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.
World Bank has contributed a total of $1.26 billion to Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) since its first funding support for the 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 seven percent 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 nine percent 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 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent 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, 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. (GMA News)
