Design and implementation features of the national household targeting system in the Philippines

This note describes the main design and implementation features of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) of the Philippines. The system consists of a set of uniform and objective criteria to identify the poor. An objective criterion to select those that need help the most was seen by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as the main tool to improve delivery of social services. This was one of the main objectives defined by the social welfare reform, initiated by DSWD, since 2006. The targeting system uses a proxy means test (PMT) methodology to estimate the level of economic welfare of a household based on its socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The system was centrally designed and implemented by DSWD. This note contains five sections. After this introduction, the next section describes the background and rationale behind the design of the NHTS-PR. The third section describes the main design features of NHTS-PR. The fourth section presents the implementation phases. Finally, the fifth section presents the main conclusions and lessons.