The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is spearheading a two-day national strategic planning activity to discuss the Philippine government’s Social Protection (SP) Plan.

The planning activity commenced today, May 3, in Quezon City. It aims to finalize the inter-agency strategic initiatives, including critical outputs, activities, milestones, accountabilities and timeframe that will be codified in the Social Protection (SP) Plan 2023-2028.

The SP Plan provides a framework to build stronger social protection measures to reduce poverty, inequality and vulnerability of poor and marginalized Filipinos.

It has three strategic foci, which include: the implementation of the SP floor; development of adaptive and shock responsive SP programs: and, the rationalization, modernization, and integration of the SP system.

In his opening message, DSWD Undersecretary for Policy and Plans Atty. Adonis Sulit mentioned the importance of the national strategic social protection planning.

“Our aim is to finalize the strategies which will define our direction and priorities for the next few years. These strategies will be based on evidence and analysis, and will take into consideration the diverging trends and challenges in the social protection landscape. This plan is crucial in our efforts to build a more resilient and inclusive society, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic which has exposed the vulnerabilities and gaps in our social protection system,” Undersecretary Sulit said.

“We do recognize that social protection is a shared responsibility. We need the active involvement and support of all stakeholders to achieve our goals,” the DSWD Undersecretary added.

Among the attendees of the event were the participants from member agencies of the Social Development Committee-Subcommittee on Social Protection (SDC-SCSP) such as the Department of Health (DOH), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Commission on Population (POPCOM), National Nutrition Council (NNC), Commission on Higher Education (CHED),  National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), Climate Change Commission (CCC), and the Social Watch Philippines.

Also present in the strategic planning activity are  representatives from development partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO), Australian Embassy, Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The member -agencies of the SDC-SCSP were requested to identify their commitments and contributions to the agreed strategies and priorities that will be included in the SP Plan for the next five years.

The activity was mainly supported by ADB through TA 9079 and co-funded by DFAT through UNICEF.

The DSWD hopes that more adaptive and shock responsive programs and services will be formulated through inter-agency collaboration in order to significantly reduce hunger and poverty in the country. #