WB fund assistance to focus on creating jobs, safety nets

THE World Bank intends to direct the focus of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) on creating jobs for Filipinos and improving the country’s safety nets.

The Philippine government and World Bank are currently developing a new assistance strategy for the next three years, from 2013 up to 2016. The bank said the programs funded under the CAS will include those that solve the country’s development challenges.

The CAS will include a combination of financial, analytic and advisory services and technical assistance, delivered through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Finance Corp. (IFC).

“Turning high growth into inclusive growth is increasingly important for the Philippines, by deepening and accelerating reforms that will create more and better jobs to reduce poverty,” World Bank Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Axel van Trotsenburg said in a statement.

“There is clear convergence between the government’s goal of inclusive growth and the World Bank Group’s twin goals to end extreme global poverty by 2030 and promote shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in each country,” he added.

The new CAS will support government programs that will create jobs and livelihoods, particularly in rural areas; strengthen social safety nets through the expansion of the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program; and improve social service delivery through the K to 12 education, universal health care and community empowerment programs.

Under the new CAS, the Washington-based lender will also extend assistance for comprehensive infrastructure development, including roads, ports, airports, logistics, railroads and multimodal systems; and the protection of vulnerable and poor families from climate-change impacts and natural disasters.

The World Bank also said apart from the CAS, the bank has also committed $300 million in budget support to the government. The loan is a development policy loan (DPL) that aims to support critical reforms for accelerating growth that creates more jobs and reduces poverty in the Philippines.

The focus of the CAS and DPL were included in the discussions between Trotsenburg, President Aquino and his economic team. Trotsenburg also visited poor communities in Metro Manila, as well as the Autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, underscoring the World Bank’s commitment to support long-lasting peace and broad-based development in Philippines.

“The World Bank Group is committed to support economic opportunities, job creation and social safety nets in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao as a whole. The World Bank and IFC are working more closely to spur private-sector investments in agribusiness to provide job opportunities and raise rural incomes in the conflict-affected areas,” van Trotsenburg said.

The World Bank’s pipeline of projects for the Philippines includes P4.09- billion worth of infrastructure, rural development and “green” projects.

Of this amount, the World Bank’s commitment could be around $1.7 billion. This is being proposed to be financed through loans obtained by the national government from the Washington-based lender.

The bulk of the amount is for the $2.02 billion worth Philippines National Community Driven Development Program. The World Bank’s commitment for the project, through the IBRD amounts to $479 million. –Cai U. Ordinario, Businessmirror