THE Department of the Interior and Local Government Central Visayas (DILG 7) and the Philippine Statistics Authority Central Visayas (PSA 7) recently hosted the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Regional Stakeholders Virtual Forum.
CBMS is a diagnostic tool for assessing poverty in local government units that can be used for evidence-based planning and budgeting.
The virtual activity’s aim was to increase stakeholder awareness and capacity about the CBMS program, as well as improve the DILG 7, PSA 7 and local government unit (LGU) coordination and cooperation in the national rollout and implementation of CBMS for 2022, according to the DILG 7 report posted on its website last Jan. 14.
The highlight of the event was the ceremonial signing of the memorandum of agreement for the pilot implementation of CBMS in Central Visayas this year. The document was signed by Dauin, Negros Oriental Mayor Galicano Truita, DILG 7 Director Leocadio Trovela and PSA 7 Director Ariel Florendeno.
Meanwhile, the LGUs of Carcar and San Remigio both shared their CMBS experiences. The activity also urged local governments to include CBMS in their 2022 Annual Investment Program to ensure funding for the next year’s national rollout.
Among those present during the meeting were provincial and city directors, as well as field officers and personnel from the DILG 7 and its sub-regional offices, local chief executives, Sanggunian Committee on Appropriation Chairs, and Central Visayas Local Planning and Development coordinators.
Trovela emphasized the significance of CBMS in the processing and identification of beneficiaries of relief operations in LGUs.
“The LGU-CBMS databases can be used to quantify, identify and conduct mapping of income and food poor households and families. It can also be used for generating list, location, and verification of poor or vulnerable households and families with at least one or combination of the qualified characteristics for the implementation of social amelioration and other related safety net programs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Local Government Operations Officer VI Jerson Obo spoke extensively about the key features of CBMS as well as the findings of a survey on CBMS as a development planning tool conducted by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies.