TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Philippines — Pasil and Tanudan, both 5th class municipalities, are listed as pilot areas for the implementation of President Aquino’s Convergence Framework in the province of Kalinga in order to help spur economic activities that will improve the living condition of poor families.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which spearheads the new flagship program of the government to reduce poverty, combines the three major poverty alleviation programs – Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS), and Self Employment Assistance para sa Kaunlaran (SEA-K), and have them implemented all at the same time in program areas.

Under the 4Ps or granting of conditional cash transfer, beneficiary-mothers receive P500 for pre-post natal care, while their children with ages below 14 years old who are in school get P300 cash allowance.

Government hands down infrastructure projects like day-care centers, farm-to-market roads, irrigation facilities, and other community based projects to identified barangays (villages) covered under the KALAHI-CIDSS.

For SEA-K, low-income families get livelihood assistance in the form of zero-interest soft loans payable in one-year from the government as start-up capital for livelihood projects and income generating activities.

In Kalinga, Jeoffrey Garcia of the DSWD field office there said the Convergence Framework will be launched on July in Pasil and Tanudan, before it will be adapted in the other municipalities.

The concept of convergence, Garcia explained, is pooling of resources and expertise to set up systematic channeling of efforts in the pursuit of a commonly agreed goal aimed at addressing poverty.

There is a need to harmonize government’s poverty reduction efforts in both program and operation level to generate greater impact beyond what each program could accomplish on its own, Garcia elaborated.

Through convergence, use of government resources is maximized at the same time, duplication of efforts is avoided.

When there is harmonized implementation, operational efficiency is enhanced that would assure maximum results from the programs, Garcia claimed.

The strategic focus of the framework is linking poverty flagship programs and empowering local government units, non-government organizations, services providers and intermediaries.

Existing programs under the KALAHI-CIDSS are implemented in 48 provinces, 78 provinces for SEA-K, and 79 provinces under 4Ps.