#socialengineers

Socio-cultural Aspects and Dimensions of Social Engineers of Kalahi-CIDSS National Community Driven Development Program

In Kalahi-CIDSS (Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan) National Community Driven Development Program (NCDDP), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) deploys an Area Coordinating Team per Municipality to act as agents of change, by being the technical assistance provider and champions of the CDD (community driven development) approach. The team is composed of an Area Coordinator (the Team Leader), Deputy Area Coordinator (Technical Facilitator who is an Engineer by profession), Municipal Financial Analyst and Community Empowerment Facilitators. All positions play a critical role in ensuring the three development of objective of the program are met; 1) community empowerment, 2) improved local governance, and 3) poverty reduction.

Since the program includes provision of grants to fund community identified sub-projects, the role of an Engineer is indispensable. He/She capacitates the community volunteers in terms of technicalities of an infra project, starting from the drafting of plans, preparation of program of works and detailed cost estimates, up to the supervision and coaching along the sub-project implementation or construction. They do not just supervise the construction, which a typical engineer does, but they “empower” the community by being there throughout the process, teaching the people the “how’s” of construction, the safety measures and considerations along construction, the procedural and honest management of community funds, from community-based procurement, and most of all, by providing moral and emotional support to the community volunteers who work selflessly for the benefit of their community. They influence the community about project implementation in a participatory, transparent and accountable way, and later change people’s perspective about development. With these facts surrounding their work, I call them Social Engineers.

The group of Engineers I interviewed has their own culture, set of beliefs and practices that are affected or influenced by their professors, instructors and friends from school. How they communicate, understand, relate and cope with one another and with their environment depend on the kind of their socio-cultural perspective, affected by their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Their interactions with one another as they describe it are cool, and professional. They are one in saying that they are hard working, decisive and persevering professionals. With their engagement to the program, it became more meaningful because nothing compares to the fulfillment brought by being able to help and reach out to the poor people and communities. Their being flexible and adaptive to the culture of the community they are assigned with and persons they are dealing with are their common and known characteristic. They are also appreciative and considerate of the diversity of people and communities.

With the scaling-up of the program, there was a lack of engineers that qualified for the post, and so the HRDU considered hiring Architects in consideration of their technical skills plus their willingness to be part of a team working directly with and for the people. The merging of different but related professions created heterogeneity and made each of them adjust and create another kind of interaction and culture.