THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (4Ps): IMPROVING HUMAN CAPITAL AND BREAKING INTERGENERATIONAL CYCLE OF POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES

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1 THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (4Ps): IMPROVING HUMAN CAPITAL AND BREAKING INTERGENERATIONAL CYCLE OF POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES Florenda S. Frivaldo Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila, Philippines This paper aimed to evaluate the impact of the Family Development Session as one of the conditionalities of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program on Improving Human Capital and its Breakthrough to Intergenerational Cycle of Poverty to the program beneficiaries in selected municipalities in Quezon Province. Descriptive method was used in this study. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed because of the big population and geographical area of the research locale. Four (4) municipalities from the far flung area in Quezon Province were chosen based on the data gathered through an interview conducted by the researcher. A validated questionnaire developed by the researcher was used to collect data about the impact of the Family Development Session as one of the conditionalities of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program on improving human capital and breaking intergenerational cycle of poverty. Keywords: Family Development, Human Capital, Cycle of Poverty Introduction The need for full and stringent implementation of measures in the alleviation and eventual eradication of poverty in the country has probably never been more apparent to the general public and to the other basic sectors of the society at large than it is now. This need was brought about by the harsh and sad fact that a big number of families in the country nowadays are suffering from poverty. This was corroborated by the fact, as espoused by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) latest report today on the state of poverty in the country using data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) last July 2012 which measured poverty incidence or the proportion of people below the poverty line to the total population. NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon G. Albert reported that poverty incidence among population was estimated at 27.9 percent during the first semester of Comparing this with the 2006 and 2009 first semester figures estimated at 28.8 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively, poverty remained unchanged as the computed differences are not statistically significant. The report points out that during the first semester of 2012, a Filipino family of five needed Php 5,458 to meet basic food needs every month and Php 7,821 to stay above the poverty threshold (basic food and nonfood needs) every month. These respective amounts represent the food and poverty thresholds, which increased by 11.1 percent from the first semester of 2009 to the first

2 half of 2012, compared to the 26.0 percent-increase between the 1st semesters of 2006 and The Pantawid Pamilya is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program which provides cash to beneficiary households, subject to compliance with program conditionalities. The Pantawid Pamilya is targeted at chronic poor households family with children aged 0-14 years who are located in poor areas. The cash grants range from P500 (US$11) to P1, 400 (US$32) per household per month, depending on the number of eligible 3 children. To qualify for the grants, beneficiary households must undertake certain activities that are meant to improve the children s health and education such as visiting health centers regularly and sending them to schools. Pantawid Pamilya aims to alleviate current poverty by supplementing the income of the poor to address their immediate consumption needs, while the conditionalities can help improve human capital and thus break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. The Pantawid Pamilya helps to fulfil the country s commitment to meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). These MDGs include: eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, and improving maternal health. Government estimates indicated that 26.5 percent of the population was living below the poverty line in 2009, which was lower than the baseline figure of 33.1 percent in 1991 but still far from the target of 16.6 percent by Progress in achieving MDG targets in education and health has also been slow. In 2008, the net enrolment ratio in primary education was 85.1 percent, and only 75.4 percent of those in school were able to start Grade 1 and reach Grade 6. The number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births was 162 in 2006, more than three times the target of 52.3, while only 79.2 percent of one-year-old children were immunized against measles in DSWD takes the lead in implementing the Pantawid Pamilya, with support from key agencies and local partners. With the creation of the Pantawid Pamilya in 2007, the government formalized institutional arrangements among the agencies involved. DSWD works in partnership with key agencies such as DOH, DepEd, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) which help ensure the availability of health and education services as well as provide necessary support services in the targeted areas. DSWD created the Pantawid Pamilya National Project Management Office (NPMO), which handles the day-to-day operations of the program with assistance from Regional Project Management Offices (RPMO) and City/Municipal Links. DSWD also has support from local service providers such as the school principals and midwives who have been designated to oversee and ensure proper verification of compliance to conditionalities. The Family Development Session takes a big role in this implementation to ensure that every family shall improve their lives and being responsible enough in complying with the conditions of the program.

