ILOILO CITY, June 8 (PNA) — Four towns in Iloilo province will be the pilot areas of another government anti-poverty initiative, Salubungan.
Salubungan will be piloted in Passi, Tigbauan, Pototan, and Concepcion towns.
The areas will be the focus of Salubungan, which falls under the Accelerated and Sustainable Anti-Poverty Program (ASAPP) of the Aquino administration.
Salubungan is a public-private partnership model of the ASAPP that aims to tap the skills and resources of the poor in enabling private enterprises to expand their production capacities and markets.
It gathers together regional government agencies, local government units, the private sector, and representatives from select poor cities and municipalities to discuss factors that inhibit local private enterprises from increasing their linkages with the poor.
Then, solutions involving government policies and programs to link the poor with these enterprises are identified. These may include skill enhancement to increase the poor’s employability in businesses with growth potentials.
They may also include trade facilitation and market linkages to enable the poor get to supply the raw materials, inputs and services needed by bigger businesses.
Salubungan aims to significantly and sustainably reduce poverty incidence among the population to 18-20 percent in 2016 by creating income opportunities for and enhancing the employability of the poor.
In a recent Salubungan meeting, DSWD 6 Assistant Regional Director for Operations Rebecca Geamala said the department will provide the needed data to the National Economic and Development Authority, which is the convenor of the program.
NEDA Assistant Director General Rosemarie Edillon explained, “ASAPP is a more geographically-targeted approach to further reduce poverty by generating better quality jobs in selected provinces and municipalities.”
Edillon added, “it aims to create opportunities for quality employment for the poor. It will also deliberately link the poor with the private sector.”(PNA)