At least 150 mayors are expected to participate in the national conference on the government’s plan to massively scale up community-driven development (CDD) on May 13 to 15 at Crowne Plaza in Ortigas.

The event, dubbed the National Conference on National CDD Program, is organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) which is spearheading efforts to widen the implementation of CDD in collaboration with other government departments and agencies.

“This is in pursuit of our efforts to fortify the government’s plan to scale up CDD to a national program that will extend the benefits of the approach to the entire nation and mitigate poverty aggressively,” DSWD Sec. Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said.

“Our local chief executives play a key role in the development of a suitable design for the program with their respective experiences and expertise in CDD,” Secretary Soliman stressed.

DSWD started CDD implementation in 2003 through the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), which is one of the department’s three core anti-poverty programs.

Studies have shown that the CDD approach is successful not only in alleviating poverty in the country’s poorest municipalities but also in promoting community empowerment and good governance. This led the national government to prioritize the institutionalization of CDD as a national program.

The approach empowers ordinary citizens to directly participate in local governance by identifying their own community needs, planning, developing, implementing, managing and sustaining projects together to address local poverty issues. External economic analyses reveal that community participation lowers cost and improves construction quality of community projects.

Aside from the mayors, representatives from the different government departments and agencies, the academe, private sector, and other CDD stakeholders are expected to attend the event.###