Feature: Leyte gov sees the need of CCT database accuracy after study tour in Mexico

It was worth looking at how Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program works in Mexico, why it has been able to help so many people, and how the program ensures proper use of the resources which are given to the beneficiaries.

This, in a nutshell, sums up Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho L. Petilla’s insight on the World Bank-AusAid study tour to learn more about Mexico’s CCT program, which he joined in the later days of May until early June of 2011.

Ensuring database accuracy on indigent beneficiaries of the government-sponsored project is one of the insights that the Governor shared with the DSWD officials and other representatives of the inter-agency oversight committee on DSWD implemented social programs.

Governor Petilla stressed the need to conduct resurveys to validate and update its database of indigents conducted during the Department of Social Welfare and Development-National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (DSWD-NHTS-PR).

According to him, Mexico has been implementing its own version CCT called “Oportunidades” for 13 years already, covering a total of 5.2 million households and reaching 25 million individuals.

Its experience and the strategies and technologies it has employed to ensure the effectiveness and stability of the program will greatly benefit the Philippines as it expands coverage for Pantawid Pamilya to 2.3 million households for 2011, Governor Petilla added.

Aside from ensuring database accuracy, Governor Petilla also shared that the Philippine’s 4Ps covers children aged 0-14 years of age, Mexico’s “Oportunidades” cover children aged 0-22 years old.
An “Oportunidades” family with a child in primary school and a child in middle school that meets all its responsibilities can get a total of about $123 a month in grants. Students can also get money for school supplies, and children who finish high school in a timely fashion get a one-time payment of $330.

The group led by Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman and Education Secretary Armin Luistro observed that these are among the areas that will be given attention in exploring innovations on the coverage and monitoring of the program by creating tighter linkages to support supply side requirements on health and education and securing that the program is accepted and understood across the country.

In Mexico today, malnutrition, anemia and stunting have dropped, as have incidences of childhood and adult illnesses. Maternal and infant deaths have been reduced. Contraceptive use in rural areas has risen and teen pregnancy has declined.

The most dramatic effects, however, are visible in education. Children in Oportunidades repeat fewer grades and stay in school longer. Child labor has dropped. In rural areas, the percentage of children entering middle school has risen 42 percent. High school inscription in rural areas has risen by a whopping 85 percent. The strongest effects on education are found in families where the mothers have the lowest schooling levels.

Indigenous Mexicans have particularly benefited, staying in school longer.

“This is likely the most important government anti-poverty program the world has ever seen,” Governor Petilla said. (PIA 8)