Inquirer Opinion/ Columns Commentary CCT in Philippines is teaching people how to fish By Karin Schelzig Bloom Philippine Daily

Inquirer First Posted 01:30:00 05/17/2008 Filed Under: Education, Children, Poverty Give a man a fish and he?ll eat for a day, but teach him how to fish and he?ll eat for a lifetime. This principle is at the core of a new way of doing social assistance in Asia. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs provide benefits to families on the condition that they invest in their children?s future. The Department of Social Welfare and Development?s new Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino program provides cash benefits to families that take their children for regular health checkups and ensure that they go to school. An 85-percent attendance rate is mandatory. Other conditions require that pregnant women should receive appropriate pre- and post-natal care. Compliance with the conditions is verified. Families receive the full benefit only when all conditions are met?the money is not a ?dole-out.? Smarter, healthier kids Investing in children?s human capital?ensuring that they grow into educated and healthy adults? is the equivalent of teaching them how to fish. Healthy, educated children ultimately have more choices in life and are able to become productive members of society. CCT programs help to break the vicious cycle of poverty. There is a gender empowerment element as well, with cash benefits usually paid to mothers. CCT programs also reduce child labor, since families no longer have to weigh the opportunity costs of sending Juan or Juanita to school when they could be earning money to help put food on the table. Too good to be true? Are CCTs too good to be true? One need only look to Latin America, where there is a wealth of evidence documenting CCT program successes after many years of experience. Perhaps the most famous program, Mexico?s Oportunidades [Opportunities], has been around for more than a decade, with very positive results. The incidence and severity of poverty have fallen, school enrolment and completion rates have improved, health indicators are up, and malnutrition is down. Rigorous monitoring and evaluation, built in from the very beginning, is credited with being able to demonstrate real impacts. Oportunidades now serves more than 25 million Mexicans and is one of the few large-scale poverty reduction programs that have withstood a change in political administration, no small feat in itself. All of this is not to say that CCT programs are without challenges. Doing it right requires a commitment to support households at least over the medium term (say, five years) in order to help them break out of the cycle of poverty. Identifying and targeting the poorest is always difficult. Setting appropriate benefit levels is complicated, and a payment system must be devised. CCT programs can be complex to administer. The supply of high-quality services has to be sufficient if demand for those services is increased. There will be growing pains. In good company But the growing pains can be eased by paying close attention to the many lessons learned from similar programs operating in about 20 countries, including Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Jamaica,

Nicaragua, Peru and Turkey. The Philippines and Indonesia are the CCT pioneers of Southeast Asia. In a particularly interesting development, 2007 saw the launch of a new CCT program in North America. New York City?s Opportunity NYC is a unique attempt to adapt a successful developing country poverty reduction approach to the context of one of the world?s richest countries, one that still grapples with issues of poverty and social exclusion. The Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino was conceived in 2006 and pilot-tested in selected provinces in 2007. The government has announced ambitious plans to reach 300,000 poor families in 2008. This is a mere drop in the bucket considering the latest official poverty figures, which estimated that there were 27.5 million poor Filipinos in 2006. These estimates used a poverty line that amounted to about $0.80 per person per day at the time. Poverty levels worsened during the period 2003-2006, and with the current food price crisis the situation does not look likely to improve. Critics say the program, much like giving people fish, will make them dependent on handouts. This misses the crucial point that benefits are tied to health and education conditions designed to benefit the next generation. And the maximum benefit level, P1,400 per month for a family with three school-aged children, is hardly enough to entice a parent to give up work. The National Statistical Coordination Board set the 2007 poverty line for a family of five at P6,195 per month (about $134 at the time). International best practice holds that a poverty-motivated transfer should represent between 20 percent and 40 percent of the poverty line in order to be meaningful to the recipients. At P1,400, the maximum monthly benefit is on the lower end, less than 23 percent of the poverty line. With these benefit levels, the total annual cost for a program covering 300,000 households in the Philippines would be about 0.05 percent its annual gross domestic product. Meeting human development challenges The list of human development challenges in the Philippines is long. Primary education indicators are backsliding. Children are dropping out of school where families can?t afford transportation, uniforms, or school supplies, never mind a nutritious snack. Hunger is a problem on everyone?s minds, particularly given the skyrocketing food prices. Eight women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications because they don?t get the necessary basic care. Meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals is going to be impossible if concerted efforts are not made. The Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino is a pioneering program that aims to address these challenges head-on, and it holds a great deal of promise. Karin Schelzig Bloom is an Asian Development Bank specialist for poverty reduction.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080517-137087/CCT-inPhilippines-is-teaching-people-how-to-fish =======

