Conditional Cash Transfer Program in the Philippines: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Maryjoy Mella, Floren Camille Osido and Lemarie Suing
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Virola (2011), Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board, said in his presentation of the 2009 Official Poverty Statistics that a Filipino needed PhP 974 in 2009 to meet his or her monthly food needs and PhP 1,403 to stay out of poverty. In 2009, a family of five needed PhP 4, 869 monthly income to meet food needs and PhP 7, 017 to stay out of poverty. Results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey also revealed that one in every five Filipino households, or an estimated 4.3 million families, experienced involuntary hunger in the third quarter of the year 2011 (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/84129/more-filipinos-going-hungry-survey-shows).
The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs serves as the government’s answers to the pressing issues regarding poverty. Calvo (2011) defines the CCT as programs that provide cash benefits to finance the basic needs and foster investment in human capital to extremely poor households. These benefits are conditioned on certain behaviors, usually related to investments in nutrition, health, and education.
The emergence of CCT programs occurred during the late 1990s, with Mexico’s innovative Progresa (now Opurtunidades) program emerging as one of the earliest schemes in 1997. The evidences highlighting the effectiveness of Progresa motivated a rise in similar programs across Latin America. Throughout the late 1990s and into the early part of the new century, CCT programs were implemented in Honduras, Brazil and Nicaragua.
CCT programs are presently being implemented in several Latin American countries including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, and several more. Indonesia and Pakistan are only some of the Asian countries which employ the CCT programs as a major tool of their social policy. In general, these programs provide money and...