Cebu Technological University

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Effectiveness of Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Government Units of DSWD’s

Sustainable Livelihood Program’s Self Assistance Kaunlaran (SLP SEA-K)

A term paper submitted

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

Subject DPA 706 Governance in Public Affairs

Submitted by
Airesvy N. Tungal
DPA

Submitted to
Dr. Gregorio Pajaron Jr.
Subject Professor
Cebu Technological University
EFFECTIVENESS OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

UNITS OF SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM’S SELF ASSISTANCE

KAUNLARAN (SLP SEA-K)

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the effectiveness of the monitoring and evaluation of the

Sustainable Livelihood Program’s Self-Employment Assistance Kaunlaran (SLP SEA-

K). The SLP SEA-K uses a microcredit strategy to provide credit access to the poor,

improve the ability of the group to borrow, and enable it to engage in income-generating

activities. These projects are being implemented in cities and municipalities and

constant monitoring by the local government unit plays a big role. Microcredit services

are generally believed to have a positive socioeconomic impact; however, the success

of projects may depend largely on the management of the program. The authors found

out that the local government lacks the capacity to handle microcredit programs.

Additionally, they see the one-size-fits-all strategy of the program as a problem because

of the diverse range of beneficiary profiles.

Local government units should be at the forefront to monitor the status of

implemented projects. Economic development strengthens democracy. Formalization

and depersonalization of everyday economic transactions does not result in immediate

gains to participation, especially when formal financial accounts with banking institutions

replace clientelistic banking relationships. The research findings will be helpful to

implementation of social development projects.

INTRODUCTION

The Self-Employment Assistance Kaunlaran (or SEA-K) Program is one of the

social programs of the government that has survived several administrations. It started

as a local program in the early 1970s and became a national program administered by

the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in 1993. The program

adopted a microcredit strategy patterned after the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh that

provides small loans to the poor to encourage entrepreneurial activity and savings

generation. Until 2010, SEA-K remained the core financial assistance program of the

DSWD. In 2011, it was transformed into the Sustainable Livelihood Program or SLP that

provided a two-track livelihood assistance scheme: (1) employment facilitation and (2)

microenterprise development.1 The employment track opened opportunities for

marginalized households to access employment, while the microenterprise track

focused on providing assistance to entrepreneurial activities of the households. The

SEA-K scheme became the track toward microenterprise development.

As a component of the microenterprise track, the SEA-K scheme was redesigned

to capacitate target families with entrepreneurial skills and engage them in

microenterprise activities. The main strategies include skills and entrepreneurial

trainings, participatory livelihood analysis, and market linkages. Although financial

support from the government is less emphasized, beneficiaries can still tap the SEA-K
capital fund for financing but only as a “fund of last resort”. Households with interest to

engage in microenterprise development are first linked to banks, microfinance and other

lending institutions. Only those households considered ineligible for credit in these

formal markets, and those residing in areas not reached by microfinance services, may

have access to the SEA-K fund.

The SLP SEA-K has also identified the beneficiaries of the government’s

conditional cash transfer (CCT) or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program as the

priority families to be served. The scheme is envisioned to facilitate the graduation of

Pantawid families to selfsufficiency, where they can sustain the gains of the CCT

intervention (i.e., continued investment of families on education, health, and productive

assets). Hence, SLP SEA-K is considered as a possible exit strategy for Pantawid

beneficiaries, and the expansion of the program has been proposed. This study

examines whether or not the current design and implementation of SEA-K achieve the

objective for microenterprise development. It also reviews the program’s potential as an

exit strategy for majority of the Pantawid beneficiaries.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) has increasingly become essential in the

management of development programs and the two have become a separate field of

expertise within the development sector. Quite a substantial amount of the annual

budget (two to fifteen percent) of a development program is typically spent on M&E

related activities such as writing proposals, designing programs, developing program

frameworks, compiling action plans, collecting data, writing reports, developing and

maintaining information systems and carrying out evaluation studies. The importance of

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in global efforts toward achieving environmental,

Schleifenbaum, 2006). A part of this importance lies in the fact that over the same

period there has been a heightened awareness of the importance of tracking progress

of development projects and providing relevant feedback through reporting especially at

the Government level.