Indonesian delegation commends Philippine CCT during study tour News Features - Press Releases Written by 4Ps Social Marketing Unit Wednesday, 14 December 2011 03:06

ShareThis A week-long study tour last December 5-9, 2011 was conducted by Indonesian delegation on the Philippine conditional cash transfer (CCT) also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. The study tour was attended by thirteen-member delegation of the Republic of Indonesia headed by Dr. Dwi Heru Sukoco, Director for Social Security of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Dr. Harapan Lumban Gaol, Head of Direct Assistance and Continuing Support Subdivision and Manager of the Program Keluarga Harapan.

Indonesian delegation meets Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman to ask questions about implementation of Pantawid Pamilya especially on how the department strategized in the successful scale-up of the program. Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) or Hopeful Family Program is the Indonesian conditional cash transfer which started in 2007, the same year the Pantawid Pamilya was piloted in the Philippines. Currently, the PKH covers 1,000,000 households in 25 out of the 33 provinces of Indonesia. The study tour sought to gather the best practices from the Pantawid Pamilya that can be applied to the PKH program as it seeks to expand to three million families by 2014. As of November 30, 2011, the Pantawid Pamilya has 2,228,563 beneficiaries in 953 municipalities and 77 cities in 79 provinces in the 17 regions nationwide.

Mr. Muhammad Nashihin, PKH Supervisor, being given a run-through on the Compliance Verification System (CVS) database during their tour to the Pantawid Pamilyas National Project Management Office. Manager of PKH, Dr. Harapan Lumban Gaol commended the commitment of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), inter-agency support, as well as the involvement of the non-government organizations (NGOs) and civil society organization (CSOs) on the Pantawid Pamilya. The involvement of the department and the Secretary is very strong. Shes very hands-on and knows everything, from A-Z [of the program]. The power of the DSWD is centralized and not scattered. The local governments are also very serious and committed. I have seen that CCT in the Philippines is about sense of ownership and involvement of everyone, expressed Dr. Gaol. The Indonesian delegation visited some Pantawid Pamilya areas namely Manila, Navotas City and Bay, Laguna. They interacted with beneficiaries, field implementers and local chief executives, observed family development sessions (FDS), and visited different rural health centers and elementary schools. The PKH and the Pantawid have exactly the same design but there are lots of differences in the detail. Theres no big impact in the demand for facilities in Indonesia unlike here in the Philippines. The design is the same but support from local government is stronger here, said Mr. Anto Roy, PKH MIS Technical Staff. Ms. Sri Kusumastuti Rahayu, Assistant to Policy Working Groups Coordinator for Family Based Social Assistance also has similar comment about the Philippines CCT.

The Indonesian delegates with Mr. Tarcisio Castaneda, AusAID Consultant, during their observation of Community Assembly for Set 5 beneficiaries in Sampaloc, Manila. The commitment of inter-departmental agencies to support the program is different. Its quite easy for the Philippines to convince partners and the parliament to support the program. The policies in the national level and in terms of inter-agency relations are in place, which is very important, Ms. Rahayu commented. Other significant learnings of the group about Pantawid Pamilya include expansion and monitoring by creating tighter linkages to support the supply side requirements on health and education and implementing the Convergence Strategy. The Indonesian delegation also envision to emulate the innovations in program delivery of the Philippines CCT such as the Grievance Redress System (GRS) using Short Messaging Service (SMS) Hotline, the different modalities to safely distribute cash grants to beneficiaries, and the establishment of a social marketing unit for the PKH to be understood and supported by the wider public and other stakeholders. This study tour had been very beneficial to us. Together with my colleagues here, we will formulate national policies based from what we learned here in order to polish the implementation of the PKH in Indonesia, were the final remarks of Mr. Gaol. Pantawid Pamilya subsidizes the immediate and pressing needs of the poor and at the same time equips them with the skills to invest on health and education to better increase their chances of breaking out of poverty. To ensure sustainability, other poverty-reduction programs of the DSWD help reinforce and concretize the investment in human capital of Pantawid Pamilya. This is achieved through the Convergence Strategy, which provides a holistic way of combating all phases of vulnerability.

