The Department of Social Welfare and Development has envisioned in its Performance Governance System to be the world’s standard on the delivery of coordinated social services and social protection for poverty reduction by 2030. Hence, the DSWD FO 02 recently conducted orientation on the Standards for  the Functionality of Local Social Welfare and Development Offices (LSWDOs)   in Santiago City, Isabela and Solano, Nueva Vizcaya to carry out this vision.

This orientation was pursuant to Memorandum Circular No. 16, Series of 2014 which sets the indicators to measure the level of the functionality of the LSWDOs. It took effect on July 8, 2014.

In her message to DSWD FO 02 staff, Assistant Regional Director for Operations Ponciana P. Condoy said,  “the achievement of   the 2030 vision  lies in having a fully functional LSWDOs considering that  the implementation and coordination of local social welfare and development services is lodged at the LGU level through the LSWDOs.”

“We have to work as a team so as to attain that vision by concentrating on our Strategic Goals (SG), particularly SG 3 which focuses on 40 provinces with majority of the municipalities and cities having fully functioning LSWDOs,” she added.

Moreover, DSWD FO 02, headed by Ms. Pasencia T. Ancheta, Policy and Planning Division Chief, gathered officers of Municipal Social Welfare Development Offices and Local Government Units to shed light on the abovementioned Memorandum Circular in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya. She likewise announced the schedule of assessment of LSWDOs which is now on-going until October.

A fully functional LSWDO refers to a local social welfare and development office operating with 100% compliance to the “must” standards set covering the four work areas, namely: administration and organization, program management, case management and physical structure, to deliver quality local social welfare and development programs and services to the target beneficiaries at the locality.

The “must” standards set are the mandatory or minimum compliance to set indicators which should be present in the LSWDOs for them to be recognized as fully functional.

For LSWDOs that were not able to comply with all the “must” indicators shall be classified per score attained as either,  Functional  LSWDO or Partially Functional LSWDO. ### By: GELA FLOR R. PEREZ, Regional Information Officer II