City poverty diagnosis plan proposed

The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, approved on first reading a proposed enacting a poverty diagnosis plan for the city.

Under the proposed ordinance, it intends to assist and understand poverty and its dimensions at the city and barangay levels in view of formulating a local poverty reduction action plan (LPRAP) and the implementation of the plans and programs that would consequently reduce poverty.

Further, the proper implementation of the adopted LPRAP of the local government and the barangays shall be utilized in the determination of the quality of life dimensions with the corresponding core local poverty indicators such as proper of children aged 0-5 years old who died to the sum of children aged 0-5 years old; malnutrition prevalence or proportion of children aged 0-5 years old who are malnourished to the total number of children 0-5 years old; proportion of households without access to safe water; proportion of households without access to sanitary toilet facilities; proportion of households who are squatting; proportion of households living in makeshift housing; proportion of households victimized by crimes; proportion of households with income less than the poverty threshold; proportion of households with income less than the food threshold; proportion of households who eat less than three meals a day; unemployment rate; elementary participation rate and secondary participation rate.

The ordinance stated that there should be an established a Local Poverty Diagnosis and Planning Council in both the city and barangay levels and shall be composed of the City mayor, the Local Poverty Diagnosis and Planning Council Officer, the City Planning and Development Coordinator, the City Administrator, all punong barangays, Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Appropriations and Finance, Chairpersons of the City Council Committees on Education, Culture, Creativity and Historical Research, Health and Sanitation, Ecology and Environmental Protection and Social Services, Women and Urban Poor, non-government organization representative and City Schools Division Superintendent.

For the Barangay Poverty Diagnosis and Planning Council, it shall be composed of the concerned punong barangay, Chairperson of the Committee on Appropriation, Chairpersons of the Committees on Education, Culture, Creativity and Historical Research, Health and Sanitation, Ecology and Environmental Protection and Social Services, Women and Urban Poor, purok leaders, school principal, barangay health worker and day care worker.

Both the city and barangay poverty diagnosis and planning councils shall formulate and implement the capacity building activities and a guidebook for local poverty diagnosis and planning. The guidebook shall be designed to aid in addressing the issues of targeting the poorest households and monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of poverty reduction programs at the local level.

The ordinance mandated the local government to appropriate the necessary funds for the management and operation of the said council.

The ordinance stipulated that it is quite urgent to underscore the importance of targeting the poorest communities and identifying local needs as well as internal and external sources of assistance to implement poverty reduction programs, projects and activities. – Dexter A. See