Conducting sustainability evaluations for government projects is essential for ensuring program accountability, long-term benefits, community ownership, and continuous improvement—all of which are key elements of successful community-driven development.

This time, the usual practice of the KALAHI-CIDSS program to conduct sustainability evaluations for all of its subprojects has been extended to another Department of Social Welfare and Development initiative, the “LAWA AT BINHI” or the Local Adaptation to Water Access and Breaking Insufficiency through Nutrition Harvest projects, supported through the Cash for Work and Cash for Training programs.

The communities in Lazi, Siquijor and Olanggo Island in Cebu, welcomed the first-ever Sustainable Evaluation for its six LAWA AT BINHI projects.

This pilot sustainable evaluation, held from May 14-16, 2025, included projects such as five communal gardens and one tilapia fish pond project under the LAWA AT BINHI initiative, supported by various barangays in the municipality of Lazi.

They are located in barangays Cangomantong, Nagerong, Poo, Gabayan, Campalanas, and Lower Cabangcalan.

The pilot evaluation utilized the Sustainability Evaluation Tool (SET) developed under the KALAHI-CIDSS program, assessing the sustainability of the projects based on sub-project utilization, technical and physical aspects, organizational management, institutional arrangements, and capacity building.

Christine Escolano, Disaster Response and Rehabilitation section head, emphasized the need for such an assessment.

“Kinahanglan pod g’yud na malantawan nato ang sustainability sa atong mga projects. Tan-awon karon ug bisitahon namo ang mga proyekto sa mga sites sa Lazi. We are using the tool of the KALAHI kay naa man ni sila’y system for evaluation (We also really need to assess the sustainability of our projects. We will now review and visit the projects at the Lazi sites. We are using the KALAHI tool because they have a system for evaluation),” she said.

As part of the evaluation, a site visit and a focus group discussion were conducted and attended by representatives from each group managing the LAWA AT BINHI projects.

Observations

Initial findings from the FGD revealed that the beneficiary groups need support in financial management basics and in developing an annual operations and maintenance (O&M) plan.

Additionally, the groups managing the LAWA at BINHI projects lack organizational bylaws, and the Technical Working Group assigned to monitor and assist them was not fully aware of its critical responsibilities.

The agency discovered that the project’s operation and maintenance have no allocated funds.

Despite these gaps, the results also highlighted best practices demonstrated by the LAWA at BINHI beneficiaries. The beneficiaries reported that the projects became their avenue to become self-sustainable and earn a little for their day-to-day life. It also helped foster friendship and community among them.

Engr. Helen Ybañez, OIC Deputy Regional Program Manager of KALAHI-CIDSS emphasized during the feedback session with the Department of Agriculture provincial staff—following the FGD sessions—the importance of sustaining government-funded assessment programs due to their significant public cost.

“I hope this can be sustained — these assessments — because again, the government is spending money for the people. There should still be a return on that investment,” she said in a mix of Cebuano and English.

Ybañez said all of the results will be packaged and will be relayed to the local government unit for the creation of their action plan. ###