World Bank approves $450m funding for Philippine Anti-Poverty Program

MANILA, February 20: The World Bank on Saturday approved $450 million of funding for the Philippines’ flagship anti-poverty program, which will provide basic healthcare and education to millions of families until 2019.
The financing, under the bank’s Social Welfare Development and Reform Project II, will cover about 7 per cent of the total cost of implementing what is known as the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. Manila has allocated about 62.7 billion peso ($1.32 billion) from its 2016 budget for the scheme, which is expanding this year to cover 4.6 million households.
“The World Bank is steadfast in its commitment and support for the CCT because we believe it contributes to reducing extreme poverty and inequality,” said Cecilia Vales, the World Bank’s acting country director for the Philippines.
A quarter of the Philippines’ 100 million people live below the poverty line.The Philippines’ CCT program has grown into one of the largest and best-targeted social safety net programs in the world, with 82 per cent of the benefits going to the bottom 40 per cent of the population, according to the World Bank.
Recent studies show that the program has reduced total poverty and food poverty among beneficiaries by as much as 6.7 percentage points.