Arroyo seeks foreign funding for her anti-poverty program

Noting the success of Brazilian government’s anti-poverty program, President Arroyo said her government would seek bilateral and multilateral funding assistance to her Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, which provides grants to the extremely poor Filipino families for their health, nutrition and education needs, particularly children aged 0-14.

Brazil’s Bolsa Família (Family stipend or family grant program) provides financial assistance to indigent Brazilian families on condition that their children attend school and be vaccinated. The program seeks to reduce poverty in the short term by direct cash transfers, while the long-term anti-poverty scheme is designed to increase human capital among the poor through conditional cash transfers.

Ronaldo Tungpalan, one of Mrs. Arroyo’s spokespersons, said that as the president always gave emphasis on her Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, her government was “now discussing with the bilateral and multilateral agencies to support this program and hopefully to double the beneficiaries.”

The key feature of Mrs. Arroyo’s program is the so-called conditional cash transfer and health assisistance which, by and large, is similar to Brazil’s Bolsa Família

The Philippine program targets beneficiaries of about 350,000 families.

In Brazil on official visit, President Arroyo said she had asked the Philippine Congress to enact a law that would carry the features of both Bolza Familia and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program with central thrusts focused on conditional cash transfer and health assistance.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said under President Arroyo’s program, some 200,000 families had already benefitted from conditional cash transfer.

Tungpalan, for his part, said the government intended to expand the reach of the Pantawid Pamilya program and this would be possible only with support from various governments and multilateral agencies.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development is the lead agency in helping the poor families under this program, Tungpalan said.

Mrs. Arroyo first cited Brazil’s Bolsa Familia’s success during the state luncheon hosted in her honor by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva at the Palacio de Itamaraty, during her visit to Brasilia’s National Congress, and again when she visited the Brasilian Supreme Court.

She said Brazill’s President Lula’s family stipend program has resulted in a 10 percent rise in the income of Brazil’s poorest families “due in large (to) … the Bolsa Familia.”

The BFP program is the centerpiece of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s social policy, and is reputed to have played a role in his victory in the 2006 national elections.

Bolsa Familia is reputedly the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world.

The Bolsa Familia program has been mentioned as one the main factors behind the reduction of poverty in Brazil, which has fallen to 27.7 percent during Lula’s first term in office.

Recently the Center of Political Studies of the Getulio Vargas Foundation has published a study showing that there was a sharp reduction in the number of poor Barzilians between 2003 and 2005.

Inspired by Brazil’s example, her government embarked on a similar conditional cash transfer program – the 4Ps, the President said. Within two years of the 4Ps implementation the number of Filipinos belonging to poor families and who availed themselves of the 4Ps has increased from 1.5 million 4.5 million.

The President added that she had asked the Philippine Congress to institutionalize the Pantawid Pamilya as a law.

She said she had earlier requested Deputy House Speaker Girlie Villarosa to rally the support of her fellow House members to enact the program into a law. –Riza Recio, Daily Tribune