TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) 
First Regular Session 
) 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Introduced by Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez and 
Hon. Maximo B. Rodriguez, Jr. 
House Bill No.  1943
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
“Those who have less in life should have more in law.” - President Ramon Magsaysay 
Since 2003, the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach has been 
implemented and championed by the Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan - Comprehensive and 
integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) Program of the Department of Social 
Welfare and Development (DSWD).  
The CDD approach is an internationally recognized empowerment strategy that relies 
on community participation to achieve significant and lasting development. It treats citizens as 
partners in the development process by allowing community members to identify and prioritize 
community issues and problems. Further, CDD involves the community in the implementation, 
management, and operation and maintenance of community-identified solutions to their 
prioritized problems. Through this approach, communities are empowered to take part and 
claim ownership of the government’s community-based programs, projects, and activities 
(PPAs). 
By institutionalizing the CDD approach, we can give the people more power to chart 
their own paths, in line with the true intent and spirit of devolution. CDD institutionalization will 
provide an enabling policy to achieve genuine community empowerment by enhancing 
capacities for community participation especially in poor, vulnerable, disadvantaged, and 
marginalized communities.  
CDD institutionalization also provides a national strategy and mechanism to ensure 
inclusive and sustainable growth by increasing community participation and improving 
government transparency and accountability especially in the implementation of community-
based PPAs.  
In the context of devolution, CDD institutionalization reinforces the provisions of the 
Local Government Code. Currently, community participation in local government is limited to 
representation in local development councils and local special bodies. As a consequence, 
people who are not members of civil society organizations, the academe, or other people’s 
organizations are not given representation.  
The CDD approach remedies this by offering ready and available technologies that, 
through decades of implementation, have proven effective in stirring active and long-lasting 
citizen participation that leads to local development.  
CDD’s principles of participation, transparency, and accountability has a positive 
relationship with poverty alleviation and inclusive and sustainable growth.   
July 15, 2025
5:05 pm


Through the CDD approach, KALAHI-CIDSS and the DSWD improved access to basic 
social services in some of the poorest and most marginalized communities in the country. 
Through community participation, high-quality infrastructures were established within or below 
planned costs. As an added benefit, CDD also improved the capabilities of community 
members and volunteers as their involvement required training on sound financial 
management and procurement.  
By institutionalizing the CDD approach to ensure inclusive growth and social 
protection, the government can build on and perpetuate the gains of CDD in local development 
and nation-building.  
For all the foregoing, the passage of this bill is earnestly sought. 
RUFUS B. RODRIGUEZ 
 MAXIMO B. RODRIGUEZ, JR. 


TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) 
First Regular Session 
) 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Introduced by Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez and 
Hon. Maximo B. Rodriguez, Jr. 
House Bill No.  1943 
AN ACT 
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT APPROACH AS A 
NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH AND SOCIAL PROTECTION, AND 
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled:  
SECTION 1. Short Title. – This Act shall be known as the "Institutionalization of the 
Community-Driven Development (CDD) Approach Act". 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policies. – It is the policy of the State to uplift the standard of living 
and quality of life of the poor and provide sustained opportunities for growth and development. 
The State also recognizes that the right of the people and their organizations to effective and 
reasonable participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making shall 
not be abridged. The State shall facilitate the establishment of adequate consultation 
mechanisms.  
To this end, and in pursuit of good governance, sustainable and inclusive growth, and 
poverty reduction, the State shall enact programs that provide opportunities for community 
members particularly the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized to effectively participate in 
designing, planning, budgeting, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating community 
programs, activities, and projects.  
Further, the State shall provide capability building opportunities for local government 
units, civil society organizations, and communities to ensure the proper use of the ODD 
approach in implementing local programs, projects, and activities.  
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act: Basic sectors refer to the disadvantaged 
sectors of Philippine society  
(a) including farmer-peasants, fisherfolk, workers in the formal sector, migrant workers, 
workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples and cultural communities, women, persons 
with disability, senior citizens, victims of calamities and disasters, youth and students, children, 
urban poor, and members of cooperatives; Community-based programs refer to programs, 
activities, or projects that  
(b) are designed, planned, organized and implemented locally by community members 
or groups to address community-identified plans and needs; 
(c) Community-driven development (CDD) refers to an approach that gives control over 
the development process, decision-making, and resources to community members or groups 
and treats people as assets and partners in the development process while building on their 
institutions and resources; and  