3 The Family Development Session is one of the conditionalities of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program. The FDS aims to promote, empower and nurture the families towards strengthened capacity to meet family and parental responsibilities through the conduct of neighbourhood-based family psycho-educational activities for the household beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program. Inspite of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS), which became the flagship project of the Arroyo administration as well as the present administration in poverty reduction and social development by providing cash grants to the poorest of the poor families, poverty remained unchanged as stated by NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon G. Albert. Thus this paper intends to evaluate the impact of compliance by the household beneficiaries in selected municipalities of Quezon Province on the achievement of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS) primary goals through the Family Development Session. The Family Development Session was deemed an important intervention to fulfil the family s development trust of the program as well as strengthens the fulfillment of investing into human capital of families and children ages 0-14 years old. It serves to reinforce the capacities of family members particularly the parents to become more responsive to the needs of the family and their children. It also enables the households to become socially aware and be involved and participative in community development activities. Literature Review Bolsa Família (Portuguese pronunciation: [ bows famili ], Family Allowance) is a social welfare program of the Brazilian government, part of the Fome Zero network of federal assistance programs. Bolsa Familia provides financial aid to poor Brazilian families; if they have children, families must ensure that the children attend school and are vaccinated. The program attempts to both reduce short-term poverty by direct cash transfers and fight long-term poverty by increasing human capital among the poor through conditional cash transfers. It also works to give free education to children who cannot afford to go to school to show the importance of education. The Government of Brazil, Before October 2003 had four federal CCT programs in place. Each of these programs had its own financing scheme, implementing agency, conditionalities, and information system. As their control systems did not exchange information, a family could receive all four and another family, equally needy, could receive none. The values of the transfers were not harmonized so that the federal government was engaged in transferring to similar individuals different values under similar arguments. In October of 2003, the Bolsa Familia program was created to

4 organize and merge the various federal CCTs, benefiting from the united information system that was implemented in Families in extreme poverty that are beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia receive R $50 ($42 PPP) month each, regardless of their composition. Families in both extreme and moderate poverty receive an additional benefit of R $15 ($13 PPP) month for every child or pregnant woman in family, but this is limited to three children or pregnant women, therefore R $95 ($91 PPP) is the highest amount transferred by Bolsa Familia to a family in extreme poverty and R $45 ($39 PPP ) the highest value transferred to a moderately poor family. The program requires a school attendance of 85% for school age children, updated immunization cards for children less than seven years old, and regular visits to health centers for breast-feeding or pregnant women. Brazil is a decentralized federation and, while the definition of policy in the case of CCTs pertains to the Federal Government, two important implementation aspects are left to municipalities and states. The rest is the verification of conditionalities. The Federal Government in Brazil does not run primary schools or primary health care centers, so it is up to the municipalities and states, particularly the former, to verify compliance. Overall, they yield a loose control over conditionalities, although qualitative studies show that families overwhelmingly do comply. The second crucial task is the primary identification of potential beneficiaries and provision of information about them. Although information must be recorded on a single Federal information form, it is up to municipal social workers to select potential beneficiaries and all the information. In 2004 there were more candidates than available benefits, although this situation has improved with the expansion of the program. Since beneficiaries are selected solely upon income and social workers know this, they also decide, in practice, who ultimately gets selected. The results we will present suggest that social workers have been using wisely their discretion margin in the selection process. In Chile, Solidario was created in May It is a social protection system targeted at people living in extreme poverty. The goal is to assist the 225,000 families living in extreme poverty (about 1.5% of the total population of 16 million people). Families are invited to take part in this program on the basis of their score, according to a standardized form, which generates a multidimensional index to rank them. The higher the score the worse is the situation of the families regarding unmet basic needs that are grouped into 4 major categories: housing conditions, education, labor market insertion and income. Family support is delivered for two years, during which time families are visited by a social worker {or a similar professional{ in order to set up with them a plan to tackle the major problems faced by them in several areas, ranging from domestic violence to access to public services, identification (id cards), health notions, and employment.

