World Bank OKs $600 million loan for 4Ps digitalization

MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank has approved a $600 million loan for a project that will digitalize the delivery of social protection assistance to families covered by the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

The World Bank’s board of executive directors approved the loan for the Philippines Beneficiary FIRST Social Protection Project that will support the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that provides cash transfer to the country’s poorest households under the condition that they continue to send their children to school.

This project will enable the implementing agency, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), to use digital technologies and platforms to make the transfer of assistance more targeted, faster and more efficient.

“We are pleased to support the government’s efforts to sustain social protection for the poor and most vulnerable families,” said Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for the Philippines.

“These efforts are critical to ensure that their children can remain in school and stay healthy as the country takes measures to control this pandemic. In these difficult times, cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable indirectly support local economies and boost prospects for recovery.”

Diop noted that countries having effective government-to-persons payment system and a coherent approach to social protection beneficiary data management have been able to immediately cushion the impact of the pandemic.

The project also seeks to accelerate efforts to modernize the DSWD’s payment delivery systems and promote financial literacy among beneficiaries.

Yoonyoung Cho, senior economist and project task team leader, said that in addition to 4Ps beneficiaries, modernizing the country’s social protection delivery systems would also benefit those enrolled in other social protection programs implemented by the government, as well as those that would be covered in the future.

Key outputs of the project include a new unified beneficiary database for DSWD programs and integration with the new national ID system (PhilSys) to allow beneficiaries to be verified and enrolled in a timely and reliable manner.

“Shifting to the use of digital platforms and technologies for delivery of social protection programs and services is a high priority agenda of the government that we are excited to support,” said Yoon.

Implemented in 145 cities and 1,483 municipalities of the Philippines, the 4Ps program has benefitted more than four million families (around 20 percent of the country’s population), including 8.7 million children.

Six months into the pandemic, Diop said recovery would now require strong social protection measures that would put cash in the pockets of the poor to support their needs, as well as the survival of small businesses in communities.

This should go alongside the resumption of investments on human capital and infrastructure that drove the domestic economy before the pandemic.

Diop recognized, however, that this would be challenging without the necessary infrastructure for social services such as a foundational identification system, digital mobile access, and transaction accounts.

As such, investments in these would be crucial to ensure that social protection measures would reach the poor when they need it.