DSWD
General Functions:
● The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is mandated by law to
develop, administer and implement comprehensive social welfare programs designed to
uplift the living conditions and empower the disadvantaged children, youth, women, older
persons, person with disabilities, families in crisis or at-risk and communities needing
assistance.
● With the passage of Local Government Code in 1991, the delivery of most basic services
was devolved to the Local Government Units. On the other hand, the department is
mandated to do policy and program development, standard setting, technical assistance
and monitoring functions to Local Government Units (LGUs) and Non-Government
Organizations (NGOs) to effectively implement Social Welfare and Development (SWD)
programs in target areas as reflected at EO 15 s. 1998 “Redirecting the Functions and
Operations of the DSWD”.
● Through authorizing SWD agencies to implement SWD program and deliver service,
DSWD extends its mandate and share responsibility and potential liability for all clients
that these agencies serve
● Therefore, DSWD has the responsibility to oversee the implementation of SWD
programs and services at all levels being the primary agency on SWD. It is for this
purpose that these guidelines on program supervision is issued so that SWD agencies
are guided by DSWD, including its own facilities to efficiently and effectively manage
cases of disadvantaged individuals, groups, families and communities and learn from
and develop skills in the process.
To fulfill its responsibilities, the DSWD shall serve as:
a) the lead line agency and authority in formulating national social welfare and development
policies, plans, programs, and statistics, especially as these relate to family development and
poverty groups;
b) the monitor and evaluator of the implementation of policies, plans and programs on family
welfare and development and poverty alleviation efforts in the social welfare and development
sector;
c) administrator of special social services and social development funds intended to assist
disadvantaged individuals, families and communities;
d) innovator of new strategies on social services and development in identified social
laboratories and learning centers;
e) enabler of LGUs, NGOs, other NGAs, POs and other members of civil society in
implementing social welfare and development programs through technical assistance; and
f) an advocate for social welfare and development concerns, to include disadvantaged families,
children/youth, women, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and similarly situated
individuals.
To accomplish its mandate and roles, the Department shall:
a) Formulate, develop and promote policies, plans, programs and projects in the field of
social welfare and development;
b) Undertake researches and studies and adopt policies to ensure the effective
implementation of public and private social welfare and development programs;
c) Initiate, promote and maintain bilateral and multilateral linkages for technical
cooperation, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs;
d) Deputize law enforcement agencies in the implementation of laws, rules and
regulations for the protection of the rights of the exploited, abused and disadvantaged;
e) Regulate fund drives, public solicitations and donations for charitable or welfare
purposes;
f) Set standards, accredit and provide consultative services to institutions, organizations
and persons engaged in social welfare activities and monitor performance on institutions,
organizations and person engaged in social welfare activities, both public and private;
g) Exercise technical supervision over social workers in other government settings or
agencies like courts, hospitals, schools and housing projects;
h) Promote, coordinate, establish, operate and maintain support institutional facilities,
projects and services and social laboratories and learning centers for the benefit of its
constituents and in furtherance of social welfare and development;
i) Promote, build and strengthen people’s organizations for a self-directing (welfare and
development) system at the grassroots level;
j) Develop and implement training standards and programs for personnel, social workers
and students and third-country participants for career and staff development;
k) Advocate for and disseminate information on social development issues;
l) Provide augmentation funding and resources to partners in social welfare and
development; and
m) Perform such other functions as may be provided by law.
Target Beneficiaries:
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is mandated by law to
develop, administer and implement comprehensive social welfare programs designed to uplift
the living conditions and empower the disadvantaged children, youth, women, older
persons, persons with disabilities, families in crisis or at-risk and communities needing
assistance.
Programs
1. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program
● Pantawid Pamilya is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that provides cash
grants to poor households with children 0‐14 years old and/or pregnant mothers,
provided that they comply with the conditions set by the program.
● It is a social assistance program that provides conditional cash assistance to the poor to
alleviate their immediate needs(short term poverty alleviation); and
● It is a social development program that aims to break the intergenerational poverty cycle
through investments in human capital.
● Child rights protection
Who are qualified for Pantawid Pamilya?
● A household may qualify for Pantawid Pamilya as a beneficiary if it satisfies two(2)
criteria: At the time of the assessment,the household must(1) be classified as poor,
based on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS‐PR)
and (2) have a pregnant woman and/or children 0‐14 years old as household
member(s).Thus, being included in the NHTS‐PR. list of poor households does not
automatically qualify a household for Pantawid Pamilya. In the same manner, not all
households with a pregnant woman or young children as members will qualify for the
program.
● During community assemblies, LGU representatives help in validating the list of
household beneficiaries.
