QUEZON CITY – A post debriefing session was held on November 12, 2012 at the La Breza Hotel to discuss the findings of select personnel from different national government agencies who went on a learning visit to Jakarta, Indonesia to study the Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) Mandiri Program.

The PNPM Mandiri program is an umbrella program of Indonesia that harmonizes the different anti-poverty programs in Indonesia for more efficient services. The learning visit was held to study the scaling up of the community-driven development (CDD) approach as a national anti-poverty program to help the National Inter Agency Preparation Team (NIAPT) prepare for the Philippine’s own version of PNPM, the NCDDP or National Community Driven Development Program.

PNPM Mandiri is the expansion of the Indonesian Kecamatan Development Program (KDP), which uses the CDD approach in combating poverty.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), the CDD program of the Philippine government and implemented by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), was partly patterned after the KDP. It is set for scaling up by 2013, similar to the expansion of the KDP into the PNPM Mandiri.

The scaling up of CDD into a national anti-poverty program in the Philippines will not only use the systems developed from the Kalahi-CIDSS implementation, it will also utilize the lessons learned in the implementation of the various CDD programs of the other national government agencies.

Dir. Edgar G. Pato of the DSWD recognized there are differences between the Philippines and the Indonesian settings. “We would like to emphasize that there are differences between the Philippines and Indonesia,” he pointed out during in his presentation. However, he said that there are valuable lessons that can be gleaned from the implementation of the PNPM Mandiri, particularly in terms of the coordination between the various implementing agencies. “The exciting part is that the different line agencies will also be sharing the success stories ”, he said, referring to how CDD empowers communities by enhancing the skills and capacities of the poorest villages and allowing them to have decision-making powers even in governance.

According to Mr. Gerard Aranas of the Department of Agriculture (DA), “We are in a situation where we are on the verge of formally creating an umbrella program similar to what was done in PNPM Mandiri.”

The learning visit was conducted from November 5 to 9, 2012. Participants of the learning visit included members of NIAPT, namely: Director Sem Cordial of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Director Erlinda Capones of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Director Pato and Mr. Alex Glova of the DSWD, Director Susan Leones of the Department of Agriculture (DAR), Director AnnaLiza Bonagua of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Director Juan Antonio Perez III of the Department of Health (DOH), Director Cristina Clasara of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Ms. Rowena dela Cruz of the Department of Education (DepEd), and Mr. Aranas. Along with the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Department of Finance (DoF), these agencies make up the National Inter-Agency Preparation and Implementation Team (NIAPIT) for the national CDD program.

The learning visit was an initiative of the Asian Development Bank. Yukiko Ito, the Social Development Specialist of the ADB, said the learning visit provided valuable information in how the CDD approach can be scaled up into a national anti-poverty program. She said, “We not only gained technical insights from PNPM Mandiri, the participants also were able to better understand the program. It also strengthened the friendship between the Philippines and Indonesia,” she added. ###