5 Besides the family support, beneficiaries also are entitled to A - porte Solidario or Bono de Proteccion a la Familia, a conditional cash transfer that lasts as long as the family support does and is paid to females heading families or to the female partner of the head. In order to receive the Bono de Proteccion, families have to comply with the conditionalities embedded in some actions that they must take in order to achieve the agreed targets of the plan. The aim of the Bono de Proteccion is to help the family to pay for a basket of goods, amenities and services that was considered as the minimum below which a family could not be considered as socially included. After 24 months, the family will continue to receive a financial support and will have priority in the access to CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFER IN BRAZIL, CHILE AND MEXICO social protection programs or initiatives for another three years to help them out of poverty. If the family meets the target before two years, it is automatically excluded from the program by the social worker responsible for the family. Lastly, in Mexico there is Oportunidades Internationally. Oportunidades is the best known CCT program. The program, originally named Progresa, began in 1997 and initially covered 0.3 million households, expanding to 2.5 million families by In its initial years, the focus was on poor rural municipalities with less than 2500 inhabitants that had the minimum necessary school and health facilities for the conditionalities to be applied. In 2001, the name of the program was changed to Oportunidades and its coverage was expanded to include small urban locations with to inhabitants in 2001, and all urban areas one year later. This resulted in five million beneficiary households by Selection of beneficiaries follows a three-stage procedure. First, municipalities are chosen according to a multidimensional index of marginality that classifies them into categories. Secondly, households within chosen municipalities are selected according to a socio demographic study based on discriminant analysis. In municipalities with very high indexes of marginality about 90% of the households are selected, and this percentage decreases to about 6% in those that are classified in the very low range. The third and final step involves feedback from the communities, in order to check eligibility. The transfer has three basic components, two of which are conditional and one is non-conditional. Households benefiting from Oportunidades receive an unconditional transfer in the amount of $250 pesos ($32 PPP) per older adult in the household. Additionally, households receive a food support transfer of $189 pesos ($24 PPP ) conditioned on attending training sessions on nutrition and health. The more substantive transfer, though, is the scholarship given to children and young adults in grades 3 to 12. Scholarships are conditional on school attendance and health check-ups; schools certify the first while health clinics attest to the compliance with health check-ups. For children in primary education, it goes up to $760 pesos ($98 PPP) for females in grade 12. On the whole, a household can receive a maximum of $1,095 pesos ($141 PPP ) in

6 scholarships if the household receives only scholarships for students in primary and secondary education, but the ceiling is $1,855 pesos ($239 PPP) if the household includes students in medium-high education. Transfers for the elderly started only in 2005 and are received directly by them. The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) implemented a year ago by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is starting to show positive effects on the lives of Filipino families in Zamboanga del Sur. In an interview with Ms. Evangeline A. Poquita, DSWD Regional Focal Person for Cluster 2 of Zamboanga del Sur said, that based on the data given by the different school supervisors it registered an increase in enrolment, lower rate of drop-outs, increased attendance rate of school children and lesser child labor incidence. From Latin America, to Africa, even in the United States and Asia, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are sprouting everywhere and garnering an increasing amount of attention. As the packed auditorium demonstrated yesterday, the buzz has long since reached Washington. And as Justin Lin, Chief Economist for Development Economics, noted, the World Bank will be extending CCT projects to six additional countries this year. CCT programs aren't a magic bullet, the panellists reiterated. Santiago Levy-- the brainchild behind Oportunidades-- emphasized that CCT programs don't work everywhere, and certainly, they must function within a larger network of social safety net programs provided by the government. Rosenberg mentioned that, in the course of her time researching the impact of Oportunidades in several villages in Mexico for her New York Times Magazine article, that many women invested parts of their transfer in small businesses. These businesses were sustainable, and added to family income. If that's the case, then certainly there's room to explore the role of CCT programs to help the poor save, accumulate assets, and increase financial inclusion. In the U.S. and Latin America, pilot projects and formal government programs are beginning to test these waters. Proyecto Capital in Peru is working to connect, combine, and adjust CCT policies with those that encourage savings, asset building, financial inclusion, and access to financial and entrepreneurial "know-how" for the poor. New York City's Opportunity NYC program links payments to bank accounts so as to encourage savings and reduce services associated with high transaction costs. And evidence from Latin America demonstrates that households participating in CCT programs increase their savings rates and investment in productive assets. Participants of Paraguay's Tekporã program saved 20% more due to their participation in the program; evidence from Mexico likewise affirms that families invested 12% of transfers

