The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday approved a 500 million dollar loan to the Philippines to further support the government’s conditional cash transfer programme for impoverished families.
The expanded social assistance project will help families maintain health and educational gains for their children under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (Help for the Filipino Family) Programme or 4Ps, first implemented in 2008.
Under the programme, cash payments are provided to about 4.3 million households every two months, as long as children go to school and have regular health check-ups, and women take advantage of pre- and post-natal care.
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According to the ADB vice president Ahmed Saeed, the Philippine Government is boosting social investment in Filipinos to break the decades-old intergenerational cycle of poverty.
“The 4Ps programme provides vulnerable households with an income supplement to help their children become educated, stay healthy, and leave poverty for good.
“Our evidence shows that this is working. The 4Ps programme has helped 1.5 million people escape poverty since it began in 2008.
“Through this project loan and technical assistance support, ADB is helping the Philippines expand these gains,” Saeed said.
In April 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law that made the 4Ps a permanent government programme and increased cash grants to households.
The Manila-based ADB said it was also providing 3.1-million-dollar technical assistance to update the list of eligible poor households, provide a package of livelihood and other support for up 3,000 beneficiaries and implement information technology reforms.