With the vision of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) clearly laid out in the DSWD Strategy 2028, the Department has paved the way for the poor, disadvantaged, and vulnerable Filipinos to access social protection programs that are responsive to their needs.

The DSWD Strategy Map provides the Department and its employees with the direction for quality work performance and achieve its goals until the year 2028.

As a tool in establishing quality operations, the Performance Governance System (PGS) helps the Department to focus on public service as set in the strategy map.

The PGS is a holistic and collaborative framework for designing, executing, monitoring, and sustaining roadmaps to reform. Through the PGS, the DSWD was able to come up with its strategic initiatives which would help the Department reach its vision.

Comprehensive response to poor, needy families

Aligned with its strategic initiatives is the continuous implementation of programs and services that are responsive to the needs of poor families. Social welfare programs, particularly the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), are strengthened through social case management, as well as with the assistance of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) which provides livelihood opportunities to 4Ps families and sustain the gains of human capital development brought by the health and education conditionalities.

Through this, 835,000 4Ps households or 4,175,000 lives have been changed, as shown in the Social Welfare and Development Indicators (SWDI) tool administered by the 4Ps.  With survival to subsistence level as the baseline indicator, these families now have improved quality of life.

The DSWD is nearing its target for 2024, with only 16.5% left to reach one million beneficiaries with improved lives.  And as indicated in the DSWD Strategy Map, the Department envisions to reach 4.4M 4Ps beneficiaries with improved lives and sustained development.

Gaurino Family: Experiencing development

One of those with improved lives is the Gaurino family of Bulusan, Sorsogon. The family became a 4Ps beneficiary in 2011.  According to Susan Gaurino, her family was one of the poorest in their area, with no permanent source of income.  Susan tried to help her husband, a fisherman, with the family’s expenses through handicraft-making, but life remained hard for them.  They could hardly provide food for the family and send their children to school.

With Susan and her husband having finished high school and elementary, respectively,  it was their dream to be able to provide education to their children.

Susan said that they are thankful that 4Ps came into their life as their older children were able to graduate and get technical skills education – one in automotive, and the other in agriculture.  They are now gainfully employed and are able to help with the expenses at home.

As for Susan, the Family Development Sessions (FDS) that she regularly attended made her a leader and opened various skills training and livelihood opportunities.  She attended trainings in nail care, hand and foot spa, and handicraft making. All these eventually helped her earn a living to support the needs of her family.

With the improvement in their family’s economic status, Susan believes they will soon graduate from the program and hopes to sustain the financial freedom that they now have.

Pingoy family: Waiving their 4Ps slot

Another family, the Pingoys from Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, also has a warm story to tell about their lives and the impact of 4Ps.

Salvacion Pingoy recalled how their family struggled to cope with their daily needs to survive.  She said her husband, Richard, never gave up and continued to rent the motorbike taxi of their neighbor to earn a living.

Finishing only grade school, Richard never stopped dreaming of having his family’s own business one day.

Because life was hard, the Pingoys were truly grateful for being part of the 4Ps. The program, they said,  helped a lot especially so that education fees in public schools before were not free.

With the help of the program and the family’s determination and the values that they learned from the FDS, the Pingoy couple was able to save a little capital and started a small business, which later on became a successful motor shop in their community.

“My source of inspiration was our status in life. We do not want to die  poor. That is why, we did not stop believing that we can make it through,” Salvacion shared.

As the couple continued to reap success in their motor shop business, they now enjoy a self-sufficient level of well-being.  Thus, they voluntarily waived their 4Ps slot as they can now provide for their family’s needs.

 The 4Ps families are not the only beneficiaries that the DSWD aims to assist towards improved lives.  The Department constantly seeks to enhance its public service delivery so that the sectors it has vowed to serve will experience positive transformation in their lives.

With the PGS in place as the tool in setting quality performance targets, as well as in establishing monitoring systems, the DSWD continues its journey of fulfilling its goal of assisting its clientele towards an improved quality of life by 2028. ###