This policy framework provides the basis for a system of evaluation across the

local government with the purpose of promoting quality evaluations. This provides a

learning opportunity by the Government with regard to what is and is not working hence

the need to take corrective measures. The policy framework seeks to ensure that

credible and objective evidence from evaluation is used in overall management of on-

going programs and general project management to ensure efficiency and improve

performance. It forms the basis of evaluation culture within the civil service.

M&E therefore is a practice that is useful and relevant for the actors in the

development world. This is an assumed basic principle for any M&E system. However,

many mainstream M&E practices tend to be isolated and disconnected from

management and decision-making. Many programs and projects are driven by pre-set

targets and actions, such that M&E is perceived as an additional burden by program

teams and their M&E practice is limited to the fulfilment of the reporting requirements of

donor.

In 1971, the ‘self-employment assistance’ program was introduced as a ‘roll-on’

funding scheme that transferred capital from one client to another. This program was

initially implemented by government bureaus mandated to provide livelihood projects. In

kaunlaran, which means development in English, was then added to the program title.

ganizational and social preparation prior to the provision of microcredit. The goal of the

SEA-K program is to establish self-managed and community-based credit facilities that

provide continued access to credit to poor and marginalized families. A two-level SEA-K

scheme was implemented in 1993: (1) SEA-K Level I provided capital assistance to

microenterprises and (2) SEAK Level II (or SEA-K Kabayan) provided a bigger amount

of capital assistance for microenterprise expansion and financing for basic needs of

families (e.g., shelter construction). The two level credit assistance was also an

opportunity to capacitate the SKAs on credit management through learning-by-doing.

SKAs can roll over these funds among members within a period of two years. In 2011,

the SEA-K program was enhanced and transformed into the SLP, consisting of two

tracks. This two-track strategy aimed to give participants opportunity to improve income

generation through either selfemployment (microenterprise track) or wage employment

(employment facilitation track). The SEA-K microcredit scheme was retained and has

become the track toward microenterprise development.

STATUS OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS

OF SLP IMPLEMENTED PROJECTS

Since these SEA-K projects were being implemented in cities and municipalities,

failure to monitor of these has always been a problem. The local government unit plays

a big role in the monitoring and should be at the fore front. But when the national
government employed monitoring and evaluation officers in the field, issues were being

encountered mainly on the failure of local government unit to monitor the projects.

Social development projects undertaken by the government in conjunction with

its agencies and development partners take unusually long to be complete, they also

use a lot of resources but fail to deliver on results despite systems being in place for

monitoring and evaluation (MAMER, 2010). Many of this programs are characterized by

delays with regard to time, overshoot the proposed budgets and do not cover intended

scope. The end result is a product that is of poor quality that does not meet right

holders’ expectations hence not sustainable. When these projects is implemented in the

community, because of the delays and other issues, beneficiaries express their intent to

waive or back out. Could it be that monitoring and evaluation in local government unit is

not effective in enhancing the performance of social development projects with an aim

of keeping them on track?

CHALLENGES

SLP provides for the conduct of monitoring, reporting, and evaluation of different

activities of the microenterprise track, specifically the management and sustainability of

enterprises funded and the assessment of SKA operations (i.e., their growth and their

capacity to be mainstreamed to institutional markets and formal lending institutions).

Mainstreaming is a major outcome of SLP SEA-K. Established SKAs need to be linked

with formal lending institutions and/or institutional markets, including commercial banks,

nonbank financial institutions, insurance companies, and nongovernmental

increase economic opportunities by: (1) having access to additional and bigger capital

assistance, (2) generating opportunities to build assets, and (3) increasing their

production and expanding their market.

Political indifferences are one of the main challenge in the monitoring of SLP

projects. Once these projects are being given to the people, the main concern of the

beneficiaries are the participation of the politicians be it financially or administratively .

Local government units fail to oversee these problems because they do not see

monitoring of these projects as a priority. The notion that right holder or beneficiaries

have rights and are dynamic shapers of their own development, has led to a shift from

the previous morally instilled cooperation to a rights based approach to development

(Gaventa, J. 2009). Based on this therefore, accountability reflects the relation between

duty bearers, who have to account for their activities and beneficiaries or right holders,

who should claim accountability. Development organizations as service deliverers and

promoters of advocacy have a duty to be accountable to their stakeholders through the

tenets of participatory approach to development (Richard Chambers, 1997).

