sectors up

Monday, January 9, 2012

THE regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is readying for the validation of households of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) as well as those employed in the informal labor sector.

The previous assessments were conducted from 2009 until the early part of 2011 and shall form part of the National Household Targeting System (NHTS) database.

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DSWD regional planning officer Hasan Alfad said the validation of the IPs and informal sector is necessary to better address the targeting needs of data users and to further improve the utility of the database.

Alfad, who is also the NHTS regional focal person, said the validation results will provide the data users specific information pertaining to the IPs in the region.

The validation results will also provide details of employment of the working force in the informal sector, Alfad said.

He said they had already started the orientation of the various staffs such as the area supervisors, area coordinators, and enumerators who will be fielded to specific areas to validate and acquire needed information about the IPs and workers in the informal sector.

He said the validation works will include the encoding of the raw data to be submitted to the DSWD central office.

It will take about two months before they can release the official data to interested groups, he said.

Interested foundation and organizations concerned with IPs and the labor force can easily obtain the needed information from the database once the data is completed, he said.

The NHTS database is being used by the DSWD and other agencies like Department of Health, Department of Public Works and Highways and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) in indentifying beneficiaries of their programs.