THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) yesterday pushed for the institutionalization of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), a one-time livelihood program for poor families, to ensure its regular budget allocation and to eventually cover more beneficiaries in the future.
DSWD Assistant Secretary for Specialized Programs under Operations Group Florentino Loyola Jr., in a media forum, said that the SLP program has benefited around 3.3 million households since its implementation in 2011, with only around 200,000 to 300,000 poor families being assisted a year.
Loyola said majority of the beneficiaries are families who have “graduated” from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipinong Program (4Ps), or around 2.17 million, while 1.028 million are non-4Ps who are provided a one-time seed fund to start their businesses.
Loyola said institutionalizing the SLP would ensure that the social protection and livelihood program would be “enshrined in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).”
He said it would also provide long-term stability to the program and its clients and ensure the availability of resources to stimulate microenterprise development and employment facilitation for 4Ps, Magna Carta of the Poor, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups served by DSWD.
Last year, the DSWD improved the SLP and instead of just giving it as a one-time assistance, they made it into a five-year program where they will monitor if the beneficiaries have been successful.
The agency also provides incentives to those who would succeed, such as up to P100,000 one-time incentive on the second year, and up to P250,000 additional incentive on the fifth year.
The initial one-time incentive is P15,000 for a personal business, and P20,000 for groups of about 10 to 30 people.
The primary candidates are those who have graduated from the 4Ps to ensure that they do not return to poverty.
