MANILA – The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is recognizing the efforts and initiatives of its partners in pushing forward and integrating gender and development (GAD) in the program during  a ceremony on May 3 at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati, as part of the closing activities of KC-MCC,

KC-MCC is a project of Kalahi-CIDSS funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent foreign aid agency from USA, which has led to the strengthening of the integration of GAD in the program’s systems and processes.

Aside from the recognition of the program’s GAD champions, the activity will also show the gains in the promotion of GAD in KC-MCC.

As a community-driven development (CDD) program, Kalahi-CIDSS invests in citizens from the poorest villages across the nations through trainings and the provision of community grants so that they themselves will be able to identify their most pressing problems and provide solutions to these. In most instances, these solutions come in the way of small-scale infrastructure projects for basic social services and improvement of access of the people from isolated barangays.

Because of the strengthened GAD integration, more women participated in Kalahi-CIDSS. In KC-MCC alone, 57%, or 290,856 of the community volunteers of the program, are women. Of this number, 55% are leaders of their groups of volunteers. Furthermore, 3,865 women served as paid laborers during the construction of their Kalahi-CIDSS community sub-projects so they can earn some money to help support their families.

“Ang Kalahi-CIDSS ay sinisigurado na ang boses ng babae ay nabibigyan ng espasyo sa pagpaplano sa mamamayan (Kalahi-CIDSS ensures that women’s voices are heard when engaging citizens)”, said DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman.

She continued, “Para sa amin sa Kalahi-CIDSS, mahalaga na ang babae ay hindi lamang kilalanin bilang bahagi ng lipunan, pero meron rin silang ginagawang masiglang kontribusyon sa pagpapaunlad ng pamilya at ng pamayanan (For us in Kalahi-CIDSS, women should not just be recognized as members of society, but also as having the capacity to provide a dynamic contribution in the development of their families and their communities)”.

Aside from DSWD officials, MCC Resident Country Director John Polk and the key officials of the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P), the oversight agency in charge of the grants provided by MCC, are set to attend the activity. Officials from the Philippine Commission on Women are also expected to join.###