Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman of the Department of Social and Welfare Development (DSWD) said Tuesday during her visit to Davao City that the department will contribute to poverty reduction by 24 percent through its conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
This program aims to provide social assistance through cash assistance, and social development to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital.
Beneficiaries will receive cash grants of P6,000 a year per household for health and nutrition expenses; and P3,000 for one school year per child for educational expenses. These will be received by the most responsible person in the household through over-the-counter (OTC) payouts or through a Land Bank Cash Card.
Through this program, Soliman said, maternal child mortality rate will be reduced, and 100 percent of children will be attending primary education.
Having a budget of P21 billion for CCT, the 4Ps is a poverty-reduction strategy of the national government that provides cash grants to extremely poor households to allow them to meet certain development goals in exchange for compliance with conditions set by the program.
Conditions include that children 0-5 years old must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines; 3-5 years old must attend daycare or pre-school classes at least 85% of the time; 6-14 years old must attend elementary or high school classes at least 85% of the time, and must receive deworming pills every six months;
Pregnant women must avail of pre-natal care, childbirth must be attended by a skilled/trained health professional and mothers must get post-natal care in accordance with the standard of the Department of Health protocol; and, parents and guardians must attend responsible parenting sessions, mothers’ classes on health and nutrition, parent effectiveness service among other topics.
The 4Ps has covered two cities and seven municipalities in Davao del Norte; one city and seven municipalities in Davao del Sur; five municipalities in Davao Oriental and two municipalities in Compostela Valley.
Started in 2007, 4Ps has 56,989 beneficiaries, or 88.3 percent of the total 64,540 potential beneficiaries.
Although 4Ps is the core strategy in reducing poverty incidence in the country, DSWD values the importance of the complementing programs, particularly the Self-Employment Assistance – Kaunlaran Program (SEA-K) and Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services: Kapangyarihan at Kaunlaran sa Barangay (KALAHI-CIDSS:KKB).
The government’s flagship poverty-alleviation project implemented by the DSWD with a financial support of the World Bank, KALAHI-CIDSS:KKB aims to empower communities through their enhanced participation in local governance and poverty alleviation projects in the community.
SEA-K is a livelihood program provided for poor communities by way of organizing SEA-Kaunlaran Asosasyon (SKA) composed of 25-30 members which is allowed to lend not more than P150,000 as capital for business without collateral and interest.
Soliman said SEA-K has a revolving fund of roughly P5 million, while the CCT has P21 billion from the total budget of P34 billion for 4Ps. Biggest portion of the CCT budget was allocated to 200,000 families in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, the Caraga region and the Zamboanga Peninsula.
While oversite committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate monitor the programs of DSWD, Soliman said “the more people to watch and look, the more the program should be running as it should.” [Lorie Ann A. Cascaro]