Main Menu

Search
Bottom of Form

Home Areas Map Gallery Systems FAQ/Briefer Pantawid Pamilya on Facebook Pantawid Pamilya Google Groups Pantawid Pamilya Financials CSOs' and Volunteers' Commitment
Top of Form

Random Images

Department of Social Welfare and Development Constitution Hills, Batasan Complex Quezon City, Philippines 1126 (632) 931 8101 to 931 8107
http://pantawid.dswd.gov.ph/index.php/news/280-indonesian-delegationcommends-philippine-cct-during-study-tour===

The Philippine experience of a CCT PROGRAM: A Policy Paper on the 4Ps

Tuesday, 07 December 2010 06:59

I. INTRODUCTION The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was developed as a way to uplift a worsened economic condition and it was supposed to be a stimulus package for the poor. It was a fact that the start of her term (or succession) was a period of political and economic uncertainty in the country. Arroyo, being a practicing economist, and based on official National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) economic growth figures , it was indeed certain that she handled the economic problem very well earning praises from Georgetown classmate, and Former US President Bill Clinton, stating that her tough decisions put the Philippine economy back into shape. However, in the United Nations Human Development Report from 2009-2010 and studies made by local survey research firms show worsening, instead of improving, poverty level. Others mere saying it was a political solution to get the poor sector, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR) to support the Arroyo Administration. Now with the current presidency, under the leadership of Benigno S. Aquino III, the re-designed 4Ps are aimed to guide the country not only in uplifting the economy and poverty but also in meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by the year 2015. The MDG started in 2000 when 189 UN member-countries re-affirmed their commitment to peace and security, good governance, and attention to the most vulnerable with the adoption of the Millennium Declaration. Since the Philippines first resolved to adopt the MDGs, it has made efforts , particularly towards the attainment of targets on reducing extreme poverty, child mortality, the HIV/AIDS incidence and other contagious diseases, gender sensitivity, improving households, adequate dietary intake as well as access to safe drinking water. With the advent of a recently approved national budget, and considering the tripling Php21 Billion allocation for the said program, the aim of this paper is to analyze the program vis a vis the impacts of other CCT programs. The main problems thereof are: Is the 4Ps just a dole-out program? Will it answer the countrys problem of poverty in the long term or is it just a program established to meet the MDG commitments? II. CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFER PROGRAM Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) is a social development program that aims to reduce poverty by making welfare programs conditional upon the recipients actions. Normally, the government only transfers the money to persons who meet certain criteria. These criteria may include enrolling children into public schools, getting regular health check-ups, receiving vaccinations, and the like. According to the World Bank, "conditional cash transfers provide money directly to poor families via a social contract with the beneficiaries for example, sending children to school regularly or bringing them to health centers. For extremely poor families, cash provides emergency assistance, while the conditionalities promote longer-term investments in human capital.

