Posted on by SMS

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the country’s conditional cash transfer program, continues to provide monthly cash grants of as much as P1,400 to 700,000 poor families to meet their health, nutrition and education needs. By the end of 2009, 300,000 additional beneficiaries will have been indentified and shall start receiving the conditional grants by the beginning of 2010.

A study on the impact of 4Ps in the four pilot municipalities, namely; Esperanza and Sibagat in Agusan del Sur (CARAGA), and Lopez Jaena and Bonifacio in Region X,  revealed that:

  • Enrollment rate of Day Care pupils increased from 44.36% to 87.46 % and attendance rate improved from 82.75% to 88.75 %
  • Enrollment rate of preschool pupils increased from 20.09% to 56.02% and attendance rate improved from  79.5% to 94.27%
  • Enrollment rate of elementary pupils  increased from 74.82% to 86.71% and attendance rate improved from 87.9% to 92.14%
  • Enrollment rate of high school students increased from 56.86% to 63.56% and attendance rate improved from 90.93% to 96.4%
  • The number of children who received deworming pills in 2007 and 2008 increased from 20,590 to 25,001 registering a 21.42% increase
  • The percentage of children who were fully immunized increased from 2,700 to 3,408 registering a 26.22% increase
  • Total number of pregnant women with complete pre-natal visits increased from 1,223 to 1,778 registering a 45.38% increase
  • The World Bank approved a loan amounting to US$337.4M for the continued implementation of 4Ps as part of the US$405M loan for the Social Welfare and Development Reform Agenda project.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI -CIDSS) is one of the flagship poverty alleviation projects of the government. It supports a community-driven development approach which aims to reduce poverty.

  • KALAHI-CIDSS supports community projects through fund release direct to community project accounts, which are maintained by community volunteers. From 2003 to November 2009, KALAHI-CIDSS grants have funded 5,326 community projects amounting to P5.785 billion. These projects benefited 1,147,723 households in 5,543 barangays. The community projects are Basic Social Services such as classrooms, day care centers, water systems and rural health centers; Basic Access Infrastructure, such as farm-to-market roads, pathwalks, hanging bridges, and spillways; and Common Service Facilities, such as rice and corn mills, solar driers, and rice threshers. Likewise, environmental protection projects include riprapping and slope protection, embankments, and line canals; as well as skills training and capability building in skills training centers.
  • Since its implementation in 2003, KALAHI-CIDSS has empowered poor communities by entrusting them with the responsibility to take charge of the implementation of their projects and has improved local governance through people participation and transparency.
  • KALAHI-CIDSS has also increased the income of poor barangay residents through employment in project construction work with an estimated total income benefit of P917 million. This is equivalent to P1,200 for every man or woman barangay resident employed in KALAHI-CIDSS small construction activities.
  • Improvement in the housing structure of beneficiaries, access to electricity, and ownership of TV became more pronounced.  Barangay residents were more active in local decision-making and implementation of projects to address their needs.
  • Significantly, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US corporation established in 2004 which aims to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth in poorest countries in the world, pledged to allot funding for the expansion of KALAHI-CIDSS.
  • Delegates from the MCC headed by its Country Director Troy Wray visited the country recently to evaluate the project, and agreed that the proposed MCC contribution for KALAHI-CIDSS would be increased to $120 million.

PODER Y Prosperidad dela Communidad Project (PODER)

  • Poder y Prosperidad dela Comunidad Project (Empowerment and Development of Communities) adopts the community-driven development (CDD) processes and principles of the KALAHI-CIDSS’ framework and strategies. With funding assistance from Agencia Espanola dela Cooperacion Internacional Para el Desorollo, PODER covers 162 barangays, 9 municipalities and 5 provinces in Regions III, V, and Caraga.
  • PODER has funded 275 projects worth P288 million benefiting more than 76,000 households since it started.  These projects include 66 water systems, 42 day care centers; 40 school buildings/learning centers; 61 drainage and flood control  systems; 21 health stations; 13 roads; 16 bridges; four irrigation systems; five post harvest facilities; and, seven livelihood activities/productivity centers.
  • In 2009, 59 projects worth P80 million were completed benefiting 21,530 households in 61 barangays.

The Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) Program is a livelihood and capability building program aimed at enhancing the socio-economic skills of poor families towards establishing and managing sustainable community-based credit organizations for entrepreneurial development.

  • In 2009, there were 1,389 SEA-K projects established benefiting 28,939 families nationwide. Funds amounting to P143,089,000 million have been released as seed capital for the livelihood projects.
  • The SEA-K program enables the poor to have access to credit; promote entrepreneurship; increase understanding on values of honest work, pay debts, have social responsibility; and increase their income.

The Food for School Project provides food subsidy to poor families with children in day care centers.  It is one of the components of the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Programs of the Administration. Day care children and their families receive one kilo of iron-fortified rice per day of school.

  • In 2009, the DSWD served 502,163 children attending 13,788 day care centers in 495 cities/municipalities in 50 provinces of 16 regions nationwide, at an average of 96 days, distributing 53, 674,944 kilos of iron-fortified rice.

The Healthy Start Feeding Project (HSFP) provides supplemental food to day care children aged 3-5 years old. The food supplementation is in the form of hot meals.

  • The HSFP covers 240 municipalities from the 10 poorest and 10 food poorest provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Region V, Region VIII, Region IX, Region X, CARAGA Region and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
  • HSFP served more than 156,846 children from 5,331 day care centers in 2009. Target duration of the program is 200 feeding days.