The Program
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Pantawid Pamilya) is a poverty reduction strategy that provides grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14 dual objectives:
- Social Assistance- to provide cash assistance to the poor to alleviate their needs (short term poverty alleviation); and,
- Social Development- to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital.
It is patterned after the successful Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programs in Latin America and Africa. CCT has been cited as one of the key factors behind the positive cosi-economic outcomes achieved by Brazil where 11 million families are currently enrolled in the program, and other countries.
The Beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya
The poorest households in the country selected through a uniform, objective and transparent set of criteria.
Criteria in the Selection of Beneficiaries
There are three (3) steps in identifying the beneficiaries:
Step 1: Provinces were selected using the following criteria:
- 20 poorest provinces based on the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES);
- Poorest provinces in six regions without a province in the list of 20 poorest provinces; and
- Five cities in the National Capital Region, two cities in the Visayas, two cities in Mindanao and one in the Cordillera.
Step 2: The selection of the poorest municipalities from the above provinces based on small Area Estimates (SAE) and FIES where saturation surveys of households are being conducted
Step 3: Computerized selection of the poorest households based on a ranking system using Proxy-Means Test (PMT) developed for the program.
The PMT assesses socio-economic characteristics such as: ownership of assets/appliances; type of housing unit; level of educational attainment of household heads; and access to water and sanitation facilities.
Households to Benefit from Pantawid Pamilya
Pantawid Pamilya targets three hundred twenty-one thousand (321,000) households.
Six thousand (6,000) pilot households from he municipalities of Sibagat and Esperanza in Agusan del Sur, Lopez-Jaena and Bonifacio in Misamis Occidental and Pasay and Caloocan cities in the NCR have received cash assistance since January 2008.
Selection Process
The DSWD selects the beneficiaries based on the selection system developed for the program.
The Local Chief Executives or barangay officials are not participants in the selection process. However, concerned LGUs assist DSWD staff in the conduct of community assemblies which are part of the program process and procedures to validate potential and final beneficiaries.
Benefits of the Program
Pantawid Pamilya provides cash grants to the beneficiaries such as:
P6,000 a year or P500 per month per household for health and nutrition expenses; and,
P3,000 for one school year or 10 months or P300/month per child for educational expenses. A maximum of three children per household is allowed.
A household with three qualified children shall have a subsidy of P1,400 per month or P15,000 annually as long as they comply with the conditionalities.
Conditionalities of the Program
To avail of the cash grants, beneficiaries should comply with the following conditions:
- Pregnant women must get pre- and post-natal care, and be attended during childbirth by a skilled/trained health professional;
- Parents or guardians must attend responsible parenthood sessions, mother’s classes, and parent effectiveness seminars;
- Children 0 to 5 years old must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vacancies;
- Children aged 3-5 years old must attend day care or pre-school classes at least 85% of the time; and,
- Children 6 to 14 years old must enroll in elementary or high school and attend at least 85 percent of the time.
How Beneficiaries Get their Money
The monthly cash grants shall be received by the most responsible person in the household, usually the mother, through a Landbank cash card.
Each household beneficiary will receive the cash grants for at most, five years.
Measures to Verify Compliance to the Conditions
The DSWD in coordination with the Advisory Council composed of DepEd, DOH, DILG, NAPC andthe LGU representatives at the national, regional and municipal levels will verify compliance every two months using monitoring tools developed for the purpose.
Failure to Meet Conditionalities
Non-compliance to the conditions will result in the suspension of cash grants or dropping from the program.
Budget Alloted for the Program
For 2008, P2.1 Billion has been alloted for the 321,000 household-beneficiaries.
From 2009 to 2013, P5 Billion per year is needed for the same 321,000 household-beneficiaries.