(d) Community empowerment refers to a process of enabling groups to increase 
control over the factors and decisions that shape their lives, including assets and attributes, 
partners, networks, and voice.  
 
SEC. 4. Elements of CDD. – The ODD approach, through the principles of participation, 
transparency, and accountability, has the following elements:  
 
(a) Community focus wherein programs or projects put primacy on a group of people 
living in a particular locality or geographical area such as a barangay, ancestral domain, or 
specific subsets thereof, where interventions are implemented; 
 
(b) Participatory planning wherein the process directly involves the community 
members, leaders, and other stakeholders in diagnosing local problems and designing a 
course of action to resolve those problems, and aims to harmonize views among all of 
participants and provide opportunities for the engagement especially of the marginalized 
groups;  
 
(c) Community control of resources wherein the utilization and management of the 
resources by the community members or groups are based on community- identified plans 
and needs;  
 
(d) Community-managed implementation wherein the execution, monitoring, and 
contract management of community-identified projects are performed by community members 
or groups, with assistance from the local government units (LGUs) and other local partners;  
 
(e) Participatory monitoring and evaluation wherein the process through which 
members at various levels of the community engage in monitoring and evaluating a program 
or policy, share control over the content, the process and the results of the monitoring and 
evaluation activity, and participate in identifying and making corrective actions; and  
 
(f) Operation and Maintenance, and Sustainability wherein the community participates 
in the operation and maintenance of the community-identified project, ensuring sustainability 
not only of the project itself but also of the elements and principles of the ODD approach.  
 
SEC. 5. Institutionalization of the CDD Approach. – National government agencies (NGAs) 
and departments, including their attached agencies, offices, bureaus, other government 
instrumentalities, and LGUs shall adopt the ODD approach in their community-based 
programs to promote participation and empowerment of poor, vulnerable, disadvantaged, and 
marginalized groups within communities.  
 
SEC. 6. Operationalization of the CDD Approach. – NGAs and LGUs in community-based 
programs shall be responsible for: Developing policies for enhancing participatory governance 
practices,  
 
(a) tapping community organizations particularly the basic sectors, and responding to 
community needs; Providing information on government intervention, technical assistance  
 
(b) and support to partner communities for more effective community-driven planning 
and implementation;  
 
(c) Enabling community members to meaningfully participate in the whole process;  
 
(d) Ensuring that community members are prioritized, to the extent possible, in 
receiving employment opportunities brought about by project implementation at the 
communities; 


 
(e) Ensuring that identified community priorities are sufficiently funded;  
 
(f) Ensuring participation of civil society organizations (CSO5) as partners in organizing 
and strengthening communities, and implementing community-based programs, activities, 
and projects, and  
 
(g) Creating a Community-Driven Development team that shall ensure full operational 
ization of the CDD approach within their respective agencies and LGUs.  
 
SEC. 7. Role of Civil Society Organizations and the Academe. – Accredited CSOs and 
academic institutions are encouraged to participate in community activities, specifically by:  
 
(a) Facilitating the community empowerment processes;  
 
(b) Providing continuous capability building and technology transfer to LGUs and 
communities;  
 
(c) Conducting third party monitoring and evaluation of capability building and 
empowerment of LGUs and communities; and  
 
(d) Providing additional funding or collaborating with partners or donors to implement 
capacity building and empowerment of LGUs and communities.  
 