What are the conditions of the Pantawid Pamilya?
● Health and nutrition conditions require periodic checkups,growth monitoring,and
vaccinations for children 0‐5years of age;twice a year intake of de‐worming pills for
children 6‐14 years old,pre and post‐natal care for pregnant women and attendance of
parents in family development sessions where responsible parenthood is discussed.
● Education conditions include day‐care and school enrollment, attendance equivalent to
85 percent of school days for children 3–14 years old.
● Both conditions are meant to improve the poor household’s economic prospects to help
them move out of poverty.
2. KALAHI-CIDSS (Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated
Delivery of Social Services)
What is KALAHI-CIDSS?
● The Kapit‐Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan ‐ Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social
Services or Kalahi‐ CIDSS program is a poverty alleviation program of the DSWD that
uses a community‐driven development (CDD) approach.The program provides
resources to poor rural municipalities for public goods investment and promote people’s
participation in governance.
● Kalahi‐CIDSS uses the community-driven development approach to empower local
communities through capacity building and implementation support for participation in
local governance and provision of barangay grants for involvement in the design and
implementation of poverty‐reduction projects.
Why Community‐Driven Development approach?
Community Driven Development (CDD) approaches have been proven to be effective in
empowering communities, especially the poor, to participate in governance to ensure
that their needs are properly addressed and that resources are allocated and used for
these needs. At the same time, CDD supports poor LGUs in local development. Through
participatory processes, LGUs become more effective leaders in addressing the needs
of the community while community members are empowered to participate in
governance and demand social accountability from their leaders.
3. Sustainable Livelihood Program
Why does DSWD implement a livelihood and employment program?
The poor cannot rely on conditional cash transfers alone to prevent them from under‐investing
in health and education. They also need to be productive, whether as entrepreneurs or
employees/workers,which is ultimately their way out of poverty.
What is DSWD’s livelihood and employment program?
● The Sustainable Livelihood Program is a community‐based program which provides
capacity building to improve the program participants’ socio‐economic status. First, it
supports microenterprises to become organizationally and economically viable. Second,
it links participants to employment opportunities.
The specific objectives of the program are:
● To facilitate opportunities for the development and management of resource based,
culturally sensitive,market driven and economically viable micro-enterprises.
● To prepare the program participants for accessing locally available jobs that are
appropriate to their skills and capacities.
● To sustain and expand the socio-economic benefits gained by the Pantawid Pamilya
beneficiaries even beyond the five‐year intervention of the Conditional Cash
Transfer(CCT) intervention through the Sustainable Livelihood Program andGuaranteed
Employment Tracks.
● To link poor families included in the NHTS‐PR list, prioritizing the Pantawid Pamilya
beneficiaries to the support services and programs provided by the partner NGAs,
NGOs, CSOs and Private Sector for entrepreneurial advancement and formal
employment.
● To link poor families included in the NHTS‐PR list, prioritizing the Pantawid Pamilya
beneficiaries to micro‐insurance providers for security measures brought by external
shocks.
● To continuously build, expand and update the portfolio of public and private sector
partners for the job generation needs under the Guaranteed Employment Track.
● To promote a comprehensive family-based approach and community participation.
4. Listahanan (National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction)
What is the NHTSPR?
An information management system that identifies who and where the poor households
are in the region and in the whole Philippines. A system for generating and establishing
a socio-economic database of poor households.
Why do we need the National Household Targeting System?
● Ensure that the limited resources of the different social protection agencies reach
the poorest of the poor.
● Improve coordination among social protection agencies
● Unify criteria for the selection of the poorest population
Who will benefit from the NHTS-PR?
Other than the actual poor themselves, the database on poor households will benefit
government and other stakeholders engaged in the delivery of social protection
programs and projects by having focused targeting. The stakeholders, as data-users
can access and utilize data generated from NHTS-PR.
What are the objectives of NHTS-PR?
● To formulate and unify criteria for the identification of the poorest population
through scientific means;
● To establish an objective and transparent database of socio-economic variables
of households;
● Use the database in identifying beneficiaries of social protection programs of the
government and other stakeholders; and
● To reduce leakage or inclusion of the non-poor and under-coverage or exclusion
of the poor in availing social protection programs and services.
The NHTS-PR Project Cycle
(The process in identifying who and where the poor are)
In the first nationwide household assessment conducted in 2009 to 2011, the household
targeting process covered two (2) stages: The first stage involved the identification of
enumeration strategy for provinces and municipalities that were covered. The
geographic selection of provinces, municipalities, and cities that were prioritized for
enumeration was guided by the 2006 poverty estimates from the FIES, 2003 SAEs, and
data from the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) on pockets of
poverty.
