World Bank approves $600M project loan to support COVID-19-hit poor households in Philippines

Multilateral lender World Bank has approved a new project loan for the Philippines in support of the government’s efforts to help poor households hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Wednesday, the lender said its board executive directors has approved a $600-million loan for the Philippines' “Beneficiary FIRST Social Protection Project.”

The said project is aimed to provide continuing support to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to implement the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and pursue Fast, Innovative, and Responsive Service Transformation (FIRST) for beneficiaries.

The World Bank said at least four million families are expected to benefit from the loan-funded project “designed to protect the welfare of low-income households impacted by COVID-19 and enable the government to harness digital tools to transform social protection delivery in the Philippines.”

“We are pleased to support the government’s efforts to sustain social protection for the poor and most vulnerable families,” said Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

“These efforts are critical to ensure that their children can remain in school and stay healthy as the country takes measures to control this pandemic. In these difficult times, cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable indirectly support local economies and boost prospects for recovery,” Diop said.

The World Bank-funded project will also support the  DSWD’s use of cutting-edge digital technologies and platforms to improve beneficiary experience in receiving transfers from the government, develop more efficient processes and systems, and enhance targeting mechanisms to maximize equity and impact, according to the lender.

“Global experience shows that countries that have effective government-to-persons payments systems and a coherent approach to social protection beneficiary data management have been very effective in quickly and effectively cushioning the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic” Diop said.

The World Bank said it has been supporting the 4Ps over the last decade.

The 4Ps provides cash grants to poor families to ensure that children stay healthy and in school, reduce dropout rates and discourage child labor, among other benefits.

In cooperation with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the World Bank-funded project also seeks to accelerate efforts to modernize the DSWD’s payment delivery systems and promote financial literacy among beneficiaries, accelerating financial inclusion in the process.

“Shifting to the use of digital platforms and technologies for delivery of social protection programs and services is a high priority agenda of the government that we are excited to support,” Yoonyoung Cho, World Bank senior economist, said.

“Together with the PhilSys that the government is already expediting, activities in this project such as digital payments, robust targeting, and beneficiary data management will help make the government’s social protection programs more efficient and adaptive,” she said.

Implemented in 145 cities and 1,483 municipalities of the Philippines, 4Ps has benefitted more than four million families or around 20% of the country’s population, including 8.7 million children, according to the World Bank.

Since 2008, the country has built on the program to respond better to natural disasters and other shocks, the lender said.—AOL, GMA News