For purposes of this section, the CDD community of practice refers to a community of 
CDD practitioners composed of agencies, Non-Government Organizations (NGO5), academic 
and research institutions, and individuals, that share the commitment and passion for CDD, 
and together strive to advance its practice through regular and purposive interaction.  
 
SEC. 8. Incentives. – The exemplary use of the CDD approach by NGAs and LGUs shall be 
considered as a significant criterion for the recognition given to LGUs such as the Seal of 
Good Local Governance by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and 
other similar awards and recognitions granted by NGAs.  
 
SEC. 9. Advisory Council. – An Advisory Council on CDD Institutionalization is created to 
develop policies relative to the implementation of this Act.  
 
The Advisory Council is composed of the following:  
 
(a) Secretary of Social Welfare and Development, as chairperson;  
 
(b) Secretary of the Interior and Local Government, as co-chairperson; 
 
(c) Representatives from the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), National 
Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Commission on Muslim Filipinos 
(NCMF), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Budget and 
Management (DBM), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), 
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Health (DOH), 
Department of Education (DepEd), and Department of Human Settlements and Urban 
Development (DHSUD);  
 
(d) National Presidents of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LOP), League of 
Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), and Liga ng mga Barangay as members.  
 


The representatives include the secretaries of the agencies as the officially designated 
permanent members and designated undersecretaries as alternate representatives.  
The Advisory Council shall have, as additional members, representatives of reputable 
and accredited ODD NGOs which shall constitute not less than one-fourth (1/4) of the 
members of the Advisory Council, and shall be appointed by the Advisory Council to serve for 
three (3) years from the date of their appointment. Thereafter, the representatives shall be 
selected from and appointed by the ODD community of practice.  
Advisory councils at the regional levels are also established with the regional directors 
of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and DILG, as chairperson and 
co-chairperson, respectively, and representatives from the regional offices of NAPC, NC1P, 
NCMF, NEDA, DBM, DA, DAR, DENR, DOH, DepEd, DHSUD, LMP, LCP, Liga ng mga 
Barangay, and from accredited NGOs, as members.  
 
SEC. 10. Functions of Advisory Council. – The Advisory Council shall have the following 
functions:  
 
(a) Meet regularly to promote coordination among agencies to enhance and promote 
the use of the ODD approach;   
 
(b) Formulate and issue relevant policies to ensure the effective and efficient 
implementation of ODD and its principles;  
 
(c) Implement an incentives program to enhance and promote the use of the ODD 
approach by NGAs and LGUs; 
 
(d) Implement a grievance redress mechanism that accepts and resolves complaints 
pertaining to the implementation of this Act;  
 
(e) Provide the monitoring and assessment report on the implementation of this Act, 
post the same on the DSWD website, and submit an annual report to the Joint Congressional 
Oversight Committee; and  
 
(f) Recommend to the President of the Philippines measures and policies for the 
responsive delivery of commitments under this Act and integration into the general poverty 
reduction strategy of the National Government. 
 
SEC. 11. implementing Agencies. – 
 
(a) DSWD as lead agency. - As lead agency for the implementation of this Act, the DSWD shall 
serve as the central coordinating, capability building, technical assistance, and monitoring 
agency for this Act.  
The DSWD shall, through the Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and 
Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) National Program Management 
Office, integrate in their regular operations the following functions:  
 
i) Ensure effective compliance and implementation of this Act;  
 
ii) Facilitate support to empower community members to participate in the local 
development processes and to strengthen community capabilities to engage LGUs, 
NGAs, and other stakeholders to support community-identified priorities; and  
 
iii) Provide technical assistance and resource augmentation including but not limited 
to ensuring integration of municipal development plans into provincial development 
plans.  
 


