Social Protection-CCT

People are our only remaining source of competitive advantage; most of our other resources are gone or are fast going but what we do have in large quantities are people. It stands to reason, therefore, that we should be spending more in terms of investments in human capital. I know I have written about this…

There is an adage that if you want to help the poor you do not give them fish but teach them how to fish. Suddenly this adage has been turned upside down by a new approach to how to alleviate poverty. You give them cash.

THE rising incidence of hunger in the Philippines reported recently by the Social Weather Stations has put the spotlight on the wisdom of the Aquino administration’s cash handouts to the poor—and whether the dole is helping to pull Filipinos out of poverty.

Arguing the case for support to his Party-list’s constituency, Ang Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco said that financial assistance should also be provided for the moderate poor, which according to the World Bank definition, are those living on $2 to $5 per day.

Government should harness the millions of indigent families under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in national environmental programs starting at the barangay level to cope with the growing threat of climate change.

The Aquino government should consider reducing the budget of the Department of Social Welfare’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program and channel its funds to the Philippine Health Corp. (PhilHealth) where it could be used to provide free medical and surgical procedures to its members.

SENATORS UNCONVINCED ON EFFICIENCY, IMPLEMENTATION OF DOLEOUTS President Aquino’s P39-billion budget allocation for his conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that is being handled by social services secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman may have been quickly passed by the House of Representatives without as much as a question or a budget slash, but the same budget allocation…

Some 1.1 million small-scale farmers and fisher folk have received some P2.86 billion in rice subsidies since May 2011, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has said.

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga ,Philippines — Budget Secretary Florencio Abad reported here yesterday that the Aquino administration would invest P70 billion in the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program until 2015.

While on vacation the other weekend in my hometown in the heart of Leyte, I chanced upon a spirited conversation among some members of my extended family during one of the usual impromptu gatherings. It seemed they were in a fix trying to find logic about something that an aggrieved relative—a widowed mother of five…

MANILA, Philippines – The administration of President Aquino would provide livelihood programs to the country’s poorest of the poor who are also beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to give the people a sustainable income.

MANILA, Philippines – The government will launch tomorrow a five-year program aimed at providing guaranteed employment to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

“Give a man a fish and he will live for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will live for a lifetime,” this is one of the best known quotes by the Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu. This quote has often been cited in a number of negative feedbacks regarding the Pantawid Pamilyang…

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman yesterday said some lawmakers had been “misinformed” when they called for an immediate exit from the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

LAWMAKERS on Monday night urged the government to impose family planning on the recipients of government handouts under its P39.8-billion dole program after Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the average number of children among the poor beneficiaries was five.

THE congressional allies of President Benigno Aquino III are headed for a clash today with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman over when the government will end its multi-billion-peso dole program and how many recipients there should be.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ conditional cash transfer (CCT) program could increase annual incomes of beneficiaries by 12.6 percent, resulting in the reduction of poverty incidence by 6.2 percent, simulations by the World Bank (WB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) showed.

THE GOVERNMENT’s cash grant scheme for the poor is expected to raise annual income of beneficiaries and at the same time reduce poverty level, the World Bank said in a statement on Friday.

THE lawmakers who went to Mexico to study its conditional cash transfer program on Tuesday urged the administration to end its own P21.9-billion dole, saying they did not want the Philippines to go through the same difficulties that the Latin American state had been going through.

OPPOSITION lawmakers on Wednesday demanded that the government reduce the number of its dole recipients to 1 million from 2.3 million now so it could use the money saved to build more classrooms and hire more teachers.

The Commission on Audit (COA) on Thursday revealed that not all beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in 2009 were actually qualified to receive stipends.

LIQUOR companies and loan sharks are making a killing from the government’s P21.9-billion dole to the poor, an administration ally in the House said Sunday as he joined calls to reject an 82-percent increase in the program’s budget next year.

THE women’s group Gabriela on Monday said some recipients of government dole had to stop working to qualify for the cash payouts, while others received less than the promised amount, indicating an avenue for corruption.

MANILA, Philippines – Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) believe that access to a regular job rather than conditional cash assistance would help them rise from poverty, a recent study by Social Watch Philippines (SWP) showed.

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…

MANILA, Philippines – The government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) or 4Ps program significantly improved the health, nutrition and education of children of low-income families, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said yesterday, citing studies conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Ateneo de Manila University.

OVER 432,000 families in the country’s remote areas received P2 billion in cash under the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, officials said on Wednesday. Paolo Baltao, the president of G-Xchange Inc. (GXI), the mobile commerce subsidiary of Globe, said that the P2 billion cash grants went to the 432,510 households in 300 far-flung municipalities…

MANILA, Philippines – The beneficiaries of the P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development have already reached two million, boosting the anti-poverty agenda of the Aquino administration. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda described the development as a “milestone” in government efforts to help the poorest of the poor.

Washington D.C.—A new study by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) spotlights the impact of World Bank-supported programs in protecting the most vulnerable during the last decade. The study shows that the majority of social safety nets (SSNs)—programs designed to protect the poor from shocks and contribute to reducing chronic poverty—achieved their objectives. In several countries…

At this time, the word from the chairman of the Senate finance committee, Sen. Franklin Drilon, a staunch ally of President Aquino, is that he isn’t quite buying the appeal of the social services secretary for an additional P2 billion for the already controversial conditional cash transfer (CCT), although bets are on that when Aquino…