Republic of the Philippines 
House of Representatives 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. 3403 
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE PM VARGAS 
AN ACT 
INSTITUTIONALIZING THE COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT 
APPROACH AS A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH AND 
SOCIAL PROTECTION AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
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).  
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 
programs, projects, and activities (PPAs).  
In the context of devolution, CDD institutionalization reinforces the 
provisions of the Local Government Code. Currently, community participation 
August 7, 2025
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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 have 
a positive relationship with poverty alleviation and inclusive and sustainable 
growth. Through the CDD approach, KALAHI-CIDSS 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.  
In the short term, the CDD approach provides short-term employment 
opportunities to its target communities by prioritizing community members in 
employment opportunities that arise from the implementation of community 
subprojects. As of June 15, 2022, KALAHI-CIDSS, through the CDD approach, 
has completed 35,955 subprojects which has yielded tangible benefits to 
11,195,222 poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and disadvantaged households. 
With CDD, the agency has generated 1,590,412 instances of paid labor, 36% 
of which employed women while the remaining 64% were occupied by men.  
This bill seeks to institutionalize the CDD approach as a national 
strategy for inclusive growth and social protection. By institutionalizing the 
CDD approach to ensure inclusive growth and social protection, the 
government can build on and perpetuate the gains of CDD as implemented by 
KALAHI-CIDSS.  
In view of the foregoing, the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly 
sought.  
REP. PM VARGAS   
Fifth District, Quezon City 


Republic of the Philippines 
House of Representatives 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
TWENTIETH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. 3403 
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE PM VARGAS 
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 “Community-
Driven Development (CDD) Approach Institutionalization Act.” 
SECTION 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 them with 
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, by law, facilitate the 
establishment of adequate consultation mechanisms. 
Towards 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 CDD approach in implementing local programs, projects, 
and activities. 
SECTION 3.  Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act: 


(a) 
Basic sectors refer to the disadvantaged sectors of Philippine society 
including farmer-peasants, fisherfolk, workers in the formal sector 
including 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; 
 
(b) 
Community-based programs refer to programs, activities, or projects 
that 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 their assets and attributes, partners, networks, and 
voice.  
 
SECTION 4.  Elements of CDD. – The CDD 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 
its 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; and  
 


(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.  
 
(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 CDD 
approach 
  
SECTION 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 CDD approach in their community-based programs to 
promote participation and empowerment of poor, vulnerable, disadvantaged, 
and marginalized groups within communities. 
 
SECTION 6.  Operationalization of the CDD Approach. – NGAs and LGUs 
in community-based programs shall be responsible for: 
(a) 
Developing policies for enhancing participatory governance 
practices, tapping community organizations particularly the basic 
sectors, and responding to community needs;  
 
(b) 
Providing information on government intervention, technical 
assistance 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 (CSOs) as 
partners in organizing and strengthening communities, and 
implementing community-based programs, activities, and projects 
(PAPs); and 
 
(g) 
Creating a Community-Driven Development team that shall ensure 
full operationalization of the CDD approach within their respective 
agencies and LGUs.  
 


SECTION 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, NGOs, 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. 
 
SECTION 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. 
  
SECTION 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); and 
 
(d) 
Presidents of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) and 
League of Municipalities of the Philippines. 
 


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 CDD non-government organizations (NGOs) which 
shall constitute not less than one-fourth (¼) 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 CDD 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, NEDA, DBM, DA, DAR, DENR, DOH, 
DepEd, DHSUD, and from accredited NGOs, as members.   
 
SECTION 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 CDD approach; 
 
(b) 
Formulate and issue relevant policies to ensure the effective and 
efficient implementation of CDD and its principles;  
 
(c) 
Formulate an incentives program to enhance and promote the use 
of the CDD approach by NGAs and LGUs;  
 
(d) 
Formulate 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. 
 
SECTION 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, through a dedicated office, shall integrate in their 
regular operations the following functions: 


 
1) Ensure effective compliance and implementation of this Act; 
2) 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; 
3) Institutionalize capability building and learning on CDD for 
NGAs, CSOs, private sector institutions, and other partners; 
4) Lead the research, development, and implementation of new and 
improved CDD mechanisms to adapt to the ever-changing needs 
of communities; 
5) Accredit CSOs to become partners in the use of CDD approach; 
and 
6) Provide technical assistance and resource augmentation 
including but not limited to ensuring integration of municipal 
development plans into provincial development plans. 
 
(b) 
DILG as a key partner in capability 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. 
  
SECTION 12.  Regular Monitoring and Reporting. – The DSWD, through 
the 
Advisory 
Council, 
shall 
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 public's 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 CDD.  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.  


  
SECTION 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 from 
each House, 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. 
 
SECTION 14. Appropriations. – The amount needed for the implementation 
of this Act shall be charged to the current year’s appropriations of the 
Department of Social Welfare and Development. Thereafter, such amount as 
may be necessary for the continued implementation of this Act shall be 
included in the annual General Appropriations Act.  
  
SECTION 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. 
 
SECTION 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. 
 
SECTION 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. 
  
SECTION 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,