Primarily, the role of the CCT programs in social policy varies from place to place as a consequence of differences in both program design and the context in which they operate. They vary with respect to pertinent measures of size. In terms of absolute coverage, they range from 11 million families (Brazil) to 215,000 households (Chile) to pilot programs with a few thousand families (Kenya, Nicaragua). In terms of relative coverage, they range from approximately 40 percent of the population (Ecuador) to about 20 percent (Brazil, Mexico) to 1 percent (Cambodia). In terms of budget, the costs range from about 0.50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in such countries as Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico to 0.08 percent of GDP (Chile). The generosity of benefits ranges from 20 percent of mean household consumption in Mexico, to 4 percent in Honduras, and to even less for programs in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Pakistan. Many of the CCT programs in middle-income countries have pursued different approaches like poverty reduction, balancing goals of social assistance and human capital formation. For example, the program may cover children from birth (or before) through the mid-teens, with conditions on health care use for children from birth to age 5 or 6 and with conditions on school enrollment thereafter. Programs usually are administered by ministries of social welfare or freestanding agencies under the presidency. Examples of that type of CCT include the programs in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, and Turkey. CCTs have said to reduce inequality, especially in the very unequal countries in Latin America and helping countries meet the Millennium Development Goals (MGD). Nowadays, countries have been adopting or considering adoption of CCT programs at an extraordinary rate. Virtually every country in Latin America has such a program. Elsewhere, there are large-scale programs in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey, and pilot programs in Cambodia, Malawi, Morocco, Pakistan, and South Africa, among others. Interest in programs that seek to use cash to incentivize household investments in child schooling has spread from developing to developed countries most recently to programs in New York City and Washington, DC. In some countries, CCTs have become the largest social assistance program, covering millions of households, as in the case of that of Brazils Bolsa Familia (Refer to Annex A) III. THE 4PS: PHILIPPINES VERSION OF A CCT PROGRAM Program Background, Components and Conditionalities The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps is a social development and poverty reduction strategy of the Philippine national government that provides conditional cash grants to poor and to extremely poor households in order to improve their health, nutrition and education. Conceptualized in 2006, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with technical assistance from the World Bank started implementing the National Sector Support for Social Welfare Development Project (NSS-SWDP) and eventually changing the name to its present title to broaden its scope, components and perspectives. According to the DSWD, the sole government agency that has oversight on the program, it has dual objectives, which are social assistance and social development. Social assistance would mean providing cash assistance to the poor in order to alleviate their immediate need or in other words, providing a short-term poverty alleviation system, while social development is a process of breaking the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital . Also, the program is said to help in fulfilling the countrys commitments in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In a study conducted by the United Nations (UN), the overall probability of attaining the targets remain high but dependent largely on the interaction of several factors such as leveling-up of current efforts on all target areas, efficient use of

allocated and limited resources, additional resources, strong advocacy and the capability to implement the MDGs at the local level. Below are the programs target MDGs vis a vis the countrys target MDGs: The program has been implemented since January 2008. It has become nationwide after going through a piloted program mode between June to December 2007. It is estimated that around 300,000 households are currently targeted under the program, which aims to provide money to extreme poor households in order to allow the family members to meet certain human development goals set by the government. In the Philippines, studies have found a strong correlation between low schooling and high malnutrition and poverty. In its conception until the re-running of the program, the main objectives of the 4Ps remains the same, they are to increase enrollment/attendance of children at the elementary level and reducing poverty. According to the program, the poorest households with children 614 years of age would qualify for the education cash grants, provided that the children are enrolled in schools and regularly attend classes. The minimum rate of school attendance is 85% and schools are supposed to report the attendance rate of program beneficiaries to the respective municipal governments (in cooperation with the Department of Education Division of City Schools) The monthly benefit is 300 pesos per child attending school for 10 months, up to a maximum of three children per household. Cash transfers are generally entrusted to the most responsible adult person in the household (normally the mothers or parents), and are credited to the cash card facility of the Land Bank of the Philippines. In the experience of the Bolsa Escola (now Bolsa Familia) in Brazil, the presence of banking facilities such as cash cards greatly facilitates the monitoring of the whole program. Aside from the education component, the program also has a health component. Under the said component, the selected households are given cash grants provided that: 1) pregnant women must get prenatal care starting from the first trimester and get postnatal care thereafter; 2) child birth is attended by a skilled/trained professional (such as midwives); 3) parents/guardians must attend family planning sessions, parent effectiveness service, and other services; and lastly 5) children under 5 years old must get regular preventive health check-ups and vaccination. The health package provides a beneficiary household P6000 per year. Targeting System The poorest households in provinces and municipalities are selected through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) implemented by the DSWD using the Proxy Means Test . This test determines the socio-economic category of the families by considering factors such as ownership of assets, type of housing, education of the household head, livelihood of the family and access to water and sanitation facilities. The targeting involves three steps (see figure 1). In the first step, the poorest provinces are selected based on official poverty lines. Following this, the poorest municipalities from the selected provinces are further chosen using the small area estimation method. The second step involves the administration of total enumeration of households in identified municipalities. In the last step, the poorest households are finally selected using a proxy means testing that assesses household socioeconomic characteristics.

Residents of the poorest municipalities will be selected based on 2003 Small Area Estimates (SAE) of NSCB including the following: 1) Households whose economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold; 2) Households that have children 0-14 years old and/or have a pregnant woman at the time of assessment, and; 3) Households that agree to meet conditions specified in the program. Pilot Implementation and Current Updates In its pilot implementation in 2007, a total of 6,000 households were targeted (see table 3), against the 4,589 households that were actually given grants and two of which came from the NCR and the other two are provinces, one coming from the Northern Mindanao region and one from the CARAGA Region.

