The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services or Kalahi-CIDDS is one of the poverty alleviation programs of the national government being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The Kalahi-CIDDS uses the community-driven development (CDD) approach, a globally recognized strategy for achieving service delivery, poverty reduction, and good governance outcomes.

The program helps communities in poor municipalities identify challenges around reducing poverty and make informed decisions on a range of locally identified options for development, including how this is made and in what form.

Beneficiaries of the Kalahi-CIDDS are selected based on the list from the National Statistics and Coordination Board (NSCB) of the poorest provinces. Using the Municipal Poverty Mapping, the poorest 25% of municipalities in a province are selected thru a multi-stakeholders provincial forum.

The Kalahi-CIDDS also gives control of resources to address local poverty to communities and
builds the capacity of both state (including local governments) and civil society stakeholders to provide assistance and respond to calls for support from poor communities as they implement development initiatives.

The development objective of Kalahi-CIDSS is to have barangays/communities of targeted municipalities become empowered to achieve improved access to services and to participate in more inclusive local planning, budgeting, and implementation.

Kalahi-CIDSS consolidated the lessons and strategies applied by two national programs that have manifested a high degree of effectiveness in poverty alleviation: the Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) Program of the DSWD of the Government of the Philippines, and the Kecamatan Development Program (KDP) of the Government of Indonesia.

In July 2002, Kalahi-CIDSS pilot-tested the 16-step process of the Community Empowerment Activity Cycle (CEAC), the platform for engaging and capacitating communities through a process of community planning and action.

The site of the pilot testing was Dolores, Quezon, a fifth-class municipality, with PhP1.8 M allocated for the community projects. Six of its barangays participated in the pilot: Cabatang, Manggahan, Putol, Pinagdanlayan, Bulakin 1, and Dagatan.

The pilot test, which ran for six months, provided the experience and model that guided the first batch of municipalities that adopted the CDD approach.

Kalahi-CIDSS was officially approved in 2003 with funding support from the World Bank. It’s scale-up was approved on 18 January 2013 by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board.