The DSWD, through its existing facility referred to as the DSWD Social Welfare and 
Development Learning Institute/DSWD Academy and in coordination with the DSWD KALAHI-
CIDSS National Program Management Office, shall:  
 
i) Lead the research, development, and implementation of new and improved CDD 
mechanisms to adapt to the ever-changing needs of communities:  
 
ii) Institutionalize capability building and learning on CDD for NGAs, CSOs, private 
sector institutions, and other partners; and  
 
iii) Establish the CDD resource pool, a group of experts on CDD principles and 
implementation who possess expertise in CDD to co- develop the certification and 
accreditation programs and other learning and development requirements of the staff, 
partners, and other stakeholders.  
 
Further, the DSWD shall also accredit CSOs to become partners in the use of CDD 
approach. 
 
(b) DILG as a key partner incapability building. -The DILG shall support the capability building 
of LGUs and communities. The DILG shall also ensure the horizontal and vertical alignment 
and linkages of barangay and city or municipal development plans. 
 
(c) NAPC as a key partner in mobilizing the basic sectors. - The NAPC shall be a key partner 
agency in the development of policies and measures to ensure meaningful representation and 
active participation of the basic sectors in their local development.  
 
(d) Support from relevant government agencies. - All relevant bureaus, offices, agencies, and 
instrumentalities of the government shall render the necessary support to the implementation 
of this Act. 
 
The various government agencies identified under this Act and the concerned LGUs 
shall implement this Act using the whole-of-government approach. which provides a logical 
and systematic convergence of efforts of NGAs and LGUs to respond to the identified 
community needs, issues, concerns, and priorities.  
 
SEC. 12. Regular Monitoring and Reporting. – The DSWD shall, through the Advisory 
Council, conduct quarterly monitoring of the implementation of this Act and submit an annual 
report of its status to the Office of the President and to the Joint Congressional Oversight 
Committee. The report must also be regularly posted on a dedicated DSWD website and 
updated for the publics information. A process assessment shall be conducted by DSWD once 
every three years, the results of which shall be utilized to stimulate more program lessons 
exchange, experience sharing, public dialogues, policy discussions and generating inputs for 
program design works on ODD. Mechanisms for promoting third-party monitoring and 
evaluation of this Act by NGOs and CSOs, together with community members and LGUs, shall 
also be established. 
 
SEC. 13. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. – A Joint congressional Oversight 
Committee, hereafter referred to as the Oversight Committee, is hereby constituted. The 
Oversight Committee shall set the overall framework to review the implementation of this Act. 
It shall also determine the inherent weaknesses in the law and recommend the necessary 
remedial legislation or executive measures.  
 
The Oversight Committee is composed of fourteen (14) members, with the 
chairpersons of the Committee on Poverty Alleviation of the House of Representatives, and 
the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development of the Senate as co-


chairpersons; and six (6) members with representation from the minority of both Houses, to 
be designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President, 
respectively. 
The review of the implementation of this Act must include a systematic evaluation of 
its impact, accomplishments of the program, and performance of its implementing agencies. 
The Oversight Committee shall conduct the review every three (3) years reckoned from the 
effectivity of this Act, or whenever deemed necessary by a majority of the members of the 
Oversight Committee.  
 
SEC. 14. Appropriations. – The amount necessary for the initial implementation of this Act 
shall be charged against the current year's appropriations of the Departments and agencies 
concerned. Thereafter, such amount shall be included in the annual General Appropriations 
Act.  
 
SEC. 15. Implementing Rules and Regulations. – Within six (6) months from the effectivity 
of this Act, the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development shall, in coordination with 
national government agency members of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction 
Cluster, with the participation of the league of barangays, cities, municipalities, and provinces, 
and relevant stakeholders, promulgate the rules and regulations necessary for the effective 
implementation of this Act.  
 
SEC. 16. Separability Clause. – If any provision of this Act is declared invalid or 
unconstitutional, the other provisions not affected thereby shall remain valid and subsisting.  
 
SEC. 17. Repealing Clause. – All laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations, and 
other issuances or parts thereof inconsistent with or contrary to the provisions of this Act are 
repealed, amended, or modified accordingly.  
 
SEC. 18. Effectivity. – This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the 
Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.  
 
Approved,