www.worldbank.org 1 PHILIPPINE SOCIAL PROTECTION NOTE October 2015 NO. 8 The Philippine Social Protecion Note series aims to disseminate experiences, good pracices, and key indings from the Philippines on the topics related to social protecion. It also aims to broaden the dialogue on social protecion and simulate publ ic engagement in moving forward the policy agenda. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily relect those of the World Bank. “Sa Pantawid, Malapit nang Makatawid!” (With Pantawid, we are closer to geing out of poverty!) An Update of the Philippine Condiional Cash Transfer’s Implementaion Performance Pablo Ariel Acosta and Rashiel Velarde 1 This is the second beneit incidence analysis of the Philippines’ condiional cash transfer program conducted by a World Bank team that uses standard measures to assess the implementaion performance of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. We show that despite the program’s rapid expansion since it was piloted in 2007, it maintains good targeing accuracy, progressivity, and cost- eiciency in delivering assistance to the poor. We also show that Pantawid Pamilya helps reduce short- term poverty by closing the income gap of beneiciary households by up to 7.4 percentage points, helping them aford their basic needs. Among beneiciaries, the program reduces food poverty and total poverty by up to 6.7 percentage points. To maintain the program’s relevance, adequacy of assistance, sustained impact on beneiciary welfare, and adjustments in the beneit level and program coverage at a sustainable level are recommended. I. Introducion The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid Pamilya) is the Philippines’ naional condiional cash transfer (CCT) program. It was conceptualized at a ime when the Philippines’ economic growth had been sustained for a decade and yet not showing results on poverty reducion. The program provides cash grants to poor households that have limited capacity to invest in their children’s future and well-being. This Philippine CCT program was paterned ater the pioneers of condiional cash transfer programs in Lain America, the Bolsa Familia of Brazil and Oportunidades of Mexico (now called Programa de Inclusión Social or PROSPERA), which received a lot of acclaim in efecively helping poor households. Pantawid Pamilya plays a central role in the Government’s overall strategy to address poverty and vulnerability among Filipinos. The program’s objecive is two-fold. In the short-term, the Pantawid Pamilya provides income support to poor households helping them aford their basic needs. In the long-term, by condiioning the cash support to desired health and educaion behavior, it incenivizes 1 This note was prepared Pablo Ariel Acosta (Senior Economist) and Rashiel Velarde (Economist) as part of the Social Protecion and Labor Programmaic Analyical and Advisory Aciviies (SPL PAAA), under the guidance of Aleksandra Posarac (Program Leader and Task Team Leader for the SPL PAAA) and Jehan Arulpragasam (Program Manager for SPL). The authors would like to thank the peer reviewers, Maddalena Honorai and Margaret Grosh, and other colleagues from the Social Protecion and Poverty Global Pracices for their invaluable comments.