DSWD, WB forge path for joint projects

The Department of Social Welfare and Development on Friday said it has wrapped up with the World Bank the ways forward for the Beneficiary Fast, Innovative, Responsive, Service Transformation Social Protection Project.

During the session at the DSWD Central Office in Quezon City attended by Secretary Rex Gatchalian and World Bank Country Director Ndiame Diop, the findings and results of the Implementation Support Mission held on 4-7 December between the two agencies to roll out the BFirst Social Protection Project were discussed and addressed.

Gatchalian underscored the significance of the mission as this will give the department an overview of the ever-changing world of poverty.

"We know that this is a very important package that deals with a lot of lives," he said.

The mission, he said, helps assist the government in addressing the poverty problem in the country, which he described as "not static but rather dynamic."

"So, these missions actually will help us to tailor fit further actions both in service delivery and the actual grants," he said.

Among the crucial items discussed at the meeting were the performance-based conditions, which include the provision of cash grants to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, through transactional accounts and the assessment and re-assessment of the 4Ps beneficiaries' socio-economic status using the Standardized Targeting System.

He expressed his gratitude to the WB for its continued support of the department's mandate to improve the delivery of social protection in the country.

"I am very appreciative that you and your team personally sit rather than send a team so that we can get a better understanding [of the results of the mission]," Gatchalian said.

He was joined by Undersecretary for Policy and Plans Group Adonis Sulit; Assistant Secretary for External Assistance and Development Juan Carlo Marquez, the BFIRST project manager; and Legal Service Director Leslie Rose Torres.

Attending the meeting from the World Bank were Yoonyoung Cho, task team leader and senior economist; Ruth Rodriguez, co-task team leader and senior protection specialist; and Laarni Revilla, social protection consultant.

The BFIRST is a joint project of the DSWD and the World Bank that aims to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on poor Filipino families and to strengthen the DSWD's social protection delivery systems to become more adaptive and efficient.