World Bank: PHL’s 4Ps worth emulating

The Washington-based World Bank on Thursday revealed that the Philippines’ 12-year-old Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) deserves to be emulated across the government’s development programs.

In its report, the World Bank said that the conditional cash transfers being given to poor families have helped reduce poverty and income inequality in the Philippines and maintained “good targeting accuracy, progressivity and cost efficiency in delivering assistance to the poor.”

The World Bank report also noted that based on its analysis on the 4Ps, it confirmed that “it contributes to reducing national poverty, though its targeting performance has declined over time.”

The report entitled “Pantawid Pamilya 2017 Assessment: An Update of the Philippine Conditional Cash Transfer’s Implementation Performance” also showed that the 4Ps slashed nationwide poverty rate by up to 1.5 percentage points between 2012 and 2015.

The program also reduced income inequality by 0.5-0.6 ppt during the same period, said the World Bank report released last September.

“Other programs in the Philippines must learn from the experience of (4Ps) in terms of design, evaluation and impact,” said the World Bank.

If the Philippine government were to continue being effective in anti-poverty programs, the WB said “it must invest in putting in place systems for objective monitoring and evaluation” and noted that there was also a need for “accountability mechanisms” used in the cash aid program.

The WB said the Philippine experience with 4Ps had taught a lesson—“impactful programs evolve to maintain relevance and generate consensus for continuity even in time of political transitions.”