The second stage involved the interview of households using a two-page Household
Assessment Form (HAF) that was designed to collect data on household composition,
education, housing conditions, and access to basic services. The information collected
from the HAF were used to estimate the per capita income of the household using a
proxy means test (PMT). The estimated incomes were then compared with official
poverty thresholds at the provincial level to identify households living below (poor) or
above (non-poor) those thresholds.
The following figure shows the four-phase Project Cycle that guides the process of
identifying who and where the poor are through the Listahanan.
PHASE 1: Preparatory Phase
Basically involves (a) identification of areas to be assessed and (b) data collection
strategy appropriate for areas identified.
PHASE2: Data Collection and Analysis Phase
Data Collection involves home visits to collect basic information of family members using
the Family Assessment Form (FAF) and Barangay Community/Characteristics (BCC)
Form.
● FAF: The FAF is a four page questionnaire with fifty-two (52) items that collect
pertinent information about the welfare level of a family.
● BCC Form: The Barangay Community Characteristic or BCC Form is a single
-page questionnaire that collects community information such as street patterns
and establishments.
PHASE 3: Validation and Finalization Phase
During validation phase, the initial list of poor families is posted in conspicuous places at
the barangay for the community to scrutinize. Families, who were not visited during the
regular enumeration, are given a chance to appeal and be assessed.
After the validation, the official and final list of poor families is shared with data users to
serve as their basis in selecting beneficiaries of social protection programs.
PHASE 4: Reports Generation Phase
After the list of poor is finalized, the NHTO produces the “profiles of the poor” and
disseminates these to NGAs, LGUs, NGOs, academe and other interest groups.
5. Supplementary Feeding Program
WHAT IS THE SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING PROGRAM?
The Supplementary Feeding Program is the provision of food, in addition to the regular
meals, to currently enrolled day care center children. This is in the form of hot meals, as
recommended by Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), and served during break
time to children in day care center.
WHO ARE THE BENEFICIARIES?
Beneficiaries of the program are three-year-old and four-year-old children not in the
Department of Education pre-school children but in day care.
This program is implemented in response to the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure
Survey (FIES) conducted by the National Statistics Office which should that 11 percent
of Filipino families had income that cannot buy the food needed by family members for
nutritional wel-being and health. These families can be considered as hungry and food
poor. Along with Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, KALAHI-CIDSS or Kapit Bisig
Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services and
Sustainable Livelihood Program, Supplementary Feeding seeks to achieve Millennium
Development Goal No. 1, which is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
WHAT ARE ITS OBJECTIVES?
The feeding program aims to provide augmentation support through feeding program for
children in day care centers. Also, it aims to improve knowledge, attitude and practices
of children enrolled in day care centers, parents and caregivers through intensified
nutrition and health education. In the same manner, it targets to improve and sustain the
nutritional status of all target children and refer to health units medical and
nutrition-related problems of children.
6. ASSISTANCE TO INDIVIDUALS/FAMILIES IN CRISIS SITUATION (AICS)
The Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation is a social safety net or a stop-gap
mechanism to support the recovery of individuals and families from unexpected crisis
such as illness or death of a family member, and other crisis situations.
The Crisis Intervention Unit is a special unit operating as an action center to immediately
respond to cases of individuals and families in crisis situations. It provides integrated
services such as immediate rescue/ and protection provision of direct financial and
material assistance, augmentation during disaster and referrals for immediate medical,
legal, psycho-social services.
The CIU also operates through the DSWD Social Welfare and Development Teams in
the different provincial clusters in the region which accepts target clienteles categorized
as either walk-in, rescued and referred clients such as Individuals and families with no
adequate means to provide for medical, transportation, burial and other immediate
needs, Abandoned, abused and exploited adults and children.
ABOUT THE SERVICE
Immediate response to cases of individuals and families in crisis situations through the
provision of financial and material assistance.
Services under the AICS are the following:
1. Financial and Material Assistance: provision of monetary support in the form of
outright cash and/or guarantee letter to augment the resources of the client
whereas material assistance is the provision of non- food items. These are
further classified into:
a. Transportation Assistance: for the purchase or payment of transport (air/
sea/ land) tickets for reasons such as returning to home provinces,
seeking medical interventions in another place, or attending emergency
concerns or critical situations of family members/ relatives.
b. Medical Assistance: help shoulder hospitalization expenses, medications,
other medical treatment or procedures, laboratory procedures and
provision of assistive devices. Professional fees may be covered. Birthing
is not covered unless the patient suffered from complications during
delivery. The client shall not be entitled to in-patient financial assistance
except for instances when the drug or treatment is not available or
covered by PhilHealth.
