ILOILO CITY—To confer awards to local government units for providing services to the Listahanan-identified poor families, the DSWD has organized the first-ever “Gawad Listahanan” or the Data Utilization Awards.

The competition was introduced to the local government units in Region 6 during the conduct of the Feedbacking/Coaching and Orientation with Listahanan Data Users recently.

“We are encouraging all the LGUs who have active Memorandum of Agreement on Datasharing with the DSWD to join the Gawad Listahanan,” said Evangeline B. Felecio, Listahanan Deputy Regional Project Manager.

Aside from recognizing the efforts of the partner LGUs, she added the activity is also aimed to promote the convergence of all social protection stakeholders on the identified poor to effectively address the problem on poverty.

Participating LGUs must nominate at least one locally-funded social protection program that provides direct service/intervention to the Listahanan identified poor such as scholarships, medical assistance, skills and livelihood training, among others. They must also be 100% compliant to the reportorial requirements of the data sharing as stipulated in their MOA with the Department and must have integrated Listahanan in all their social marketing activities.

To officially enter into the competition, LGUs should submit an application form duly signed by their mayor or provincial governor together with the program documents like the list of beneficiaries and Work and Financial Plan. The entry should also be accompanied by a write-up about the program, list of beneficiaries and activities conducted together with the photos showing the actual program implementation and beneficiaries.

LGUs shall be classified as municipal, city or provincial government categories. The winners for each category will be competing at the national level where a cash prize of Php50,000 is at stake.

To give ample time for the participants to prepare the necessary documents, the deadline for submission of their entries is extended until September 30, 2014.

To date, 127 municipal, city, and provincial governments in Western Visayas have already signed a MOA with the Department on the use of the Listahanan database./dswd6/Wenna B. Bendol