The Provincial Government of Lanao del Norte utilizes Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Listahanan for the implementation of its anti-poverty programs. Listahanan is an information management system that identifies poor families needing assistance. 

The province was one of the local government units, which entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the DSWD in 2013. The DSWD required the execution of a MOA to ensure confidentiality and usage of the requested data for social protection purposes.    

One of the programs initiated by the Provincial Government is the Provincial Comprehensive Health Sector Reform Program, which aims to ensure access to quality health care and upgrading of health facilities in the province. Its services include awareness-raising on family planning/reproductive health, proper nutrition, breastfeeding, free medicines and immunization against tuberculosis, malaria and other common diseases, medical missions and environmental sanitation program.

As of December 2013, a total of 61, 406 indigent families have benefited from the program. These families were identified using Listahanan.

Aside from the Health Program, the Provincial Government also created the One Town One Program (OTOP) which is aims to develop small-scale enterprise among the poor and promote products made in Lanao del Norte. This program also used Listahanan to identify families prioritized for skills training and product development.      

Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo, Regional Director of DSWD Field Office X said this only manifests that “the Listahanan data is more than just statistics and figures, if utilized correctly, could be a very useful and significant tool in the implementation of target-focused programs and services.”

Written by Mitzie Santiago, DSWD X