The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) project was featured in the recently conducted Social Welfare and Development (SWD) Forum of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) held at the Hotel Rembrandt, Quezon City.

The forum focused on the experience of the National Household Targeting Office (NHTO) in identifying who and where the poor are nationwide. Director Vincent Andrew T. Leyson, NHTO National Project Manager, presented the learnings, status of implementation, and updates of the project.

“We are glad to share with you the experiences of the NHTO in identifying who and where the 5.2 million poor households are and present how you can better use the database in providing services to the poor,” said Dir. Leyson.

The NHTSPR database, under the Executive Order 867, becomes the basis of national government agencies in identifying beneficiaries of their social protection programs. This provides for a unified targeting system and an objective database of poor households. Moreover, the NHTS-PR allows focused targeting and the reduction of leakage of government resources.

Representatives from various national government agencies, local government units, non-government organizations and civil society organizations participated in the half-day forum. After the presentation, a panel of reactors from different government agencies provided their insights and comments on the topic.

To date, the NHTO has shared its database with 21 national government agencies, 263 local government units, 16 non-government organizations, 8 donor agencies, and to other stakeholders for their development and social protection programs.