Participatory development aims to engage the rights holders in the whole project

cycle from the design, implementation to evaluation of the development projects which

target their specific needs. s. The thinking behind participatory development is to involve

the right holders in projects so that projects become more in sync with local practices

and aspirations, while at the same time encouraging greater participation in the

programs by giving the participants a sense of ownership in them hence ultimately

building into sustainability. The benefits of participation are that it draws on the greatest
pool of knowledge about local circumstances and situations, while also including the

right holders in projects in ways that can lead to lasting improvements in their

livelihoods. Involving the poor in the design and implementation of development projects

can be an effective technique for improving project outcomes and realizing overall goal

of the project. However, it is difficult to translate such involvement into mechanisms for

accountability. Development imposed from outside the local setting no matter how

benevolent and well-meaning will ultimately be counterproductive. This has led to a shift

towards participatory development planning. Proponents of the grass root citizen

movement have advocated right holder participation because power gravitates to those

who solve problems.

SUSTAINABILITY PROSPECTS

The DSWD has provided indicators to determine successful SKAs and

enterprises that can be mainstreamed to the formal market. The local government unit

should also be advised to do continuous follow up and monitoring of these projects.

Local livelihood workers should also employed and assigned to monitor projects and

evaluate data needed for further intervention in cases where projects need assistance.

These indicators may be used to assess the potential sustainability of the SKAs. Part of

the outcomes of SEA-K is to graduate SKAs into self-sustaining credit facility

institutions. Thus, the program envisions these SKAs to become recognized legal

organizations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the

Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) in the medium term. The LGU livelihood
worker is expected to attend the SKAs’ weekly meetings and assemblies during the first

year of operations and, at least, twice a month thereafter. However, due to heavy

workload, monitoring is done on a case to case basis. Problematic SKAs and members

are usually prioritized. Moreover, the PDOs cannot monitor the members individually.

Their review is limited to the SKA ledgers and passbooks to check if the SKAs are

paying the right amount at the right time. Monitoring individual projects is mainly based

on the information provided by the SKA officers and LGU counterpart.

CONCLUSION

SLP SEA-K approach also provides a one-size-fits-all strategy for a diverse set

of beneficiaries. This is based on the assumption that microcredit will fuel enterprise

developm ent and growth, where the beneficiaries can be mainstreamed to formal

lenders. However, SEA-K beneficiaries display broad diversity in utilization of capital

fund and on how they organize enterprises. This diversity results in distinct categories of

enterprises or entrepreneurs such as survival or growth enterprises. Thus, the local

government unit should therefore be one of the main actors to monitor the sustainability

of the projects. The SLP SEA-K approach also provides a one-size-fits-all strategy for a

diverse set of beneficiaries. This is based on the assumption that microcredit will fuel

enterprise development and growth, where the beneficiaries can be mainstreamed to

formal lenders. However, SEA-K beneficiaries display broad diversity in utilization of

capital fund and on how they organize enterprises. This diversity results in distinct

categories of enterprises or entrepreneurs such as survival or growth enterprises. To

poor is simply not justified by the data. Moreover, running a business has high failure

rates that the poor cannot afford. Also, the local government unit will do a big leap in

helping individuals.

REFERENCES

 www.pids.gov.ph
 EFFECTIVENESS OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION IN ENHANCING
PERFORMANCE OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN BUSIA
COUNTY-A SURVEY OF GOVERNMENT SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS (Mulama, Kevin; Liguyani, Peter; Musiega, Douglas. International
Journal of Management Research and Reviews; Meerut Vol. 4, Iss. 8, (Aug
2014): 773-796.)
 Economic Modernization and the Disruption on Patronage Politics: Experimental
Evidence from the Philippines (Hite, Nancy Felicitas. Yale University,
ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2012. 3525319).
 Local Government Units' Environmental Governance for Economic Sustainability
De los Santos, Maria Cristina M. (International Conference on Management,
Leadership & Governance; Kidmore End : 68-75. Kidmore End: Academic
Conferences International Limited).(Apr 2016)