ADB approves $400-M loan grant for PHL's CCT program

The Philippines has secured a $400-million loan grant from Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) to widen the coverage of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Also called 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the CCT program is expected to provide more health and education grants to poor Filipinos with the latest loan grant.

“The support, which builds on ADB’s initial loan to the project of the same amount, will help the government support more families, now also including high school students,” Karin Schelzig, senior social sector specialist at ADB Southeast Asia, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This is important, as impact evaluation shows that the CCTs (conditional cash transfers) are keeping vulnerable young people at school, opening the door to a better future," Schelzig said.

The 4Ps gives poor families cash assistance provided their children remain in school, visit health centers, and attend family development sessions.

Of the participating households, the ADB said that 93 percent – higher than the 80-percent target – regularly meet the conditions to receive the grants.

"CCTs are an investment in human development that pays off when healthier and better educated young people grow up to get better jobs and break out of the poverty trap," the ADB said.

The bank approved an initial loan of the same amount in 2010 to finance cash grants to some 637,000 households, increase employment, and help monitor the program's progress.

"The fresh assistance will finance a share of the grants to all participating households nationwide," the lender said.

This additional financing will be provided over four years and will be fully granted by December 2019. The government is providing the counterpart funding of P62.7 billion or about $1.3 billion this 2016.

According to the bank, the program is the fourth-largest CCT in the world – after India, Brazil, and Mexico – with 4.4 million partner beneficiaries as of end-2015.

The partner beneficiaries numbered 340,000 at the program's inception.

The ADB said it will shell out a technical assistance grant of $1 million to provide demand-driven policy and advisory services.

"It will help the Department of Social Welfare and Development strengthen program management, assess any proposed program or policy adjustments, and undertake operational spot checks on program implementation," it said. – Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/VS, GMA News