Prospective members of the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Data Management Team (DMT) met at the Office of the City Planning and Development Coordinator, Monday, September 10, 2018, to discuss the objectives, scope of work and target outputs of the Team.

Dr. Grace J. Reobollos of VERDE Zamboanga, led the initial meeting highlighting the need to develop a tool to help stakeholders and end-users digest the CBMS data for planning, programming and program evaluation. Also present were CDC Member and ZABIDA Technical Director, Esperancita E. Hupida, and Ayala Technical-Vocational School Administrator, Christian E. Olamisan, who both advocated for the implementation of CBMS in Zamboanga City in 2017.

The meeting was called to jumpstart creation of the CBMS DMT and determine issues and concerns relating to the dissemination, use and analysis of the CBMS Data. It was reached that an analysis tool will be created to help the barangays, LGU departments and other stakeholders understand the poverty situation in their respective areas and prioritize sectors that need intervention based from the data collected by the CBMS.

The City Development Council (CDC), in its regular assembly last May 23, 2018 at the Centro Latino, Paseo Del Mar, resolved to create a CBMS Data Management Team to maximize the use of the data for evidence-based planning, targeted programming and program evaluation. The CBMS DMT will look into development of tools to assist Barangays prioritize needs and allocate resources according to the most urgent and immediate issues in their localities. The CBMS DMT will also look into the protection of personal information in the CBMS Data and shall assist the City Government in pursuance of the provisions of the Data Privacy Act.

CBMS is a census implemented in 2017 that covers all the 98 barangays of the city. It was funded by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) through Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) with counterparts from the City Government and each of the 98 Barangays. It generated comprehensive local data with extensive indicators ranging from poverty to disaster risk reduction. It aims to fill-in the data gap to make development exercises and interventions evidenced-based, targeted and more reflective of the actual situation.-JCBL, RESD