Some Notes on PDMS

In a week's time, we will launch a new website, www.pdmsplus.com. It will provide information on the Poverty Database Monitoring System and how it can be used to complement other planning tools, such as ecoBUDGET; how LGUs and CSO's can have access to PDMS; and updates on how the poverty database is used as pro-poor targeting tool by various projects.

While looking for articles to post, I found a memorandum-report which I sent to the BLDF staff some years  back, on 29 June 2009. I will post excerpts from this Memorandum to provide some background notes on PDMS during the early years. In 2009, the PDMS software was on its 6th year, as developed by the Senior IT Consultant, Tony Irving.

Here are the excerpts:

1.3       Just for the record because you know this yourselves, I recognize the valuable contributions done by the following institutions, agencies and individuals in translating a concept into a feasible pro-poor targeting and project monitoring tool which can potentially benefit a lot more LGUs and NGOs and their clientele among the world’s poor:

1.3.1    The late Atty. Juanito G. Cambangay who organized the database task force at PPDO in 2003 to find ways to establish a common platform to bring information from all existing databases and make it available to all users for planning and monitoring;

1.3.2    Rogelio Alegado (Note: Roger passed away more than a year ago), a member of the task force, who demonstrated the ranking of municipalities in Bohol using four indicators which was a pioneering effort to use available information manually processed to reflect poverty ranking;

1.3.3    Anthony Irving, a VSO volunteer recruited to assist the PPDO database task force, and who later became the programmer for the LPRAP software in 2004 and IT consultant to BLDF for a British-assisted project and is credited with technical enhancements leading to the current PDMS version 2.3;

1.3.4    Arnold Seloterio, BLDF Database Administrator, who served as counterpart staff to the IT Consultant as part of a capacity-building process for PDMS;

1.3.5    Mayors, Sandigang Bayan, and MPDCs of the initial 17 municipalities which agreed to fund the initial household poverty surveys in 2004 to 2005 when the project encountered problems in securing AusAID assistance;

1.3.6    British Embassy Manila c/o Joseph Imperial which funded a one-year project which enabled BLDF through IT Consultant Tony Irving to improve further the features of the software,  and through the Holy Name University Center for Local Governance to revise and field-test the survey methodology and questionnaires used;

1.3.7    Ms. Josephine Cemine and Maria Paz Espiritu of HNU who reviewed the survey questionnaire and methodology used and revised after pilot-testing recommended changes;

1.3.8    AusAID PACAP c/o Ms. May Blanco which promotes the use of PDMS in projects that it funds in Bohol;

1.3.9    Ms. Tonette Zablan and the CVSCAFT Research Department which conducted researches on how PDMS has been used by LGUs and NGOs, respectively;

1.3.10  Ms. Erin Hoffman, a graduate student from Boston College, who spent a 7-week internship with BLDF to assist in field-testing the ABCD methodology and survey guidelines to generate household and community information on assets for the PDMS.

1.4       During the last three years, it has been shown that the PDMS survey can be conducted and the survey installed not only by LGUs in Bohol, but other LGUs in the country, i.e. San Fernando City, La Union; Lucban, Quezon; General Santos City; Sultan Kudaratat, etc., and several non-traditional clients, e.g. a Catholic parish in Davao City. Abroad, PDMS was installed in Timor Leste and Solomon Islands.

1.5       As early as 2006, it was felt that a more focused and systematic way to replicate PDMS needs to be in place to make it available to a wide range of users.

1.5.1    Activities towards creating the LPRAP Support Center, later renamed the Poverty Studies Center, were included in the British-funded Strengthening Local Governance Project (SLGP). Although considered an output of the project, the PSC could not take off due to lack of funding to hire additional staff. The PSC was conceived due to the inability of the Provincial Government to provide  systematic support to LGUs and other PDMS clients on technical matters related to PDMS

1.5.2    In September 2007, soon after he retired, the late Atty. Cambangay supported the idea of forming a corporate body, the Institute of Poverty Studies and Responsive Governance, to address this problem of providing systematic support to LGUs and other clients on how to establish, update and use the household poverty database for their respective poverty reduction programs. Unfortunately, he passed away soon after having the SEC papers prepared and recruiting incorporators.

1.5.3    Meanwhile, the team of Tony Irving and Arnold Seloterio served as volunteers to provide technical assistance to LGUs regarding PDMS. While they were given fees for their services, but these were not commensurate to the tasks that they were doing. The LGUs owe them a debt a gratitude for these unselfish efforts on their part.

1.5.3    Part-time efforts to market PDMS abroad suffered setbacks on account of inadequate time to pursue clients. There was the technical issue raised about the link to DevInfo, the software used by the UN System to track the MDGs globally. While this was technically responded to by the IT Consultant, explaining it to prospective clients would require tremendous time and efforts.

1.5.4    While attending an urban planning workshop in Bangkok in 2007, I got wind of a new school of thought about community development. Rather than look at problems alone, this new approach identifies assets as basis for interventions in addressing poverty-related problems. This approach came to be known as ABCD or Asset Based Community Development to distinguish it from the basic needs approach which underlies most development methodologies and tools, including PDMS.

1.5.4.1 Pioneered at the Northwestern University in the US at the start of the decade, a few tools have been developed to date. Efforts have been made to replicate these tools in a few universities in the US and some other countries. In the Philippines, ABCD is relatively unknown except perhaps to some community development professionals.

1.5.4.2 We were able to follow up on an earlier request for an intern from Boston College. The college sent Erin Hoffman who was able to spend the first quarter of 2008 working as a member of the BLDF field team developing the survey methodology for ABCD in Anda and San Isidro. Later, the survey design was field-tested in Pilar.

1.5.4.3 Meanwhile, the IT Consultant, Tony Irving, was able to develop the ABCD component as part of PDMS software. Version 2.3 of PDMS has been installed in several municipalities in Bohol starting in late 2008. Thanks to the efforts of both Tony and Digoy and the LGUs and other clients which have funded conduct of the resurvey based on the revised questionnaire and the installation of the new PDMS version.

1.5.5    Arnold Seloterio, the local counterpart of the IT Consultant, left for Singapore to work. Digoy Ocarol took his place as Database Administrator as counterpart IT Specialist to Tony. BLDF could not give them regular pay. They have to generate income from contracts signed by BLDF with clients. In effect, they are project-based staff.

1.5.6    While I was able to help in promoting PDMS with EU project in Mindanao, my work with Habitat 
             International limited my efforts to do much else. 

Now we enter a new stage for PDMS with its version 3.0 developed with assistance from the EU-funded DReAMS' (Development of Resources for Access to Municipal Services) project. For the features of this new version, kindly visit www.pdmsplus.com. Three young volunteers are helping us put up this website: Daidee Padron, who serves as coordinator; Natnat Hinay, IT Specialist and Webmaster; and Charisse Aya-ay, researcher/artist. 

More exciting days ahead for PDMS and its companion tools.