Introduction

Poverty has afflicted a huge portion of the Philippine population for many years. As a result, the government has implemented a variety of social programs and policies in order to at least reduce the prevalence of poverty. However, because most are focused on a single goal, they have shown to be unproductive and unsustainable. But it was not until 2008 that the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), one of the country's most popular social policies, was launched. It began as a full-scale cash transfer program in February 2008, with 330,000 beneficiaries in Set 1, and subsequently expanded to another 320,000 homes in Set 2 in 2009. The program's household beneficiaries increased to over 1.9 million in less than three years, and by 2014, it had reached around four million households. The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18. It is patterned after the conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes in Latin American and African countries, which have lifted millions of people around the world from poverty. The 4Ps operates in all the 17 regions in the Philippines, covering 79 provinces, 143 cities, and 1,484 municipalities. Beneficiaries are selected through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), which identifies who and where the poor are in the country.

Purpose

The locally known Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps), or a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), is a government program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines as identified by the Listahanan or National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS- PR). Its objectives are to improve the health, nutrition, and education of children aged 0-18 years old on the condition that beneficiaries comply with the requirements of the program.

Description

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is closely patterned on successful CCTs in Latin American programs, sharing the objectives of social assistance and social development, both of which are central to the poverty reduction and social protection strategy of the Government of the Philippines (M. Catubig, R.Villano, and B. Dollery, 2016). With regards to this, the 4Ps is a poverty-reduction approach that gives cash grants to extremely impoverished families to help them achieve particular human development goals. Because low schooling and high malnutrition rate are significantly related to the poverty cycle in the Philippines, it is focused on improving the human capital of the poorest families [health/nutrition and education]. To help build human capital, the prime focus of the program, short-term income support is extended to extremely poor eligible households contingent on their compliance with the program’s conditions, such as enrolment in school (children 6-14 years old) and regular visits to health centers (pregnant women and children 0-5 years old). A household can be a recipient of 4Ps provided the following criteria are met: (a) it is a resident in program areas of 4Ps; (b) it is identified as poor based on proxy means test (PMT), and (c) at least one member of the household is below 15 years old at the time of the enrolment into the program or a pregnant woman. The program was implemented during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and now, is the continuous program of the present administration.

Support

In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Labor and Employment, and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, 4Ps has enrolled 36,003 beneficiaries in state universities and colleges as of June 2015. Additionally, in partnership with PhilHealth, 4Ps has covered 4.4 million beneficiaries under the National Health Insurance Program.

To make donations, the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) electronic donation management system allows DSWD to accept donations online through the Development Bank of the Philippines’ internet payment gateway. Donors simply click on the expanded e-Donation Management System link on the DSWD website (www.dswd.gov.ph).

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