The Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which will share the results of the 2nd Nationwide Household Assessment or Listahanan 2 database.
About the Agreement
According to a recent press release, BFAR will use the database for the provision of programs and services to poor fisher folks.
BFAR will use the Listahanan database in assessing the names of fisher folks registered in its Municipal Fisher folk Registry System for program planning and prioritization, particularly for its national fisheries program.
Listahanan is also known as the National Household Targeting System (NHTS) for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
It is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are nationwide.
It provides the national government agencies (NGAs), local government units (LGUs), non-government organisations (NGOs), and other stakeholders, a database of poor households as basis in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection programs and services.
DSWD uses the database in targeting beneficiaries for its various programs and services, such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens, and Unconditional Cash Transfer Program.
Apart from BFAR, several government agencies also use the Listahan 2 database. These are:
- The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR),
- The National Food Authority (NFA)
- The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth)
- The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC)
- The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS)\
- The Department of Finance (DOF)
In addition, it is also being used to identify the grantees of the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) under the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST).
Conducted in 2015, Listahanan 2 was able to identify 5,251,194 households, out of 15,485,429 households assessed, to be poor.
DSWD is currently conducting the 3rd Household Assessment or Listahanan 3 with a target of 16.1 million households nationwide.
Listahanan is led by the DSWD through the NHTO and its Field Offices.
Significance of Databases
Databases are essential for easier tracking and storage of pertinent information, which can be accessed by those who need it.
The Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue, for instance, is working with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in developing an inter-agency database of foreign nationals working in the country.
This move will effectively monitor the foreign nationals and guarantee that they pay the correct amount of taxes to the Philippine government.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam government aimed to create a national database system as well as launch a national public service portal, which connects with local portals to monitor and enhance public service delivery.
Sharing data is very important as it enables the formation of close links between the central Government and local governments.
Another significant database initiative is that of Indonesia’s. The Indonesian Government is determined to protect its domestic mobile phone, computer and tablet industry, including the users.
Three ministerial regulations were made to address this and one of them is the Minister of Industry Regulation concerning the Mobile Telecommunications Equipment Identity Database System.
More than 1.4 billion IMEI data have already been entered into the database.
