DSWD-7: 45% of Women in CV are Poor

According to ‘Listahanan’ or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), of the 3.5 million assessed individual in Central Visayas, 49% or 1.7 million of them are women.

In the 2009 assessment conducted by DSWD, Listahanan showed that the women sector ages 18-59 constitutes 390,368 or 45% of the poor households in Central Visayas.

Despite being a major contributor in the development of the country, most women in the region still doesn’t have decent means to earn a living or engage in livelihood activities.

In the countryside, women partners with their husband as they work as farmers, forestry workers and as fisherwomen. Others performed menial jobs such as laborers, unskilled workers and shop or market sales workers.

From the 45% poor women ages 18-59, 2.3% or 8,852 of them were not able to finish or complete education in any grade levels, 51.9% or 202,557 were able to finish primary schools while 43.2% or 168,466 just finished high school or secondary level.

DSWD-7 urged legislators of Local Government Units (LGUs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to use the available data to formulate appropriate social protection programs and services that specifically addresses the welfare of this sector.

This database of poor household shows various poverty thresholds like the composition of poor households, the household members’ highest educational attainment and occupation, features of the housing structure and access to basic services or facilities like water, electricity, and sanitary toilet, households’ ownership of assets, tenure status of housing among others.

Currently, all 132 towns and cities in Central Visayas forged a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with DSWD and were provided with data sets.

Other than government agencies, NGOs like the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), Outreach Program on Trainings, Integral Organizing and Networking for Solidarity Inc. (OPTIONS), Alay Lakad Foundation, Euphrasia Parent Association Inc., Tzu Chi Foundation and Little Bamboo Foundation have also signed a pact with the office for its use.

Every four years the data collected is updated. There will be a second round of household assessment in the second quarter of this year.