GOV’T ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM PAYING OFF – TEAM PNOY

Team PNoy spokesman Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada on Saturday/March 2 welcomed a World Bank study indicating that the country’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program known as thePantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is on track to achieving its objectives.

“It is heartening to learn that government efforts are paying off… that what Team PNoy has been supporting all along is finally bearing fruit,” Tañada said, referring to the 4Ps that has benefitted more than three million poor families with over six million children.

The CCT provides cash grants to poor households to encourage them to keep their children up to age to 14 in school and have regular health check-ups.

“There’s more work to be done. This anti-poverty effort needs to be continued and supported. We, in the administration coalition are committed to support President Aquino in this endeavor,” Tañada said.

The World Bank study entitled, Philippines: Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Impact Evaluation 2012, confirmed that children of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries are enrolling and attending schools, with improved health because of regular visits to health centers and pregnant mothers getting proper care.

Nazmul Chaudhury, World Bank country sector coordinator for human development and one of the authors of the report, said that poor households under the program spend 38 percent more in education per capita and 34 per cent more on medical expenses per capita than their non-Pantawid counterparts.

“This trend indicates a shift in the spending pattern among CCT beneficiaries toward greater investments in health and education of their children,” Chaudhury said in the report.

The WB report said that in Pantawid barangays, 76 percent of pre-schoolers are enrolled in day-care, compared to 65 percent in non-Pantawid barangays.

Among school children at age 6 to 11, 98 percent of children in Pantawid barangays are enrolled in school as against 93 per cent in non-Pantawid barangays.

The WB study is based on the analysis of 1,418 poor households eligible for the program from a survey covering 3,742 households in the provinces of Lanao del Norte, Mountain Province, Negros Occidental and Occidental Mindoro.