7 in income-generating activities, and saved more when payments were made through banks. So on the day of the launch of this seminal study, it seems timely to start thinking about CCTs in more innovative ways that increases financial inclusion, and helps people save and build assets. The Family Development Session is considered one of the unique program features of DSWD since it is a value- oriented component of Pantawid Pamilya. FDS intended to promote and inculcate positive change in the beneficiaries character outlook in life amidst their current situation. The sessions teach parents how to become more responsible in taking care of their family and teach them to value and invest in the health of their family and education of their children. Other topics discussed in the sessions are the proper use of cash grants; how to take care of the environment, and how to act during disasters. As of 2011, a total of 77,438 parent groups had been organized and have attended monthly FDS. These sessions were positively received by parents with a very high compliance rate of 97%. The UNICEF, a major supporter of the program, continues its support for the government s social protection program, particularly the cash transfer program. Addressing vulnerabilities is also the main aim of UNICEF s Country Programme of Cooperation with the government for the period of 2012 to UNICEF is committed to social protection as a fundamental right for children and as a key policy for supporting equity and social justice. Social protection is an essential channel for filling the gap between families that are adequately reached by services and those that are excluded, and to promote a fair provision of services and the realization of children s rights. Family development sessions which are conducted at least monthly teach the parents about children s health, effective and positive child discipline, home management and gender sensitivity. They are also taught financial literacy, life skills, vocational and livelihood skills and taking care of the environment. Fortunately, Philippines is the only country with Conditional Cash Transfer program implementing the Family Development Session to beneficiaries. Two social protection programs social security and social assistance are now considered as the most critical interventions that can accelerate the achievement of the MDGs by Social assistance, through the conditional cash transfers (CCT), has thus become vogue in many developing countries eager to placate their suffering poor and at the same time claim MDG success. Since evaluation of CCT programs in developing countries are either few or none, it was interested in finding out whether former President Arroyo s much maligned CCT measured up to international standards, and whether President Aquino s dramatic

8 expansion of CCT beneficiaries from 1M to 2.5M households can actually work. Many of the arguments being used by CCT supporters in the Philippines; that giving cash to parents for keeping their children in school and improving their own health is an effective intervention to achieve universal primary education (MDG Goal 2), reduce child mortality (MDG Goal 4), and improve maternal mortality (MDG Goal 5), and it is being followed-up, monitored and checked during regular meeting cum Family Development Session. Sepulveda agreed with the critics of the program that poorly designed and implemented CCT programs open vast opportunities for corruption, and fighting corruption must go hand-in-hand with CCT and MDG interventions. Sepulveda also pointed out that CCT s work only when the education and health infrastructure are available in poor communities. Otherwise, the conditions of the cash transfer can t be met and become an added punishment for poor people. CCTs work best if access to information and transparency are imbedded in the program. Information must be available and accessible - on who will be implementing the program at the national and local levels, who are the beneficiaries, the criteria for their selection not only to policymakers and the general public but to local communities. Information access is important, and difficult, because the poor (particularly marginalized groups like indigenous peoples) often have no access to information. The information has to be adapted to their needs, must be in a language that they understand, and must be gender-aware. A clear complaint mechanism must be established at all levels to address questions of the included and excluded poor households and to report the behaviour of authorities. Finally, Sepulveda asserted that implementation and monitoring systems must ensure the participation of the beneficiaries. Gruenber adds that since human rights and human development are the main pillars of the UN Millennium Declaration, a monitoring system where women and the youth are involved in real time is required. This monitoring system should be jointly owned by government and the communities and be technology based so complaints can be received and acted upon in real time. Maybe the CCT supporters can take a cure from Sepulveda who warned that the fixation of many developing countries to copy and expand their CCT programs simply because others doing must be stopped at all cost or maybe, they should just go slower and do a serious evaluation of the program since Philippines is the only country implementing Family Development Session. We should not promise the poor that we can bring them out of poverty through CCT.

