DUMAGUETE CITY, (PNA) -– The newly-elected representative of stakeholders to the Millenium Challenge Account Philippines (MCA-P) Board of Trustees hails from Negros Oriental and is a volunteer of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan–Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) Project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the Central Visayas.
Alfredo Lera Jr., a Kalahi-CIDSS Community Volunteer from Barangay Tabon of the municipality of Vallehermoso, Negros Oriental was chosen during a recent gathering of about 48 stakeholders, community leaders, members of the non-government, civil society organizations and private sectors coming from all over the country recently gathered together to elect their representative to the MCA-P Board, said Simeon Remata III, DSWD-7 Regional Social Marketing Officer in a media release.
According to Remata, MCA-P is the office that handles the funds of the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the funding agency that is created by the US congress which is currently funding the implementation of the (Kalahi-CIDSS) Project
As a representative of the stakeholders, Lera is now a voting-member of the MCA-P Board of Trustees which is composed by Secretary Cesar Purisima of the Department of Finance, Secretary Florencio Abad of the Department of Budget and Management, Secretary Dinky Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Secretary Rogelio Singson of the Department of Public Works and Highways, and Mathew Bohn MCC Resident Country Director to name a few.
DSWD Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat congratulated the accomplishment of the Negrense during the recent MCC visit in Negros Oriental.
“We are honored and very happy that the stakeholders have chosen someone from the region to represent their voice. We have heard a great deal about Mr. Lera as a Community Volunteer in Barangay Tabon and we wish that he will continue to inspire other community volunteers to empower themselves and drive the development process in their communities”, she said.
Lera is also assigned as the head of the Committee on Audit. He monitors the Kalahi-CIDSS areas in Negros Oriental and other MCC-funded project areas in the country and provides inputs to the body using the beneficiary’s lense to stregnthen the feedback mechanism and overall ehance the project implementation activities.
The Community-Driven Development (CDD) technology of Kalahi-CIDSS has been proven to be effective in addressing community needs and empowering communities that the present administration scaled it up into a national program called the National Community-Driven Development Program (NCDDP) which will be launched nationwide soon.
In Central Visayas, NCDDP will be covering one-hundred four (104) poor municipalities scattered in the island provinces of Cebu (39), Bohol (44), Negros Oriental (16), and Siquijor (5) with poverty incidence rates greater than 26.5 percent based on the 2009 small areas estimates (SAE) data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), said Remata.