September 7, Quezon City - How effective is CCT in addressing poverty in the country? Does it encourage mendicancy and transparency? Are there credible empirical evidence on relative cost-effectiveness of cash transfer versus conventional social protection program? These and more were insightfully discussed during the Brownbag Forum on CCT by 35 participants from various NGO and people’s organization networks at the national and regional level.
The brownbag session, convened by INCITEGov for the Social Protection Action Network (SPAN) under the EU Social Protection Project, aimed to facilitate a shared learning and understanding of the CCT Program and its significance and role in poverty reduction. It also aimed to identify issues and concerns affecting its implementation, and the approaches and solutions to address these.
The brownbag had two speakers, namely: Dr. Vicente Paqueo, a distinguished economist with extensive experience in planning, monitoring, and implementation of CCT in various countries; and Mr. Dante delos Angeles, Managing Director of Project Transparency Fund.
Dr. Paqueo presented the economic theory and corresponding design principles of cash transfer (CT) vis-a-vis historically conventional social assistance programs (i.e. in kind assistance heavily intermediated by bureaucrats); the key challenges that had to be overcome for the CT approach to be accepted, and how were they overcome; the empirical evidence to support the claim of CT superiority in the Philippines and internationally; and how the 4Ps and CT approach may be evolved to meet the challenges brought by the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Ms. Jeana Catacio, President of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Pantawid Pamilya, in her reaction shared that 4Ps significantly helped in sending children to school and in ensuring that the family beneficiaries are in good health. She added that the program, which currently covers more than 4 million households, helped lower dropout rates in schoolds and increase the number of high school graduates who still intend to pursue tertiary education and find good jobs after.
PTF Managing Director Angeles presented I-Pantawid, a World Bank project under the Global Partnership for Social Accountability whose objective is to develop a model for civil society and government partnership for a transparent and accountable implementation of 4Ps to strengthen the integrity of CCT at the community level. The model was piloted in 20 local government units in Northern Luzon and were undertaken in three different batches from 2014 to 2017.
The open plenary that followed the presentations included the following queries and questions: Why are the PWDs excluded from the CCT? How has the 4Ps incorporated the Social Protection Program in its design? What specific actions can be done to those who fail to comply with the requirements of 4Ps? What can be said about allegations of corruption in the implementation of 4Ps? What can be done about the looming threat to cut the budget allocated for 4Ps?
At the end of the impassioned discussion and exchanges, participants from the SNPP stressed about the importance of institutionalizing the 4Ps so that it can have its own budget under the General Appropriations Act. CCT in other countries is a state policy, that makes the program stable and in some ways safe from the instability caused by changes in a government’s leadership.
Overall, there was a shared realization that it is important to mobilize for pressure and exhibit political strength towards the legislature and government officials, while continuing to strengthen the ability to provide clear and strong arguments and evidence in the lobby and advocacy for the legislation of CCT.#