c. Burial Assistance: to defray funeral and related expenses, and if due to
disaster/ calamity/ critical events or similar circumstances where there are
casualties in the family, the surviving family shall be given an outright
cash in the amount of Php 10, 000 for each casualty.
d. Educational Assistance: given to eligible students to help with school
expenses and/or cost of sending children to school, with priority shall be
given to working students in public high school, vocational/ technological
school, state colleges and universities.
e. Food Assistance: provision to clients in need up to a maximum of ten
days for an amount of at least Php 80 per meal per individual. Eligible
clients include those caring for sick relatives in the hospital, grantee of
transportation assistance, people who use drugs and their families,
rescued trafficked individuals, former rebels, stranded individuals due to
emergency situations (natural calamities) and the like.
f. Cash Assistance for other support services: assistance in the form of
outright cash provided to individuals and families in extremely difficult
circumstances in which need does not fall on the above-mentioned
assistance. Such as sexual abuse cases, HIV poitive people, rescued
individuals or families against abuse and violence, and the alike as
justified by the social worker or through a case consultation/ conference.
2. Psychosocial Intervention: basically involves giving immediate relief to
psychological and emotional issues under specific circumstances
3. Referral for other services: this involves referrals to appropriate agencies for legal
services, psychosocial interventions, and admission to residential facilities for
temporary shelter.
WHO CAN AVAIL OF THE SERVICE
Walk-in-clients and referred clients who are in crisis situation based on assessment of
social worker.
REQUIREMENTS:
Documents for medical assistance:
● Medical abstract/medical certificate
● Prescription, Laboratory Request, Final Hospital Bill
● Brgy. Indigency or Residency of claimant
● Valid id of claimant
● Social Case Study Report from the City/Municipal Social Welfare and
Development Officer (For hospital Bill)
Documents for burial assistance:
● Certified true copy of death certificate
● Funeral Contract
● Indigency or Residency of claimant
● Valid ID of claimant
Document for educational assistance:
● Registration form or Certificate of Enrollment
● Validated School ID of the student
● Indigency or Residency of claimant
● Valid ID of claimant
7. RECOVERY AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAM FOR TRAFFICKED PERSONS
The Department of Social Welfare and Development is mandated to provide social
protection to trafficked persons.
This was implemented to scale up the programs and services and deliver better
interventions to trafficked persons at various levels. To strengthen existing programs for
trafficked victims and their families and support capacity building activities for service
providers.
What Is Human Trafficking?
Trafficking in Persons:
ACTS – refers to the recruitment, obtaining, hiring, providing, offering, transportation,
transfer, maintaining, harbouring or receipt of persons with or without the victims consent
or knowledge, within or across national borders
MEANS – threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception,
abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person or the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person
EXPLOITATIVE PURPOSE – exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of
sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of
organs.
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, adoption or receipt of a child for the
purpose of exploitation or when the adoption is induced by any form of consideration for
exploitative purposes shall also be considered as trafficking in persons even if it does not
involve any of the means set forth.
Objectives:
1. To ensure better program access and intensify the delivery of comprehensive
services for trafficked persons.
2. Undertake capacity-building activities that will enhance the skills of social workers
and other service providers in providing adequate services to trafficked persons.
3. Ensure the delivery of comprehensive recovery and reintegration services for
trafficked persons.
4. Utilize multi-sectoral structures and mechanisms in the delivery of services that
will enhance the psychosocial and economic needs of trafficked persons.
5. Intensify the advocacy campaign against trafficking in persons to increase
people’s awareness on issues of preventing them from becoming potential
victims.
6. Upgrade / repair two (2) shelters each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Beneficiaries:
1. Victim-survivor of trafficking
2. Families of the victim-survivor of trafficking
3. Witnesses of cases of trafficking
4. Communities with incidence of trafficking
SERVICES FOR TRAFFICKED PERSONS
This refers to the direct assistance and services that will be extended to trafficked
persons.
These will include:
● Psychosocial;
● Medical;
● legal and economic services that will better enable the clients to recover from the
traumatic experience.
This also involves the provision of assistance in identifying career opportunities, develop
skills and obtain decent work in order to achieve economic independence and a strong
sense of self-worth.
8. Social Pension Program
The Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens is one of the provisions stated under Section 5
Republic Act 9994 otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010
Objectives:
Social Pension is an additional government assistance in the amount of Five Hundred Pesos
Only (P500.00) monthly stipend to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of
indigent senior citizens, subject to a review every two years by Congress in consultation with the
DSWD.
Who are eligible?
