Given the thrust of the Philippine Government to strengthen coordinated efforts and anti-poverty interventions at the local level, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Reducing Human Poverty Portfolio awarded a grant to the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC) supporting capacity building activities geared toward establishing and maintaining a community database that will be used in effective planning, implementation and monitoring poverty programs at the local level, especially in the barangays.
The Statistical Research and Training Center successfully implemented the grant that developed comprehensive training modules for the local government units (LGUs). These included the CBMS course, database management and statistical methods of data analysis tapping San Pascual, Batangas as the pilot municipality. Three (3) barangays namely, Malaking Pook, Pila and Pook ni Banal in said place were selected for statistical capacity building initiatives such as the generation, maintenance and utilization of data. The activities aimed to ensure that information needed for local planning and decision making were made available on timely and regular basis.
The capacity building initiatives for the LGUs is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s aim of improving coordination, efficiency and effectiveness of anti-poverty interventions at the local level through the enhancement of the over-all quality of sub-national statistics, generated either as primary function or part of administrative and regulatory functions, of LGUs. It is also in line with the thrust of the Philippine Government to strengthen coordinated efforts and anti-poverty interventions at the local level and UNDP’s thrust of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and reducing human poverty.
With the LGUs as key players in monitoring the country’s performance in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 2007 Midterm Progress Report on the MDGs, two of the priority actions identified to meet the 2015 challenge were: (i) the nationwide adoption of the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) as monitoring tool and system for the core local poverty indicators; and (ii) capacity-building for data generation, analysis and monitoring.
The chosen area for the project is the province of Batangas mainly because of two reasons, namely: the LGUs of the province are open and enthusiastic to be trained on Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS); and they have long standing requests with the CBMS Network Team for a training on the system. In addition, the Provincial Government of Batangas (PGoB) has indicated its interest in the generation of local level statistics that can be useful for effective governance. Moreover, the proximity of the province to Manila makes it an ideal location to be selected.
In the province, the municipality of San Pascual and three (3) of its barangays were selected as pilot areas for the project. Several factors were considered in the selection, such as: peace and order situation, presence of facilities for training, and degree of cooperation or willingness of the municipality and barangay officials to take part in the project and be trained on CBMS.
The first activity of the project was the conduct of reconnaissance or assessment of the data holdings of the pilot municipality and 3 barangays. The results of this activity served as inputs in the development of training curriculum and design for the statistical capacity building program for the municipal and barangay officials. The trainings of trainers (ToTs) were conducted on the four Modules. The conduct of Pilot Training for each Module followed consequently after each ToT.
San Pascual is a 1st class municipality with a population of 49,041. It is adjacent to Batangas City, the capital of the province. The town, which is located along Batangas Bay, is formerly the home to an oil refinery and chemical plants as well as other industrial and commercial establishments. There were 29 barangays in the municipality. After several consultations with PGoB, Municipal Government of San Pascual (MGoSP), CBMS Network Team, officials of local unit of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region IV-A, three barangays were selected as pilot areas. These are Malaking Pook, Pila and Pook ni Banal. In 2000, their
populations were counted at 714, 758 and 953, respectively.
Two (2) main courses comprised the curriculum. The first is the CBMS Course, consisting of 3 modules namely, (i) Data Collection, (ii) Data Processing System; and (iii) Database Building. The second is the Data Analysis and MDG Report Generation Course.
