About Project EMPOWERinG (Enhanced Monitoring System on POverty Watch for a more Effective and Responsive Approach in Governance)
Project Overview
The Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) among others is 
a tool introduced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to local government units (LGU) to help diagnose the extent and causes of poverty in an area. This will enable the formulation and assessment on impacts of policies and programs of the LGU and identify the target beneficiaries. In Misamis Oriental, which registered a 28.5% poverty incidence, 14 municipalities have started to adopt and implement CBMS to attain poverty reduction. However, those municipalities cannot fully utilize the system due to lack of capacity and resources to validate and process the data.
Project EMPOWERinG, a Public Private Partnership (PPP) took the initiative to help the selected municipalities in Misamis Oriental and achieve economic growth. This is through capacity building for the LGUs to acquire the necessary technical skills and know-how in utilizing development tools. The project addresses the gaps in fully utilizing development tools like CBMS especially in integrating the data with geographic information system (GIS) mapping. CBMS-GIS integration will fully help the municipalities identify their improvement areas which is one step in poverty alleviation.
The target activities of the PPP is made possible through the joint efforts and expertise of the German funding agency DEG, partners from the Philippines – Steag State Power, Inc., CBMS Network, Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG), Xavier University (XU), Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), the Provincial Planning Office of Misamis Oriental and the Municipal Planning and Development Office of the selected LGUs – Medina, El Salvador, Opol, Tagoloan, Jasaan and Laguindingan.
Beneficiary LGUs: