CBMS: MAKING THINGS POSSIBLE The Allacapan, Cagayan Experience Brief Profile Allacapan became a regular municipality in 1928. It is a 3rd class municipality located in the northwestern part of Cagayan. Bounded on the North by the Municipality of Aparri and Ballesteros, on the East by the municipality of Lal-lo and Camalaniugan, on the West by the Municipality of Flora and Sta. Marcela, Apayao and on South by the Municipality of Lasam and portion of Lal-lo. It has a land area of 30, 680 hectares distributed unevenly to its 27 barangays. Our beloved town could be reached by land through the National Hi-way. It has 7110 households; Centro West being the most populated and Gagaddangan with the least. Background of CBMS Implementation The 1st round of CBMS implementation commenced last September 2011 covering all the 27 barangays of the municipality. Having no big budget for the project, the MPDC who spearheaded the implementation, tapped the services of the Barangay Nutrition Scholars as enumerators. The MLGU also partnered with the Provincial Government of Cagayan and the DILG to ensure its successful implementation. After the enumeration that took almost 4 months, data were encoded at the MPDC office with 3 JOs hired exclusively for encoding. Existing computer units in the MPDO were upgraded for the data processing. Data were processed and after the processing, CBMS core indicators were filtered and presented to the 27 barangay captains with their Secretaries and BNS for validation. After the validation, the MPDC presented the result to the local Sanggunian in session and luckily, the Sangguniang Bayan had embraced CBMS. During that session the SB encouraged the MPDC to conduct 2nd round to have a comparison with the baseline data gathered during the 1st round. Now, the municipality is currently enumerating for CBMS 2nd round (Tablet Based). The Need to Implement CBMS When the current MPDC assumed into office in the year 2008, there has been no record turned over to him. The planning office, believed to be the repository of information in the LGU have nothing except a draft CLUP. Whenever, there were agencies asking for report, the office took quite long before such report or information be provided since there is no existing database in the planning office. The need to have a tool, system for that matter that could generate data is really a necessity. Planning is never been that realistic and evidence-based programming is just a dream. Planning and budgeting is based on human /stakeholders perception and not based on a primary collected data. Considering the situation, CBMS became a necessity for Allacapan. How CBMS Makes Things Possible for Allacapan 1. Targeting of Beneficiaries for Poverty Reduction Initiatives- Before CBMS implementation, poor families were not specifically identified. Records in the MSWD office is purely dependent on the reports from the barangay. It was found out also that there is a very high percentage of population within the school-age children not attending school. (Data never been expected by the MLGU). Poor families not included in the 4Ps were identified and given assistance through MLGU initiative. Aside from the 4Ps, being implemented in partnership with DSWD, livelihood trainings for the processing of local raw materials were conducted to provide alternative source of income among poor families. 2. The Seal of Disaster Preparedness Document of Allacapan was completed. Data about the most vulnerable groups were properly identified through CBMS. The completion of the document contributed much in garnering a passing score on Disaster Readiness of the municipality which is one of the mandatory component of the SGH for LGUs. 3. Grassroots Participatory Planning & Budgeting -The poverty situation of the municipality was presented to POs and COs. Socio-economic profile is based on the indicators of CBMS. PPAs in the Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan were appropriately identified; responsive to the needs of the constituents. Project Brief of PPAs were submitted on time to the RPRAT since needed data for the profile of target beneficiaries are readily available through CBMS database. Conclusion LGU Data was Updated - Reportorial requirements were easily complied - Sound basis of planning and budgeting - Data that is disaggregated in the community/barangays down to purok level is available. CBMS data utilization can be maximized and customized. STATUS OF CBMS IMPLEMENTATION & FUTURE USE -on-going 2nd round of CBMS census using the CBMS Accelerated Poverty Profiling (APP) - M & E Recommendations 1. Institutionalize CBMS as the official survey tool for population and poverty diagnosis 2. Conduct CBMS Survey Nationwide at a regular interval 3. Consider CBMS Database as the source of official data for planning & budgeting. 4. Utilize CBMS data for policy making and program implementation .