As defined in Section 3 of Republic Act 9994, indigent senior citizens refer to any elderly who is:
a. Frail, sickly or with disability
b. Without pension
c. No permanent source of income, compensation or financial assistance from relatives to
support his/her basic needs.
9. Adoption
A socio-legal process of providing a permanent family to a child whose parents have voluntarily
or involuntarily relinquished parental authority over the child.
Objective:
1. To facilitate the provision of immediate and permanent placement of a child needing an
adoptive family.
WHO CAN AVAIL OF THE SERVICE?
Any Filipino citizen or alien residing in the Philippines who has the following qualifications:
1. Of legal age
2. At least 16 years older than the adoptee, except when the adoptee is the biological
parent or sibling of the adoptee of the spouse of adoptee’s parent
3. Has the capacity to act and assume all the rights and duties incident to the exercise of
parental authority
4. Is of good moral character and has not been convicted of any crime involving moral
turpitude
5. In a position to support, educate and care for his/her legitimate and illegitimate children
and the child to be adopted.
6. Has undergone pre-adoptive services.
10. Unconditional Cash Transfer Program (UCT)
The Unconditional Cash Transfer Program (UCT) is the biggest tax reform mitigation program
under the TRAIN Law. It seeks to provide cash grants to poor households and individuals who
may not benefit from the lower income tax rates but may be adversely affected by rising prices.
UCT provides qualified beneficiaries cash grants computed at Two Hundred Pesos (PhP
200.00) per month for the first year of implementation, and at Three Hundred Pesos (PhP
300.00) per month for each succeeding year of implementation.
The UCT shall be implemented nationwide. The following shall qualify as UCT Beneficiaries:
a. Households in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps Households),
b. Beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program, pursuant to Republic Act No. 7432,
otherwise known as the Senior Citizens Act, as amended by Republic Act Nos. 9257 and
9994 (Social Pension Beneficiaries), and
c. Other poor households in the database of the National Household Targeting System for
Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), provided that they fall within the first to seventh deciles,
ranked according to predicted income (NHTS-PR Households).
How You Can Be An Advocate To Your Patients
A nurse advocate is a nurse who works on behalf of patients to maintain quality of care
and protect patients' rights. They intervene when there is a care concern, and following the
proper channels, work to resolve any patient care issues. Realistically, every nurse is an
advocate. Advocacy means we are preserving human dignity, promoting patient equality, and
providing freedom from suffering. It’s also about ensuring that patients have the right to make
decisions about their own health.
1. Nurses must be confident, skilled in the art of having difficult conversations and
assertiveness and be able to keep an open mind and maintain professionalism. There
will be certain situations that may be hard for us to handle. Basta dli ta mu judge nila
while speaking to them, we have to be empathetic so they can voice their concerns
properly.
2. Nurses refer the patients to appropriate agencies or connect patients to resources.
- We help patients find resources inside or outside the hospital to support their well-being.
Be aware of resources in the community that you can share with the patient such as
financial assistance, transportation, patient or caregiver support networks, or helping
them meet other needs.
- When patients need welfare assistance, we can contact the agency. For example, when
we encounter a trafficked person. Since we also protect patient’s right. We can help
contact agencies. As said ganiha they have RECOVERY AND REINTEGRATION
PROGRAM FOR TRAFFICKED PERSONS. They can provide assistance in the
psychosocial and medical aspect. They will also provide legal and economic services
which will provide better for clients to recover from the traumatic experience. With these,
they can provide assistance in career opportunities, develop skills and obtain decent
work so that they can be independent and strong in the future.
3. Nurses ensure safety.
- Ensure that the patient is safe when being treated in a healthcare facility, and when they
are discharged by communicating with case managers or social workers about the
patient’s need for home health or assistance after discharge, so that it is arranged before
they go home.
- Another example, is when we care for a woman who was been battered or encountered
domestic violence. DSWD has vowed to continuously implement protection programs
and services for victim-survivors of violence against women and children (VAWC). They
can provide child and family counseling, and family support. They can have material and
income support. They can even provide temporary housing assistance and protective
custody until the mother can provide independently.
4. Nurses advocate for legal adoption.
- Nurses advised parents that cannot bear a child to opt for legal adoption to avoid
possible problems in the future. To ensure the safety of the child, they will also ask the
parent’s capability to provide for the child. There are also times that parents cannot
support the child and will leave them anywhere and be prone to exploitation, they can
call dswd.
5. So as Nurses, we educate and provide information. So it is also important that we know
about the agency so proper information can be given.
- Patients may ask us questions anytime so it is better to know..
As nurses we commit ourselves to be a person for others, someone devoted to tackling
the most complicated issues and doing what you can to elevate the most marginalized in our
society.
