The Department of Social Welfare and Development XII is now preparing for the next cycle of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) assessment this year.

“Part of the preparation is the recruitment of National Household Targeting Unit (NHTU) staff which is expected this month of July”, said DSWD Regional Director Bai Zorahayda Taha.

Vacant positions include Area Coordinators (AC), Encoders and Verifiers, Area Supervisors (AS) and Enumerators (Ens), “As soon as we get hold of the Authority to hire, we will start short listing competitive applicants for the vacant positions” Taha said.

Meanwhile, Jackiya A. Lao, concurrent NHTU Head noted that the short listing will be done with the help of groups such as the academe. “We will make sure that those who will be hired have the initiative to learn and contribute to the success of the project” Lao noted.

Accordingly, applicants included in the short list endorsed by the National Statistics Office XII shall be prioritized for the second round of assessment. “The short listing is being done to ensure that only socially responsible individuals get to take part in selecting the real poor”, Lao explained.

NHTS-PR assessment is conducted every four years to identify who and where the real poor households are in the country. The database will be used by Government Agencies (GA’s), Non- Government Organizations (NGO’s) and Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) in choosing the beneficiaries for their anti-poverty programs and services.

Initial date for the second cycle of assessment is set on September 2013. ### (end)