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World Bank, DOF sign $300-M loan to support 4Ps’ cash transfer program
The Philippine government, through the Department of Finance (DOF), and the World Bank signed on Thursday a $300-million loan agreement to provide additional funding for the government’s conditional cash transfer program.
The deal was signed by World Bank Country Director Mara Warwick and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III in Manila.
The World Bank has contributed a total of $1.26 billion to the 4Ps since it first provided funding support for this program in 2010.
In 2016, the multilateral lender approved a $450-million funding to help finance the health and education grants for conditional cash transfer beneficiaries from 2016 to 2019, covering 7% of the program’s total cost.
The $300 million of fresh funding covers a period of another two years or until 2022 to finance cash transfers to 4.2 million of poor household beneficiaries of the program.
It will provide technical assistance to the Philippine government to help strengthen the implementation and impact of the program, which include efficient payment systems, monitoring and evaluation, and family development sessions.
The additional funding from World Bank also covers 9% of the total budget for the 4Ps amounting to $1.7 billion, according to the multilateral lender.
“The latest poverty measurement shows that the percentage of Filipinos living in poverty reduced from 26.6% in 2006 to 21.6% in 2015. This progress is remarkable and set to continue,” Warwick said.
“Behind this progress in poverty reduction are the country’s strong safety net programs implemented by the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development),” she said.
According to the World Bank’s 2018 Poverty Assessment, the 4Ps has been responsible for a quarter of the poverty reduction in the country.
“4Ps has been critical in reducing poverty and promoting human capital accumulation of children from poor families in the Philippines,” Warwick said.
Dominguez expressed the country’s gratitude to the World Bank for the $300 million of additional financing.
“I thank the World Bank for facilitating additional financing for the Second Social Welfare Development and Reform Program. The Bank has been a strong and reliable partner in the implementation of our conditional cash transfer initiative called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps,” Dominguez said.
He cited the World Bank for strengthening the capability of the DSWD as a social protection agency and the setting up of the ‘Listahanan’ database for the 4Ps national household targeting system, “which has already gone a long way toward providing public services and support to those who really need it.”
As the Listahanan database is gradually linked to the National ID system, the targeting of beneficiaries and the efficiency and effectiveness of the 4Ps and other social protection initiatives will dramatically improve, Dominguez noted.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act (RA) No. 11310 in April this year, institutionalizing the 4Ps program to ensure that it will continue well into the future.
“The entire economic program of President Duterte has the ultimate goal of bringing down our poverty incidence from 27.6 percent in the first half of 2015 to just 14 percent by the end of the President’s term in 2022, expanding economic inclusion, and making real the dream of a comfortable life for every Filipino. We will tirelessly work towards the full realization of this goal,” Dominguez said.
The 4Ps is “an indispensable component of the more comprehensive effort to combat cross-generational poverty.” —VDS, GMA News