9 Synthesis and Relevance of the Literature Presented Based on the review made by the researcher, it has been noted that some of the studies cited bear some similarities and differences to the current study in some aspects. The current study focused on the household beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya program with children 0-14 years old and Municipal Links and Civil Society Organizations who facilitated the conduct of Family Development Session and the whole implementation of the program in their area. The main core of the program was the Family Development Session which was under the health condition being implemented by the program. Through the continuous education and value formation on a mother or her husband, parents were expected to be responsible to their children. If they became responsible definitely, they will have a good vision in life and possibly uplift their living condition. In other words, they will no longer depends on the government support as they will be able to stand on their own, carry their own burden and become empowered in helping their own selves. While it can be said that the programs implemented in Brazil, Chile and Mexico have bearing on the current study because it primarily dealt on the program of the government to support the marginalized households or families through the conditional cash transfer (CCT) and the conditionalities that are focused on education and health care, Bolsa Familia in Brazil seems to have flaws on the control system that resulted in the disparity of granting such financial aid. On the other hand, the Solidario in Chile which serves as social protection of their people living in extreme poverty includes labor market insertion and income as category for those families with unmet basic needs and beneficiaries of Bono de Protection may continue to received financial support for three years to help them out of poverty. Similarly, Oportunidades in Mexico has been noted to have a parallel similarity with the current study because it focused on particular conditionalities of school attendance and health check-up of the children and young adults in the household beneficiaries as well as on how such conditionalities are attested by the school and health clinics. Differences were noted on how the stages, procedures and categories in choosing the household beneficiaries were determined. Methodology Descriptive method was used in this study. Multi-stage sampling technique was used because of the big population and geographical area of the research locale. This study was utilized to determine the impact of the Family Development Session as one of the conditionalities of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program on improving human capital and its breakthrough to intergenerational cycle of poverty to the program beneficiaries in selected municipalities of Quezon Province. The Set 1 areas composed

10 of the municipalities of Buenavista, San Andres, San Francisco and San Narciso which are located in the far flung part of Quezon Province were chosen as the locale of the study based on the data provided by the municipal link of DSWD in each respondent municipality. The implementation of the 4Ps program in these four municipalities was conducted in 3 waves. A total of 15,946 target beneficiaries for first (1 st ) and second (2 nd ) wave and 14,760 for third (3 rd ) wave were chosen based on the profile of poor households from the Social Welfare Indicator. In achieving the purpose of the study the researchers utilized a non-experimental descriptive, survey type of research design. Descriptive, survey type of research is a fact finding with adequate interpretation. The basis caution here is that the descriptive method has to be something more and beyond just data gathering. Otherwise, it is neither reflective thinking nor research. Survey type of descriptive method is in organized attempt to analyse, interpret and report present status of a social institution. Its purpose is to get groups of classified, generalized and interpreted data for the guidance of application in the immediate future. Statistical treatment of data utilized frequency and percentage distribution in the three level of family well-being (survival, subsistence and self-sufficiency) to determine the degree of the implementation of the program on the respondent households. Findings Like most Cash Conditional Transfer (CCT) programs, the Pantawid Pamilya has faced several challenges, particularly in the early stages of implementation when it comes to the implementation of Family Development Session. DSWD s regional offices facilitate activities leading up to implementation of the activity. However, given the pressure to the Municipal Links and partners like Civil Society Organizations particularly to areas with a high concentration of poor some municipalities with new staff and untrained workers/ partners for the conduct of Family Development Session has been encountering problems on it. It has major implication for beneficiary compliance with conditionalities since FDS is under the health condition, thus potentially limiting program impact. The Values of the Household members Hinders in meeting the proper Health and Education of every family. Once a month FDS is one of the crucial components of the 4Ps CCT. In the sessions, husbands and wives are taught family life values like disciplining children, husband and wife relationships and handling finances, among other things. Perception that the program is dole out is another factor that causing issues in the Pantawid Pamilya implementation. Poor appreciation in some Government program believing that government will only be using them for corruption. Being irresponsible and lacking knowledge in the importance of education and health condition also sees on this study.

