The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has commissioned a third-party evaluator to assess the effectiveness of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and its synergy with other government anti-poverty initiatives, according to Secretary Rex Gatchalian.
Gatchalian said they procured the services of Brain Trust, Inc.—a think tank co-founded by economist and Ateneo de Manila University professor Cielito Habito, who serves as its chairman—to look at the success rate of 4Ps in pulling people out of poverty.
This is also in relation to other state-funded anti-poverty programs such as the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) and Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP).
“This is a comprehensive study, and we expect to receive the results sometime in October. For the first time, a third-party evaluator will assess the success of these programs in alleviating poverty,” Gatchalian explained.
The initiative is in aligned with the provisions of Republic Act No. 11310 or the 4Ps Act, in which an impact assessment component to evaluate the effectiveness of the 4Ps—including the veracity of the list of household-beneficiaries and the program implementation—must be conducted.
“4Ps has a built-in impact assessment under the law being run by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies every three years,” Gatchalian noted. Several early indicators of the 4Ps’ success included the educational attainment of the monitored children.
Since 2010, 12.2 million children have graduated from school under the program with 4.2 million completing elementary and 4.5 million finishing high school, according to the DSWD. Gatchalian said there were 37,000 board passers among the beneficiaries.
“What’s most important here, based on the impact assessment, is that the enrollment of children from primary education all the way to senior high school is consistently higher among families under the 4Ps program,” Gatchalian said in a statement.
The 4Ps or conditional cash transfer is the national poverty reduction strategy and a human capital investment program of the Philippine government with DSWD as the lead agency.
Eligible household-beneficiaries of the program are entitled to receive cash subsidies provided that the conditions on health, nutrition, and education are followed.