By the year 2008, already in its full implementation, the DSWD targeted a total of 321,000 households most of which coming from the top 20 poorest provinces (the so-called Club 20) and 12 cities nationwide (see table 4). In 2009, according to the data of the DSWD, the program has already given grants to almost 200,000 households nationwide (see table 5) Currently, the Aquino administration is dramatically expanding the program which now targets to reach 2.3 million households in 2011 (2.6 million by other reports) and up to four million beneficiaries by 2016. To achieve this, the 4Ps budget has been increased from PhP10 billion in 2010 to PhP29.2 billion for 2011, of which PhP21.2 billion is for the implementation of CCTs. The current secretary of the DSWD estimates that related administration costs are around PhP1.9 billion annually, reaching over PhP4 billion if other costs such as trainings to implementers, parent-leaders and communities are also included. Table4. Year 2008-2009 Target Areas (coming from 26 poor provinces and 12 cities nationwide)

Table5. Summary of Household Beneficiaries by Clusters

IV. CONCLUSION AND ANALYSIS As we all know, the world-wide problem of poverty affected a large proportion of our countrys population and eventually the number of poor people has increased over the 20032006 period. Unfortunately and sad to say, our anti-poverty reduction strategies and policies and as well as those of other countries are defying conventional wisdom. And it proved over the years and around the globe that single-focus solutions have been ineffective. Personally, we should support the 4Ps program but not entirely as the main policy program to fight poverty. I do believe that aside from implementing of what seems to be, initially, a dole-out program, there may be other ways to address poverty alleviation issues and some may have just been lingering around even before the implementation of the CCT program such as having a broad structure of agrarian reform, foreign debt solution, vigorous job creation and trade liberalization. One heavy criticism of the CCT program is the perception that it is created for vote buying especially the poor voting population. No doubt, the CCT program will help any incumbent president to secure votes to win if he/she would run for re-election. In the case of Brazil, President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, after assuming office in 2003, expanded the countrys CCT program to become a social safety net program. Da Silva was re-elected largely because of the Bolsa Familia Program, apparently his flagship poverty alleviation program. Too bad, GMA could not run for re-election after implementing the 4Ps program because of term limits, otherwise she could have used the 4Ps as a vote-generating arm. But setting political apprehensions aside, do conditional cash transfer programs really and effectively help the poor break away from the so-called cycle of poverty/ intergenerational poverty? Yet another recurring criticism of the program is that it discourages the search for employment and eventually would encourage laziness among the poor people. Under this premise, many

people would give up trying to find a job, content to live on the program, which, in the experience of the Bolsa Familia, is called the cesta esmola (alms-basket). The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (NCBB), a powerful arm of the Catholic Church, maintains that the program is addictive, and leads its beneficiaries to an eternal accommodation. According to the Katipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY), an urban poor group, the 4Ps is a deceitful program since our government even has to borrow $400 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fund the program. As the government is already burdened with paying its current debt, acquiring additional debts will more harmful to the country in the long run. Also, besides failing to address the real causes of poverty, the 4Ps as presently construed is sorely insufficient. Compared with CCT experience of Brazil and Mexico which have one-fourth (1/4) and one-fifth (1/5) of their households under their respective CCT programs, the 4Ps covers only a mere one million out of 18 million households. Even if the DSWD achieves its 2.3 million target household by 2011, it still represents about one-eighth (1/8) of total households. Its impact is very minimal and will not make a dent in poverty. A CCT program like the 4Ps can only be considered a poverty shield or poverty containment but not as a panacea to the poverty problem. In order for the 4Ps to help families break free from the cycle of poverty, it must seriously address the real roots of mass poverty. And a government dole-out program will not help eradicate poverty. What is needed is a reengineering of the economy that will respond to the needs of the majority of the Filipino people. References http://www4.dswd.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=71Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_Cash_Transfer CCT Definitions http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/BRAZILEXTN/0,,content MDK:21447054~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:322341,00.html Bolsa Familia http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001402/140240e.pdf Chile Solidario http://www.facebook.com/pages/Familias-en-Accion/103789623188?v=info - Familias en Accin http://www.iadb.org/res/pub_desc.cfm?pub_id=p-219 Family Allowance Program. http://www.mlss.gov.jm/pub/index.php?artid=23 - Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) http://evaluacion.oportunidades.gob.mx:8010/en/index.php Oportunidades http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/1069.pdf Social Protection Network http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?language=English&id=3888 - Panama's Red de Oportunidades. http://dswd.gov.ph/articledetails.php?id=1100 - PRESIDENT ARROYO LAUNCHES THE PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM NATIONWIDE Bourguignon, F., F. Ferreira, and P. Leite. 2002. Ex-ante Evaluation of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: The Case of Bolsa Escola. World Bank, Washington, DC. de Janvry, A., and E. Sadoulet. 2006. Making Conditional Cash Transfers More Efficient: Designing for the Maximum Effect of the Conditionality. World Bank Economic Review 20(1):129.