11 This study likewise shows that the Pantawid Pamilya reduced poverty in the target areas significantly through the cash grant received by every grantee. Based on Pantawid Pamilya data, it is estimated that 62 percent of the population in municipalities covered in the first and second phases of program expansion live below the poverty line. With this, FDS merely focus in responsible parenthood and under responsible parenthood have several topics that can help enlighten every household grantee. The cash transfer to beneficiary households, which increased their household income, was estimated to reduce poverty incidence. Potential impacts of Pantawid Pamilya on the income gap of the poor and on the severity of poverty in targeted areas also appeared to be substantial. In particular, simulations using the Pantawid Pamilya data show that the cash transfer could reduce the income gap of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries by 5.3 percentage points and poverty severity by about 4.3 percentage points. The average increase in per capita income among Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries is 12 percent. Although based on predicted income figures, these estimates are consistent with the results of impact evaluations of comparable Conditional Cash Transfer programs in other countries. Poverty was reduced by 17 percent in Progresa communities in Mexico, while the Familias en Acción program in Colombia reduced the poverty gap by more than 6 percentage points. Since Family Development Session is the main core of the program in the Philippines, it is expected to help parents become responsible enough in supporting education and health of their children as well as the whole totality of the family. Project Management Team (PMT)-based targeting system combined with geographic targeting has helped minimize the inclusion and exclusion errors, thereby enhancing program impact. The combined approach of a standardized targeting mechanism to select potential beneficiaries for the program and a registration process to validate the information gathered have been key to the credibility and acceptance of the program. This process was complemented by the GRS, which allows people to present complaints about inclusion errors, exclusion errors, and program operations and which has clear guidelines for complaint resolution. Conclusions Despite the early challenges, the government successfully rolled out the Pantawid Pamilya to reach the poorest households in the Philippines. The Civil Society Organizations were being strengthened and assist the Municipal Links in the facilitation of Family Development Sessions in the community. To date, the Pantawid Pamilya is the largest social protection program in the Philippines and has been able to achieve the widest coverage of the poor. The concerted efforts and commitment of DSWD and

12 its partner institutions in implementing the pilot program and establishing the household targeting system were critical to program expansion. The pilot program imparted several lessons that were essential in improving the core design of the Pantawid Pamilya and in preparing the systems for rapid scale-up. Although the expansion brought several challenges for DSWD, the agency managed to get the program running and has continually improved the systems necessary for program operation. Nearly five years since its launch, the Pantawid Pamilya has already shown positive impacts on beneficiary households. Since Family Development Session is a strong approach on values formation, all concerns were being discussed during the session. The cash grants increase the household incomes of the poor, while the conditionalities have helped improve the education and health of their children. Anecdotal evidence shows that net education enrolment rates of children in beneficiary households have risen, and the number of children who undertake de-worming at schools and avail of vaccines from health centers has also increased. In addition, field reports indicate that beneficiary households benefited from the seminars and family development sessions in their communities. Other social protection programs in the Philippines can learn from the best practice methods developed in the Pantawid Pamilya. A considerable amount of resources has been invested in setting up the Pantawid Pamilya, in terms of financial resources as well as efforts to build technical and program implementation capacity within DSWD and its regional and local counterparts. Thanks to these efforts, the government has a pioneer social protection program that takes into account international best practice and methods. The Pantawid Pamilya is the only social protection program in the Philippines in which control and accountability mechanisms are embedded in the core program design. Other government agencies implementing social protection programs can take advantage of the investments made by DSWD in creating the Pantawid Pamilya and in improving the targeting and delivery systems of the program. References: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (2011), Peso per US dollar rate, website: Castaneda, T. (2007), The Conditional Cash Transfer Program of the Philippines, draft. Department of Budget and Management (2011), General Appropriations Act, website:

13 Department of Social Welfare and Development (2009a), Operations Manual for the National Household Targeting for Poverty Reduction. Department of Social Welfare and Development (2009b), Operations Manual for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Department of Social Welfare and Development (2011a), National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, website: Department of Social Welfare and Development (2011b), Pantawid Pamilya, website: Fernandez, L. (2009), Targeting Mechanism Used to Select Beneficiaries for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Social Welfare and Development Journal, 3(1): Fiszbein, A., Schady, N., Ferreira, F., Grosh, M., Kelleher, N., Olinto, P. and Skoufias, E. (2009), Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty, World Bank, Washington, DC. Hoddinott and Skoufias (2004) The impact of Progresa on Food Consumption, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 53(1):37-61 Institute for Fiscal Studies, Econometrica and SEI, (2006) Evaluación del Impacto del Programa Familias en Acción Subsidios Condicionado de la Rede de Apayo Social Bogota: Departamento Nacional de Planeación. International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI (2005). Impact Evaluation of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program. The Nicaraguan Red de Proteccion Social. Maluccio, J. and Flores, R. Research report 141. Washington, D.C. National Statistical Coordination Board (2011a), Philippine Poverty Statistics, website: National Statistical Coordination Board (2011b), MDG Watch: Statistics at a glance of the Philippines Progress based on the MDG indicators, available: Stephens, M. (2009), Governance and Anti-Corruption in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Social Welfare and Development Journal, 3(1): 27-34

14 World Bank (2010), Philippines: Fostering More Inclusive Growth, available: