The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) held a change management and strategic planning on July 15 to 18 in San Fernando, La Union.
The KALAHI-CIDSS’ National Program Management Office (NPMO) spearheaded the 3-day activity to enhance its program implementation and develop a new successor program.
“KALAHI-CIDSS is a program dedicated to empowering marginalized communities. To chart its future course, the NPMO conducted a Change Management and Strategic Planning activity to enhance the program’s implementation to better meet the evolving needs of the communities it serves,” said KALAHI-CIDSS National Program Manager Atty. Bernadette Mapue-Joaquin.
The event marked a significant step as the KALAHI-CIDSS transitions to its successor initiative that will ensure the continuity of community empowerment in the country.
“As KALAHI-CIDSS faced the most challenging year of the program in 2023, completing more than 16,000 community subprojects—a milestone in over two decades of implementation—we remain committed to reaching more communities and empowering them to champion their own development. These subprojects like access roads, daycare centers, and flood controls are the manifestation of the empowerment mechanism we espouse,” said Atty. Mapue-Joaquin.
During the activity, the participants were encouraged to focus on change management by identifying effective frameworks to address evolving challenges in the KALAHI-CIDSS program modalities.
An operational assessment was also conducted to evaluate the NPMO’s structure, processes, resource allocation, and risks to enhance overall efficiency.
The KALAHI-CIDSS NPMO is dedicated to developing the KALAHI-CIDSS Medium-Term Strategic Plan for CY 2025-2028. This plan incorporates findings from assessments and outputs from workshops, aligning them with emerging approaches and departmental objectives.
It will also showcase specific action steps, timelines, and funding requirements, serving as a definitive roadmap for the future and ensuring that the program’s goals and objectives are systematically achieved in a structured manner.
As the KALAHI-CIDSS concludes its current implementation phase, the future direction lies in the development of a successor program, Panahon ng Pagkilos, which aims to champion community-led climate risk mitigation.
“Our call to action remains the same. We are taking proactive steps towards the sustainability of the program and supporting this goal in every possible way,” Atty. Mapue-Joaquin pointed out.
Through these focused objectives, the event intends to strengthen the KALAHI-CIDSS program, ensuring its resilience and effectiveness in empowering marginalized communities. #