Parker, S., and E. Skoufias. 2000. The Impact of Progresa on Work, Leisure and Time Allocation. In IFPRI Final Report on Progresa. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. Ravallion, M., and Q. Wodon. 2000. Does Child Labor Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioral Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy. Economic Journal 110:C15875. Schultz, T. P. 2000. The Impact of Progresa on School Enrollment. IFPRI Final Report on Progresa, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. Son, H. H. 2008, Explaining Growth and Inequality in Factor Income: The Philippines Case. ERD Working Paper No. 120, Economics and Research Department, Asian Development Bank, Manila. Annex A A Summary of Countries with Existing CCT Programs with Target Population and their Components

[1] Based on official NEDA figures, economic growth in terms of gross domestic product has averaged 5.0% during the Arroyo presidency from 2001 up to the first quarter of 2008 [2] The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are set of eight (8) time-bound, concrete and specific targets aimed at significantly reducing, if not decisively eradicating poverty by the year 2010. [3] Thru various social development programs spear-headed by the DSWD and as indicated in action plans like the National Plan Action for Children 2005-2010, National Decade Plan for the Filipino Family 2006-2010, Philippine Plan of Action for Senior Citizen 2006-2010 and the KALAHI-CIDSS Program. [4] During the 2010-2011 congressional budget hearing, former President and 4Ps main proponent, now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo interpolated whether the CCT program is the main reason for the budget reduction in farm-to-market roads and state universities and colleges, small allocation for the Visayas and Mindanao, and the budget for the judiciary was decreased. [5] World Bank Draft Pre-Appraisal Mission Report, December 2008 [6] In the case of the Philippines, the 4Ps operates much similar with other CCTs implemented around the world when it comes to program design, objectives, approaches, conditionalties and rate of cash transfer per household except for Jamaica which includes the elderly (persons who are 60 years old and above), poor adults (18 to 59 years old) and persons with disability (PWD) [7] The Philippines, having been graduated from being a low-income country to a low middle-income country, it has already the capacity to adopt an integrated approach that can address three issues, namely: Poverty, Education and Health issues. [8] Bolsa Familia translated as "Family Allowance" is a part of the Brazilian governmental welfare program Fome Zero (Zero Hunger). Bolsa Famlia provides financial aid to poor and indigent Brazilian families on condition that their 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. About 12 million Brazilian families receive funds from Bolsa Famlia, which has been described as "the largest programme of its kind in the world. [9] Human Capital can be referred to competencies, attributes, personality or knowledge to perform labor and in the end produce economic value.

[10] The proxy mean test is a simple statistical test to measure the socio-economic condition of the household being undertaken by the National Household Targeting System. [11] Aside from health and education components, the program also has Work Rewards that can improve the familys quality of life and to be able to sustain its needs by taking training classes and working with the required number of hours for six months while earning money. [12] The World Bank (WB) signed an agreement with the government of Honduras to loan US$40 million in support of the Family Allowance Program (PRAF) [13] Formerly known as Progresa. In March 2002 it was changed to Oportunidades to broaden its objectives. [14] In 2007, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $20,170,000 loan for their social protection program (Red de Oportunidades) The loan will help the country increase the efficiency and efficacy of Red de Oportunidades, which plans to expand its conditioned cash transfers to some 75,000 of the poorest households in the country over the next two years.